Photography by Con Chronis & Matt de Neef

Photo gallery: Highlights from the 2015 Jayco Herald Sun Tour

by Matt de Neef

The Jayco Herald Sun Tour is Australia's oldest stage race and the 62nd edition finished atop Victoria's Arthurs Seat yesterday afternoon. After five days of racing Cameron Meyer was crowned the overall winner, with his Orica-GreenEdge team having won three of the five stages. Here is a selection of photos from the race, courtesy of Con Chronis.

The 2015 Jayco Herald Sun Tour began with a prologue individual time trial in the heart of Melbourne on Wednesday evening. Will Clarke (Drapac) went two places better than the third place he took in last year’s race, winning the 2.1km stage with a time of 2:35.53 (48.8km/h average).

Clarke took the leader’s yellow jersey into stage 1 but effectively lost it in the first 20km of the stage. A group of 21 riders broke clear on the slopes of Mt. Macedon and would go on to finish more than 25 minutes ahead of the peloton.

Cameron Meyer and New Zealand national champion Joe Cooper (Avanti) broke off the front of the lead group in the closing stages to contest the win. Meyer did most of the work in the final 10km but still had enough to beat Cooper in a sprint and, ultimately, set up his overall victory.

With Cameron Meyer in yellow, Orica-GreenEdge’s chances of a title defence — after Simon Clarke’s win last year — were looking good. Their race got even better on stage 2 when Caleb Ewan took a comfortable sprint victory into Nagambie for his first UCI-classified victory in Orica-GreenEdge colours. Meyer finished in the bunch to hold yellow.

The run-in to the finish in Nagambie was exactly the same on stage 3 as it was on stage 2 and so to was the result. Caleb Ewan came from a bit further back than he had 24 hours earlier, but he timed his run perfectly to take back-to-back stage wins. Cameron Meyer avoided the day’s many crashes and finished in the bunch for another day in yellow.

And on the final day of the race, the Queen stage to Arthurs Seat, it was Patrick Bevin (Avanti) that prevailed after three laps of the 3km climb. Meyer finished second on the stage though, securing his overall victory.

In doing so Meyer became just the third rider to have won both the Jayco Herald Sun Tour and the Tour Down Under, alongside Stuart O’Grady and Simon Gerrans.

Here is a selection of photos from the five days of racing.

: The Sun Tour prologue took the riders from Federation Square to Southbank via the Princes Bridge.

: Adam Phelan races along Southbank, as seen from the Princes Bridge.

: Lachlan Morton was racing for the KordaMentha-Australia team ahead of his move to the US to race with Jelly Belly.

: Caleb Ewan set the best time when he completed the prologue …

: … but he was soon beaten by Will Clarke who took the win.

: Clarke signs on for stage 1 of the Sun Tour in Mt. Macedon.

: The breakaway started to form on the steep climb up Mt. Macedon …

: … and grew to contain 21 riders, including New Zealand national champion Joe Cooper.

: Will Clarke’s time in the lead was short-lived. He missed the breakaway and ended up finishing 25 minutes down on the stage winner …

: … Cam Meyer.

: Stage 2 began in Bendigo.

: The day’s main breakaway featured Will Clarke (Drapac), MTN-Qhubeka’s Tyler Farrar and Mike Cuming (JLT-Condor).

: Cuming dropped off the pace in the closing kilometres, but the race came back together ahead of the sprint finish in Nagambie anyway.

: Caleb Ewan won the stage but Brenton Jones was the talking point of the day after crashing spectacularly in the final sprint.

: Jones is attended to by his teammate Adam Phelan and his mother, Karin Jones, a project manager at Cycling Australia who was working on the race.

: The riders roll out of the Mitchelton Winery to begin stage 3. The winery is owned by Gerry Ryan who, in addition to owning the event’s naming sponsor in Jayco, is the owner of Orica-GreenEdge and former president of Cycling Australia.

: Stage 3 saw six riders get in the breakaway: Adam Phelan (Drapac), Jake Kauffmann (Budget Forklifts), Cameron Bayly (search2retain-health.com.au), Jayden Copp, Ben Hill (CharterMason Giant), and Ryan Thomas (Data#3 Symantec).

: Overall leader Cameron Meyer was well looked after by his Orica-GreenEdge teammates.

: Last year’s Sun Tour winner Simon Clarke spent some time at the doctor’s car after crashing on stage 3. He was just one of several riders that hit the tarmac on what was a nervous stage for the peloton.

: Caleb Ewan made it back-to-back wins on stage 3 in Nagambie. The race finished in the same spot on consecutive stages.

: Robert Power accepts the KOM leader’s jersey while nursing an elbow injury sustained during a crash on stage 3.

: Despite his crash the day before, Robert Power was up and about on the final stage and was well supported by his U23 national teammates.

: A 13-rider breakaway got clear on stage 4.

: The break split up on the first of three climbs up Arthurs Seat, with Tanner Putt (UnitedHealthcare), Cameron Bayly (Search2retain) and Richard Handley (JLT-Condor) making up the front group.

: Bayly would collect maximum points on both of the first two ascents of Arthurs Seat en route to winning the KOM classification.

: Matt Goss was in the early break but suffered on the climb and eventually finished 5:10 behind the eventual winner.

: Fans line the course on the way up Arthurs Seat.

: Damian Howson tears the peloton apart on the final ascent of Arthurs Seat.

: Patrick Bevin proved strongest in the kick for the line, just beating Cameron Meyer and defending champion Simon Clarke.

: Bevin’s victory saw him move into second overall, giving Avanti second and third on the final podium (Joe Cooper was third).

: Robert Power won the best young rider classification, Will Clarke was awarded most aggressive rider, Cameron Meyer won the race overall and the points classification and Cameron Bayly won the KOM classification. Orica-GreenEdge took out the team’s prize as well in what was a great week for the team.

Tags: 2015 Jayco Herald Sun Tour

echidna_sg

nice collection… I can’t help but think it could do with a couple of extra stages - its not part of the NRS is it? if not, why not? no problem to have a race within a race is there?
- jules
  
  not all of the NRS teams would get an invite to the Sun Tour, so it can’t be part of that series.
  - Abdu
    
    There’s been a lot said previously about this oh spiky one. I think the general consensus is that it’s probably at its right time and length now.
    It was once a week long tour and run in October back in the day. Then came TDU, and the silly money sand races like Oman and Dubai, and the battle with teams who won’t send their big names out to be flogged. It was shunted down by the UCI and is not a WT race, so it’s probably punching above its weight right now.
    The big take out for me is Drapac, and what they think they are right now. They look like big team that can’t win locally, with some good riders but just something missing. Maybe they’re stretched too much? OGE are able to really dominate, with big talent right across the board and are a well drilled team (ie. Caleb Ewen trying to drive the bunch on Sunday for Meyer and the team was a good example). Drapac should have stacked this race and been top 2 or 3 on GC and every stage, not missing the top 10 for each.
    - Robert Merkel
      
      To be fair, Drapac did take a stage of the TDU with Wouter Wippert so that on its own makes it a pretty decent summer for them, and they did win the prologue here, right in front of their corporate guests on Southbank.
      
      And compare them to the other Pro Conti teams at the Hun Tour - MTN-Qhubeka came away with one second place, Farrar had a decent go (and Goss to give him credit was at least out doing some work in the break on the last stage and showing the flag), UHC put in a good effort but came away with nothing, and Androni were almost completely anonymous.
      - xponti
        
        Interesting to note that Clarky did not have the Drapac logo on the Tour leaders jersey when he signed on (photo 10). What’s with that….
        
        Sean
        
        The organisers didn’t expect anyone from that team to actually hold the yellow.
      - Dave
        
        Androni looked like they were just making up the numbers - not just figuratively but literally.
        
        If a race cannot guarantee at least four foreign teams, it drops off the UCI calendar. Count them up - MTN, UHC and Condor-JLT makes just three, so the organisers would have been desperately looking for any international team willing to take whatever paltry appearance fee was one offer to bring the numbers up to four before the UCI Licensing Commission confirmed or rejected the race registration. As it turned out, they had a bit of margin once Avanti re-registered themselves as sheep shaggers and brought the numbers up to five.
        
        It looks like this race has suffered from the diversion of Victorian Government funds to support the Cadel race. If the prizemoney and appearance fees are decent, big teams will travel for even a 2.1 race. Back when the TDU was classified at the same UCI 2.1 ranking it never had a problem with too FEW international teams that it risked dropping off the calendar, it actually had a problem with hitting the cap of 50% ProTour teams.
        
        Sean
        
        The cadel race was in a different league to any sun tour ever contested. The old sun tour legend was made by blokes back from europe and going out on the piss until an hour before the start time of the days stage. It was good until the TDU started and then we all realised just how crap it was. The yank teams from the 90s full of fat washed up old guys, no thanks.
        
        I say let it fall back to being an NRS tour and concentrate on the TDU and Cadel classic. I’m also struggling to get time off work to go watch it, they need to move it to a better slot in my calendar.
        
        Robert Merkel
        
        Does the GB U23 team count as a foreign team for the purposes of that count?
    - Sean
      
      How god did Avanti ride! Drapac would kill for a team half as good as these blokes. Andrew Christie-Johnston is without doubt the second greatest contributor to Australian cycling behind Gerry Jayco. Thanks Andrew for creating a pathway for those not in the inner circle and for giving us an underdog team to cheer on in the HST.
  - echidna_sg
    
    how hard would it be to do so though? I’m guessing, but I doubt that many more of the (32?) NRS teams would make the start line if it was open to all…
    
    As for the UCI status, that’s not going to stop too many teams that otherwise could be starting as plenty of the guys have a UCI licence, full time “Pro” or not…
    - Dave
      
      All six of the NRS teams that do have a UCI team license were there.
      
      The rest just have to hope one of their riders might get selected for one of the two Australian national teams.
- Callum Dwyer
  
  The Sun Tour is professional race (on the UCI calendar), so it’s for UCI registered teams only. Most NRS teams are amateur, ie not UCI registered.
  - Dave
    
    Amateur/professional is not a factor when registering a UCI Continental team, some of what passes for professionalism in cycling (cycling is not a professionalised sport) is only needed to register a Professional Continental race. In Europe, any local amateur team good enough to get in the top half of our NRS would be registered as a Continental team so they can enter UCI-classified races and get their riders noticed.
    
    If it were downgraded from a UCI 2.1 race to a UCI 2.2 race, the organisers would no longer be able to invite WorldTeams (but Orica-GreenEDGE was the only one this year) but local non-UCI club/regional teams (i.e. those NRS teams which are not UCI-registered) would be able to enter. OGE riders would be eligible for selection in an Australian National Team for the event though.
    
    They might struggle to get foreign teams (other than Avanti) interested if it were downgraded to 2.2 though. A better course, in my opinion, would be for Cycling Australia to investigate ways of making it easier for more NRS teams to become registered as a UCI Continental team so they can contest the HST and Cadel race.
    - Callum Dwyer
      
      Yeah I know. I was trying to keep it simple.
      
      With race class. You would think that race organiser would want to return it back HC class in the next few years.
Simon Burge

Great collection of photos. I love the stage 4 photo of the peleton strung out coming through the dip (11th from the bottom)!
Curious George

Pic 2 - TDog aren’t you supposed to be at work…?
Abdu

Sadly, that pic of Matt Goss looks like he’s watching where his career and talent went. It’s rapidly dwindling away, while he wastes opportunities like this.
He has no excuses. This was a good opportunity to have a crack, and yet he was nowhere to be seen in the 2 bunch sprint finishes. Small race, “local” roads, and he should have been able to bully the other sprinters to a degree. If he has any bottle, he’ll dump his advisors and managers and grab this last chance. When he gets back to Europe, he’ll be fighting with Eddy and all the other MTB Quebeka boys at the last chance saloon. Right now, you wouldn’t pick him for the Tour and yet that’s the only decent race his team is likely to be invited to this year. He’ll have to smash it in the Pro Conti ranks to get any sort of gig next year. That’s a long way from the 2m Euro he was getting when signed up to OGE…
From my viewpoint up the back of the Mamil grupetto it’s frustrating, I can’t imagine what those around him are thinking.
- Sean
  
  Well said.
  - echidna_sg
    
    ouch! but agree.
Fashion police

Rapha corner = wanker corner
- PaulSmith
  
  wow, pretty harsh call…I count a fair few children there, most look like they are with a father. Your comment says more about you than those gathered at that corner. If feel you want to discuss your eternal disappointment that your dad took to the league rather than bike races then drop me line.
  - Fashion police
    
    Velomonati Rule #22 // Cycling caps are for cycling.
    
    Paul Smith, you should know better.
    - Derrp
      
      errrrrgh is quoting velominati (at least spell it correctly) still a thing? Can’t that be relegated to the same unwanted parts bin as “rapha haters”?
- jules
  
  it just looks like some people standing around watching the race?
- echidna_sg
  
  ambush marketing corner kinda deal aint it?
  pity said company is never prepared to put their money up to support the actual racing… and no I don’t count “gentlemen’s races” where the participants pay for the privilege of racing illegally on open roads.
  - david
    
    Cmon echidna (is this glen?) if I recall they actually put up some money in attempt to salvage something in that farce that was the sg national champs last year..
    - Abdu
      
      No, unless they put in a decent amount of sponsorship Rapha are ambush marketing.
      One of the teams was sponsored by a local real estate company, they forked out plenty and deserved coverage. Their sponsorship went to pay the riders, support staff, etc. Can you name them?
      Previously Rapha had sponsored JLT Condor but dumped them. JLT made the effort to come out alone, there was an opportunity for Rapha to help them on a one off basis clearly.
      Rapha jumped on the bandwagon when all the hard work was done, what little $ they forked out (if at all) would not have helped the riders or race support. Most people don’t realise, those riders they were cheering are not helped at all by the silly Rapha caps, etc.
      Plastering the corner on Arthur’s Seat they way they did, gaining maximum coverage for sweet f’all, was a complete p1ss take.
      Poor form in my eyes but it shows you their true culture I suspect. It looks like they suck the life out of the sport to me.
      - Sean
        
        Someone will tell you to build a bridge if you’re not careful.
      - echidna_sg
        
        I keep waiting to hear when they will go for an IPO… hasn’t happened yet which to be honest has surprised me.
    - St. Raphael
      
      Really?
      When has Rapha actually put their money into anything other than themselves?
      Even the name and the font is a ripoff of a bygone era of cycling.
      I’m tipping the nationals would survive without them. Throwing some overpriced over thought w@nkfactor kit doesn’t really mean much to the winner, in fact I’m more likely to be offended at some Poms trying to take over our national event for their personal gain.
      Jumping onto someone else’s event and hard work is their go it seems.
- Sean
  
  I hate rapha. They’re basically brand whores for hipsters with half grown beards and absolutely no form to speak of.
- Monsieur Pi Pi
  
  Is it not just a little hypocritical to deem Rapha corner for wankers and then quote the Velominati rules as gospel I wonder. Perhaps you should just not worry about it.
  Rapha corner was a blast, full of people who like cycling having fun, dreadful. In saying that the music was a bit shit.
  - Sean
    
    maybe it was good. Some of us just hate rapha like bogans hate cyclists :-P
    - Derrp
      
      time to build a bridge, dude
Ryan

What’s up with this Rapha hate business?

I know in Adelaide they actually put up some decent prizes for a local series that coincides with the TDU. They also put on a cracker of an event at Willunga in conjunction with a local club. From what I’ve seen, they put more back into the local racing community (at least in Adelaide) than most other big cycling companies do.

No time for in-hating, this isn’t ball sports.
- Abdu
  
  Look above.
  Not hating. Just pointing out their corporate strategy and marketing efforts.
  Companies putting back into local racing are team sponsors (and clubs). I don’t see Rapha on any of those.
- echidna_sg
  
  I’d be interested to know what $ and manpower they actually put in with no expectation of a cash return. Do they pay for road closures? traffic police? ambulance on standby? timing gear? safety barriers? provide manpower to run the event?
  
  They may well do all the above, if so, well done and they will have gone up significantly in my viewpoint. I genuinely hope they do far more than throw some kit and coupons into the tin, but it would be the first such case that I have heard of…
  - http://instagram.com/flashingpedals/ SQUADRA™ Bicycles
    
    I think (please correct me if I’m wrong) that Wade used to be responsible for Rapha in Australia - so perhaps he’d have more insight into their marketing strategy, within Australia. Guerilla marketing has always been around - the football world cup a few years ago, a Dutch beer company, clothed many spectators in bright orange wigs and t shirts, to capture publicity. it worked until they all got kicked out, mid match.
    - echidna_sg
      
      Its all fair in love and war until you get money and conflicting interests involved eh ;-)
      
      FIFA takes it a touch too far, but then again, they also have the biggest potential sponsorship agreements to protect in the first place.
http://instagram.com/flashingpedals/ SQUADRA™ Bicycles

wow love the race photography - well done.