Mathew Hayman (Team Sky) lead out Chris Sutton perfectly however a fast finishing Bling overtook Sutton and Von Hoff to take second only metres from the line. It made it a one-two for the Orica-GreenEdge team. Bling Matthews will be looking to take his winning form to Tour Down Under that starts in a week.
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| Matthews after the medal presentation |
While it was a massive effort for Durbridge to get into the early breakaway and stay away, cycling purests have been questioning the tactics of the big teams efforts to chase down the breakaway through different social media channels.
Trent Wilson told Cyclingnews he instructed his GPM-Data#3 squad to set tempo on the front in an attempt to get other teams involved. Their pace-setting reduced the gap immediately until they decided to cease their efforts. One of Wilson's riders, Joe Lewis, told the Blog, "no-one should ever let a guy like Durbridge get a 5 minutes head start".
Joe Lewis went on to say after the race that "It was a strange race, if the bigger teams that missed the break had comitted earlier they would have caught Durbridge". In relation to his own race, Lewis went on to say that "the last two laps were stupid fast and I lost contact with just under two to go". Lewis finished in 44th spot.
Fabio Calabria, sporting the new Team Novo Nordisk kit, had a better race in 2013 but also noted the different tactics from previous championships. He said "the race was very different to previous years. Not as aggressive in years past. I think it is a result of 200km in the Buninyong course in January".
Hayman after leading out Sutton still finished in the first group in 23rd spot. Other finishers included:
Fabio Calabria - 28th - 2.06 minutes.
Marc Williams - 31st - 2.06 minutes
Nathan Haas - 35th - 2.58 minutes
Michael Cupitt - 36th - 3.03 minutes
Thomas Palmer - 42st - 5.46 minutes
Joe Lewis - 44th - 6.40 minutes
Four ACT riders failed to finish the race after officials started to red flagging riders with around two laps to go once the times dropped over 8 minutes from the leaders. Riders that did not finished included Etienne Blumstein-Jones, David Gillies, Alastair Loutit and Shaun Lewis.
It was a dominating performance by ACT riders at the 2013 Australian National Road Championship winning, three gold, two silver and two bronze medals. ACTAS cycling coach Glenn Doney told the Canberra Times that it had been one of the ACT's most successful national championship events.
Well done to all the ACT riders that participated over the weekend.
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