David McCarthy has finished his first race in Australia despite less than 20 making it all the way. Above, Caleb Ewan beats Greg Henderson to win the main event (Photo: Mitchelton Bay Classic)
Irish rider David McCarthy has put in a promising showing in Australia in his first competitive outing for his new Condor-JLT team.
The Cork man, who secured a place with the UK-based Continental-ranked outfit during the off season, is riding the support races at the traditional January Mitchelton Bay Classic series.
Of the 68 riders to start the 45-minute all-out round 1 Ritchie Boulevard Crit in Geelong, Victoria; just 17 finished with McCarthy among them.
He came home in 15th place in a seven-man group 1:30 down on race winner James Butler of the Giant-Hampton team.
He got the better of his breakaway companion James Love (BikeBug-Aussie Pallets).
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It was a decent showing for McCarthy who has spent much of the winter in Australia training and is now part of his team’s winter training and racing trip Down Under.
Action from the support race in Geelong, Victoria, today as one of McCarthy's Condor-JLT team mates leads the way.
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His team mate and fellow Irish rider Felix English was competing in the main event, won by Caleb Ewan of the Orica-GreenEDGE team.
Ewan beat Greg Henderson of the New Zealand national team after the duo had pulled well clear of the field.
While English was second in the same race to Henderson 12 months ago, he would lose most of his 2014 season with broken bones in his wrist.
He will likely need some time to get back into top racing condition after such a long layoff and was listed as a non-finisher today.
However, just 19 of the 80 starters finished the race.
The leading pair were so far ahead that what remained of the peloton were told to sprint for third with three laps of the scheduled race remaining for fear they would be lapped.
Mitchelton Bay Classic
Round 1, Ritchie Boulevard Crit, support race
January 2nd, Geelong, Victoria
1. James BUTLER (Giant Hampton) 44:52
2. James LOVE +1
3. Mathew ROSS (VIS/Jayco/John West/Apollo) +16
4. Lauchlan STEWART +37
5. Aidan BOWE +37
6. Luke MELLOR (JLT Condor p/b Mavic) +37
7. Ryan COTTRELL (Park Trent Properties) +37
8. Luke AGGETT +1:09
9. Lee BURCHELL +1:09
10. Aaron ROSS (Physiohealth) +1:09
11. Jarrod MORONI +1:30
12. Kyle LIERICH +1:30
13. Matthias KIERNAN (Physiohealth) +1:30
14. Nicholas WHITE (Park Trent Properties) +1:30
15. David MCCARTHY (JLT Condor p/b Mavic) +1:30
16. Christopher AITKEN (Paradice Investments) +1:30
17. Adam LLOYD +1:30
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