Video highlights of today's penultimate stage 3 of the Herald Sun Tour in Victoria, Australia.
There was plenty of Irish interest at the head of affairs on today's stage 3 of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia, with U23 Irish international Felix English enjoying yet another trip to the podium Down Under and Irish-born Robert-Jon McCarthy winning the bunch sprint that settled stage honours.
English was third to the line, with Rico Rogers - who rode for David McQuaid's Synergy Baku last year and won a stage in the An Post Rás - separating the UK-born Irish international and the Irish-born Australian national team member.
The podium result for English on the 157km stage in sweltering conditions from Mitchelton Winery to Nagambie followed his 3rd place in the opening 2.5km prologue TT on Wednesday. That result was enough to secure for him the lead in the U23 classification, which he subsequently relinquished before today's stage.
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He also took 2nd place and a number of top 10s in the Bay Crit pro series last month in Australia, winning the sprints classification overall in what was a very strong and aggressive display.
Today's stage 3 of the Herald Sun Tour began an hour earlier than scheduled as the race organisers tried to keep the riders' exposure to the risk of bush fires in Victoria to an absolute minimum on a day when temperatures were just shy of 40 degrees.
The day was marked by an inevitable early breakaway that was brought back by the pooled efforts of a trio of the world's biggest teams in the shape of Cannondale, Garmin-Sharp and homeboys Orica GreenEdge.
The latter has its man Simon Clarke in the yellow jersey by 8 seconds from Cannondale's Cameron Wurf, with Avanti's Jack Haig in 3rd a further 3 second back and with stage 1 winner and former yellow jersey Nathan Haas of Garmin-Sharp in 4th place, 1:09 off Clarke's lead.
Despite a number of crashes along the way, a 73-man field arrived at the finish where McCarthy got the better of Rogers and English.
Having emigrated with his family from his native Fermoy in Co Cork when he was aged 14 years, McCarthy first became a regular on the Australian national junior team - winning the national junior road title. And he has since progressed to the U23 ranks where he represents Australia regularly, including at the Herald Sun Tour this week.
McCarthy has recently signed for An Post-Chainreaction and will be racing in their colours in Europe within weeks.
Today’s win was a career best result for the 19-year-old, who modestly admitted afterwards he was surprised to win despite being regarded as a very good sprinter.
"When you look at the field here, there are some of the best in the world," he said.
"I just came here to learn from those guys and I found myself in a good position so I just hit out and came across the line first. I couldn't believe it and I’m a bit speechless to be honest.
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"Maybe I was a bit lucky with positioning and I just gave it 100 per cent. For me, the hard part was getting to the line with those established sprint trains.
"There was a big fight for his (Matt Goss) wheel so I wasn't getting involved in that. I was just trying to follow Jonathan Cantwell in the finish."
The race concludes tomorrow with a tough finish to the final stage up the Arthur's Seat climb.
(Results and photos below advertisement)
Herald Sun Tour (UCI 2.1), February 5th to 9th
Sat, Feb 8th: Stage 3, Mitchelton Winery - Nagambie 157km
| 1 | Robert-John McCarthy (Aus) Jayco Australian U23 | 3:47:09 | |
| 2 | Rico Rogers (Aus) OCBC Singapore Team | ||
| 3 | Felix English (Irl) Rapha Condor JLT | ||
| 4 | Karl Menzies (Aus) UnitedHealthcare | ||
| 5 | Daniel Klemme (Ger) Synergy Baku Cycling | ||
| 6 | Tom Scully (NZl) New Zealand Team | ||
| 7 | Ji Wen Low (Sin) OCBC Singapore Team | ||
| 8 | Guillaume Boivin (Can) Cannondale Pro Cycling | ||
| 9 | Cameron Wurf (Aus) Cannondale Pro Cycling | ||
| 10 | Steele von Hoff (Aus) Garmin Sharp | ||
| 11 | Simon Clarke (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge | ||
| 12 | Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Drapac Pro Cycling | ||
| 13 | Robert Power (Aus) Jayco Australian U23 | ||
| 14 | Tural Isgandarov (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling | ||
| 15 | Patrick Bevin (NZl) New Zealand Team | ||
| 16 | Glenn O’Shea (Aus) Kordamentha Real Estate - Team Australia | ||
| 17 | Jeremy Cameron (Aus) African Wildlife Safaris | ||
| 18 | Jack Haig (Aus) Avanti Cycling Team | ||
| 19 | Calvin Watson (Aus) Kordamentha Real Estate - Team Australia | ||
| 20 | Alex Clements (Aus) Jayco Australian U23 |
General Classification
| 1 | Simon Clarke (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge | 10:59:17 | |
| 2 | Cameron Wurf (Aus) Cannondale Pro Cycling | 0:00:08 | |
| 3 | Jack Haig (Aus) Avanti Cycling Team | 0:00:11 | |
| 4 | Nathan Haas (Aus) Garmin Sharp | 0:01:09 | |
| 5 | Neil Van Der Ploeg (Aus) Avanti Cycling Team | 0:01:21 | |
| 6 | Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Drapac Pro Cycling | ||
| 7 | Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge | 0:01:22 | |
| 8 | Glenn O’Shea (Aus) Kordamentha Real Estate - Team Australia | 0:01:23 | |
| 9 | Cameron Meyer (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge | ||
| 10 | William Clarke (Aus) Drapac Pro Cycling | ||
| 11 | Mitch Docker (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge | 0:01:24 | |
| 12 | Alex Clements (Aus) Jayco Australian U23 | 0:01:28 | |
| 13 | Harry Carpenter (Aus) Jayco Australian U23 | ||
| 14 | Lachlan Norris (Aus) Drapac Pro Cycling | ||
| 15 | Guillaume Boivin (Can) Cannondale Pro Cycling | 0:01:29 | |
| 16 | Timothy Roe (Aus) Team Budget Forklifts | 0:01:30 | |
| 17 | Darren Lapthorne (Aus) Drapac Pro Cycling | 0:01:31 | |
| 18 | Rhys Gillett (Aus) African Wildlife Safaris | ||
| 19 | Robert Power (Aus) Jayco Australian U23 | ||
| 20 | Calvin Watson (Aus) Kordamentha Real Estate - Team Australia | 0:01:32 | |
| 49 | Robert-John McCarthy (Aus) Jayco Australian U23 | 0:24:33 | |
| 63 | Felix English (Irl) Rapha Condor JLT | 0:35:10 |
From Fermoy, teenager Robert-Jon McCarthy takes stage 3 of the Herald Sun Tour today, Saturday, with Irish international Felix English in 3rd place (black kit) to his left.
McCarthy (second from left, white helmet) and English (on the right, in black) did well to position themselves so well and top the speed of some world class riders.
Felix English in the U23 riders classification leader's jersey after his 3rd place in the 2.5km prologue TT in Melbourne on Wednesday.
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