News: Matt Cronshaw 6th in Singapore

 

Node 4 rider, Matt Cronshaw is sixth in the big money crit in Singapore won by Robbie McEwen of Greendedge.

The race in Singapore featured teams from Rapha, Raleigh, Node 4 and Sigma Sport and in very hot conditions and a wet circuit from a rainy day in the tropics, the night time event was quickly up to speed.

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Rapha’s Kristian House was soon mixing it at the front of the race, winning a sprint and then scoring again in the next one. The field was soon splitting with the pace at the front with Sigma Sport missing the break and a front group of two dozen riders quickly moving away.

The race did not feature that many attacks simply because of the pace of the leading peloton but when a group of three got away with Robbie McEwen, Matt Cronshaw was quick to see the danger and joined another trio that chased it down.

With still over quarter of the race to go, the six leaders including McEwen and Cronshaw slowly edged away from the peloton where Rapha’s James McCallum was prominent on the front. With six different teams represented out front, bringing that break down was falling to the hands of Rapha, Raleigh and one or two other teams. It was too much for them though and after holding the leaders for a while in the same straight, the lead of the six up break soon began to grow quickly from 35 seconds to over a minute and more.

The six out front were working hard, Cronshaw amongst them, and the attacks from within the break didn’t start until a few laps to go when Cronshaw went off the front. There was far too much firepower in the group though and he was soon brought back.

Inevitably it came down to a sprint and whilst McEwen had no problems getting to the line first and his arms in the air, Cronshaw was unable match the speed of the sprinters from around the world and he came in sixth. In the bunch sprint for 7th, Node 4’s new signing, Ricco Rogers, a New Zealander living in Australia, edged out Dean Downing whilst Ben Grenda of Rapha was 10th.

Afterwards, Greenedge rider Robbie McEwen said “I have to give credit to the other guys in the group. They worked well together to see that we would stay away and have a chance to fight amongst ourselves at the finish. It wasn’t easy out there,” noted McEwen. “With the weather conditions, we had to be careful in the corners while racing aggressively. Everyone was talking about a sprint finish. I was fairly certain the break could stay away.”

“It feels good to take the win,” McEwen said. “It was a great team ride by the boys at an enjoyable event. Now, I’ll go home to Australia now where I’ll take a little break from racing. I have a big training block ahead to get myself ready for racing in April.”

Result

1. Robbie McEwen,
2. Boy van Poppell,
3. Matt Freidemann,
4. Tom Scully,
5. Wesly Gough,
6. Matt Cronshaw,
7. Rico Rogers,
8. Dean Downing,
9. Steele Van Hoff
10. Ben Grenda

 

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