First Pro win for Owain Doull

Team Sky Welsh duo Owain Doull and Luke Rowe put on a WorldTour master class on day three of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.

First Pro win for Owain Doull

As the peloton failed to get organised, the pair attacked their breakaway companions with 10 kilometres remaining on the 161km GoFish Nagambie Stage 3 from Sale to Warragul.

Photo: Con Chronis

“Buzzing actually, yes first professional win, it’s been a little while since I’ve had a win on the road so to do it at the start of the year in a nice race in good weather, couldn’t be happier,” said Doull who is a Team Pursuit Olympic Champion.

“We’d earmarked today’s stage as a potential day for the break to go. We were both pretty keen, myself and Luke [Rowe] made sure we lost time yesterday so the break could get a bit of rope out on the road … it came around perfectly for us with the two of us being away with five kilometres to go and then Luke the gentlemen said to me you know, you can have it, so I was more than happy to take it so I had a great day.

“This is my first professional win on the road, obviously I’ve won bigger stuff before like the Olympics but that’s on the track, it’s almost like a different sport in a way, the road, it’s been a little while since I’ve won stuff one the road so it’s nice to get the hands in the air at last for the first pro win.”

It was a fast start to the race, taking over 40kilometres before the day’s breakaway finally established.

Nine riders including Doull and Rowe, Luke Mudgway (Evo Pro Racing), Neil van der Ploeg (Bridgelane) Connor Murtagh (Olivers Real Foods), Ryan Cavanagh (St George), William Clarke (Trek-Segafredo), Nathan Elliott (KordaMentha) and Liam White (Drapac) gained a five minute lead.
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A crash on the outskirts of Sale brought down several riders and resulted in newly crowned Australian Road Race Champion Michael Freiberg (Sunshine Coast ACA) being forced out of the race with grazing and bruising to his face. 18-year-old Carter Turnball (KordaMentha) also required medical attention and was forced to abandon the Tour.

Within sight of the finish line, the two Sky riders in the breakaway exerted their WorldTour muscle and stormed clear. The British team-mates completed the 1-2, with regular workhorse Doull taking the honours in front of an applauding team-mate Rowe.

Ballarat’s Liam White (Drapac-Cannondale) was 29 seconds behind the pair to claim third.

Canadian Michael Woods (EF Education First) remains in the leaders Jayco Herald Sun yellow jersey, with Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) unable to take any time off the leader, still four seconds back with two stages remaining.

“Definitely a stressful day, we had some crashes at the beginning almost got caught behind one, but my team was fantastic all day. Rode in control, smart, and I could really lean on them they kept me calm,” said Woods.

“We did a great job of controlling that everybody who was up the road was eight minutes or more down on the GC and we just made sure we kept the gap down around four or five minutes and brought it down to three, then Mitchelton-SCOTT took over but they weren’t able to bring it back totally, which worked great in our favour that it wasn’t very stressful for the finish and I could roll in and feel good for tomorrow.”

A Tour de France style ‘battle royale’ looms for the Arthurs Seat Eagle stage 4 tomorrow with the pair set to go head-to-head up Arthurs Seat.
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Stage 3
1. Owain DOULL (SKY) GBR 3h28:47 10
2. Luke ROWE (SKY) GBR +0 6
3. Liam WHITE (DCC) AUS +29 4
4. Luke MUDGWAY (EVO) NZL +36 2
5. Ryan CAVANAGH (STG) AUS +36
6. Conor MURTAGH (OLI) AUS +36 1
7. Neil VAN DER PLOEG (BLN) AUS +39 3
8. William CLARKE (TFS) AUS +39
9. Nathan ELLIOTT (AUS) AUS +42
10. Kristoffer HALVORSEN (SKY) NOR +1:19
11. Brenton JONES (AUS) AUS +1:19
12. Robert STANNARD (MTS) AUS +1:19
13. Theodore YATES (DCC) AUS +1:19
14. Chris HARPER (BLN) AUS +1:19 3
15. Craig WIGGINS (STG) AUS +1:19
16. Dylan VAN BAARLE (SKY) NED +1:19 2
17. Richie PORTE (TFS) AUS +1:19
18. Samuel JENNER (AUS) AUS +1:19
19. Michael WOODS (EF1) CAN +1:19
20. Jesse EWART (TSC) AUS +1:19
21. Nicholas SCHULTZ (MTS) AUS +1:19
22. Koen DE KORT (TFS) NED +1:19
23. Lucas HAMILTON (MTS) AUS +1:19
24. Christian KNEES (SKY) GER +1:19
25. Nicholas WHITE (BLN) AUS +1:19
26. Kenny ELISSONDE (SKY) FRA +1:19
27. Damien HOWSON (MTS) AUS +1:19
28. Freddy OVETT (ACA) AUS +1:19
29. Dylan SUNDERLAND (BLN) AUS +1:19
30. Pavel SIVAKOV (SKY) RUS +1:19
31. Jarlinson PANTANO GOMEZ (TFS) COL +1:19
32. Alistair DONOHOE (ACA) AUS +1:19
33. Peter STETINA (TFS) USA +1:19
34. Cyrus MONK (EVO) AUS +1:19
35. Jason LEA (BLN) AUS +1:19
36. Benjamin DYBALL (TSC) AUS +1:19
37. Harrison SWEENY (EVO) AUS +1:19
38. Lachlan MORTON (EF1) AUS +1:19
39. Hayden MCCORMICK (BLN) NZL +1:19
40. Muhammad Zawawi AZMAN (TSC) MAS +1:19
41. Jesse FEATONBY (OLI) AUS +1:19
42. Marcus CULEY (TSC) AUS +1:19
43. Daniel WHITEHOUSE (EVO) GBR +1:19
44. Oliver MARTIN (DCC) AUS +1:19
45. Ayden TOOVEY (BLN) AUS +1:19
46. Muhamad Nur Aiman MOHD ZARIFF (TSC) MAS +1:19
47. Muhsin Al Redha MISBAH (TSC) MAS +1:19
48. Michael POTTER (ACA) AUS +1:19
49. Michael VINK (STG) NZL +1:19
50. Thomas HUBBARD (STG) NZL +1:19
51. Thomas MCFARLANE (AUS) AUS +1:19
52. James WHELAN (EF1) AUS +1:32
53. Dylan NEWBERY (FMP) AUS +1:34
54. Ryan MULLEN (TFS) IRL +1:37
55. Liam MAGENNIS (DCC) AUS +1:47
56. Dion SMITH (MTS) NZL +1:50
57. Sebastian PRESLEY (OLI) AUS +1:50
58. Benjamin ANDREWS (OLI) AUS +1:50
59. Callum SCOTSON (MTS) AUS +2:08
60. Alex FRAME (TFS) NZL +2:35 1
61. Wouter WIPPERT (EVO) NED +2:50
62. Mitchell DOCKER (EF1) AUS +3:15
63. Thomas SCULLY (EF1) NZL +3:15
64. Aaron GATE (EVO) NZL +3:31
65. Jonathon NOBLE (ACA) AUS +3:31
66. Angus LYONS (OLI) AUS +3:38
67. Daniel MCLAY (EF1) GBR +5:43
68. Corbin STRONG (STG) NZL +5:48
69. Sam BEWLEY (MTS) NZL +6:36
70. David WILLIAMS (AUS) AUS +8:53
71. Zachary JOHNSON (DCC) AUS +9:53
72. Ashley MACKAY (ACA) AUS +9:53
73. Timothy CAMERON (STG) AUS +9:53
74. Thomas KAESLER (DCC) AUS +9:53
75. Patrick BURT (DCC) AUS +11:08
76. Shane ARCHBOLD (EVO) NZL +12:27 -120
77. Karl MICHELIN-BEARD (OLI) AUS +18:22

Overall
1. Michael WOODS (EF1) CAN 8h42:38
2. Richie PORTE (TFS) AUS +4
3. Kenny ELISSONDE (SKY) FRA +27
4. Lucas HAMILTON (MTS) AUS +29
5. Dylan VAN BAARLE (SKY) NED +31
6. Pavel SIVAKOV (SKY) RUS +53
7. Chris HARPER (BLN) AUS +54
8. Damien HOWSON (MTS) AUS +57
9. Nicholas SCHULTZ (MTS) AUS +57
10. Robert STANNARD (MTS) AUS +2:04