Aaron Kemps wins second stage as Dale Parker takes up overall lead in Tour of Tasmania 2011
The Australian racing cyclist Aaron Kemps put in a tremendous performance in the second stage of Tour of Tasmania 2011 on Tuesday, October 4. Dale Parker takes the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in New Norfolk and finished in Hamilton. The 28-year-old Australian cyclist proved to be the quickest as he took a total of 1 hour, 30 minutes and 9 seconds to cover the distance of 61.4 kilometres.
Bikebug.Com team’s Joseph Lewis was in second place and Bernard Sulzberger finished third with the same timing as Kemps. Sean Sullivan tried his best to take a lead but failed to hold his pace and grabbed 67th place with a difference of 24 seconds
ahead of Jason Rigg (Genesys Wealth Advisers).
Recently, Aaron secured the first stage of Tour of Qinghai Lake and in 2010 he took first place in the National Criterium Championships.
In the first sprint of the stage, three cyclists including, Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys Wealth Advisers), Joshua Atkins (Jayco-2XU) and Joseph Lewis (Bikebug.Com) were able to gain a lead of a few seconds over the peloton as Giacoppo took maximum points in
first spot.
However, the trio was caught by the peloton after a few kilometres and a new group was confirmed. Luke Ockerby launched an attack but was unable to hold his pace as Grenfell took the second intermediate sprint. Joseph Lewis again tried his luck and managed
to secure the third sprint.
Russia team’s Valery Valynin increased his pace and was able to jump away as he took the fourth and final sprint of the stage ahead of Caleb Jones and Ben Mather. He also grabbed the first climb of the stage ahead of Parker.
However, Parker improved his climbing ability and took the second climb and overall standing with a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes and 30 seconds. Joshua Atkins was in runner-up spot with one second behind Dale as Mark Jamieson finished third with a difference
of eight seconds ahead of Jai Crawford.
Ben Mather (Lawson Homes) gained the title of Most Aggressive Rider and Mark Jamieson took title of Best Tasmanian Rider ahead of Jai Crawford and Campbell Flakemore.
All cyclists will cover the distance of 78.6 kilometres in the third stage between Hamilton and Bronte Park.
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