Marcel Kittel wins final stage as Haas celebrates overall lead in Sun Tour 2011- Cycling News
Skil-Shimano team’s Marcel Kittel took his 17th victory of this season after winning the fifth and final stage of Jayco Herald Sun Tour 2011 on Sunday, October 16. Nathan Haas took the overall leader’s yellow jersey for the Genesys Wealth Advisers Team.
The race started and ended in Melbourne. The 23-years-old German cyclist, Marcel Kittel, set the fastest time of 1 hour, 28 minutes and 19 seconds to cover the distance of the final stage.
Anthony Giacoppo of Genesys Wealth Advisers grabbed the runner-up's spot, very close to the timing achieved by his successor.
After winning the stage, Kittel told the media, "Believe it or not I'm really disappointed. I just love cycling. I love the travelling and it's really something special when you spend the whole year on the road with the boys. You have so much exciting things the whole time”.
A group of three cyclists, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (MTN – Qhubeka), Kenny Dehaes (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Jonas Aen Jorgensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) took an early start and moved ahead of the others including.
All of them worked and gained a lead of few seconds but Rensburg managed to score maximum points and secured first intermediate sprint.
Jens Debusschere (Omega Pharma-Lotto) launched attack and tried his best to catch South Africa but failed and Rensburg retained his lead in the second sprint.
A total of 20 cyclists crossed the finish line with the very little difference in the timings of Kittel.
While Artem Ovechkin (Katusha Team) was in good form and tried his luck but unable to hold his pace, he landed by securing 21st place with 7 seconds down to sprinter ahead of Shem Rodger (Pure Black Racing).
He further added, "Our team stepped up again today and as I've said all year, this team is just unbelievable. We've not lost a race in Australia this year and now to win the Herald Sun Tour, we would never have thought this. We were going to be happy with one placing in a stage"
Genesys Wealth Advisers Team’s Haas took the overall lead with the timing of 16 hours, 39 minutes and 39 seconds while Bobridge was second place with 17 seconds down to Australian.
Jonas Aen Jorgensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) secured third place with the difference of 26 seconds ahead of second stage winner’s Rensburg.
Haas took the overall sprint standing with 26 points and also took the best young rider title ahead of Jack Bobridge and Rensburg.
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