Phillip Grenfell wins second stage as Steele Von Hoff takes overall lead in Tour of Gippsland 2011
BikeBug.com team’s Phillip Grenfell took the bunch sprint of the second stage of Tour of Gippsland 2011 in Wonthaggi on Wednesday, July 27. Stage one winner Steele von Hoff maintained his overall leader’s jersey.
Grenfell was in good form in his international career and took the total of 1 hour, 36 minutes and 29 seconds to cover the distance of 68.2 kilometres.
Luke Davison of Jayco 2XU was runner-up and the race leader Steele Von Hoff of Genesys Wealth Advisers finished third with the same timing of Grenfell. 55 cyclists crossed the final line with the same timing of sprinter.
Michael England (Team Budget Forklifts), Richard Lang (Jayco AIS) and Alex Clements (Pure Tasmania & Deloitte) were in fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively.
The two cyclists Nicholas Schultz (Jayco VIS/Apollo) and Kel Chaffey-Jones (PBE Realestate) were disqualified from the stage.
Joey Esterhuyzen (Lakes Oil) showed his good effort and launched attack in to the group of leading rider but failed to hold his pace and grabbed 56th place with the difference of 23 seconds ahead of Callum Fagg and Rene Kolbach.
In the final few kilometres, the group of three cyclists made their first breakaway and got away including, Philip Grenfell, Luke Davison and Steele Von Hoff. All of them worked together and built a lead while Van Hoff tried to take a lead but Grenfell launched
an attack and grabbed first place without any difficulty.
Genesys Wealth Advisers team’s Von Hoff took the overall standing with the timing of 2 hours, 21 minutes and 33 seconds.
After taking overall leader’s jersey Von Hoff told the media, "It was amazing watching the Tour de France and Cadel was fantastic, I want to get on a pro team overseas and see where that leads me but, yes, it's everybody's dream to ride the Tour de France.''
His team-mate Nathan Haas was runner-up with 6 seconds and Patrick Shaw was in third place with 8 seconds behind Hoff.
The stage winner Grenfell was in fourth place with the difference of 9 seconds ahead of Sanderson.
The next stage will start in San Remo and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 40 kilometres.
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