Steele Von Hoff wins fifth stage as Patrick Shaw takes overall lead in Tour of the Murray 2011
Genesys Wealth Advisers team’s Steele Von Hoff showed a good effort in the fifth stage of Tour of the Murray River 2011 on Monday, August 30. Patrick Shaw retained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Echuca and ended in Kyabram. Wealth Advisers team controlled the situation and in the final kilometres Von Hoff increased his pace and took the total of 1 hour, 37 minutes and 59 seconds to cover the complete distance of 71 kilometres.
Ben Kersten of Swan Hill Heart of the Murray was runner-up with the same timing of Hoff while his team-mate and fourth stage winner’s Patrick Shaw was in third place with the difference of 2 seconds ahead of Rico Rogers (Jacyco VIS/Apollo) and Myron Simpson
(Rabodirect New Zealand).
Due to strong headwind there is a lot of sprint in the stage and also two major crashes took place in the final 15 kilometres. Victorian Liam Dove crashed heavily when receiving mechanical assistance from his Jayco VIS/Apollo team.
Shaw got away in the breakaway lead with Gate of Rabodirect NZ and the seven other leading cyclists managed to get away and sped into Nathila with 10 seconds over the peloton.
In the final kilometres, the three cyclists created a lead including, Steele Von Hoff (Genesys Wealth Advisers), Patrick Shaw (Genesys Wealth Advisers) and Ben Kersten (Swan Hill Heart of The Murray). All of them worked well and gained points while Hoff
easily beat the two cyclists and crossed the finish line without any difficulty.
Peter Thompson (Drapac Professional Cycling), Johnnie Walker (V Australia) and Peter Latham (Rabodirect New Zealand) were in seventh, eighth and ninth place respectively.
Shaw took the overall standing with the timing of 6 hours, 33 minutes and 56 seconds while Von Hoff was runner-up with 9 seconds down to Shaw.
Adam Phelan of Drapac Professional Cycling team was in third place with the difference of 16 seconds ahead of Aaron Gate and Joseph Lewis.
Lewis took the overall sprint standing with 27 points ahead of Johnnie Walker and Sanderson. Adam Phelan secured the most aggressive title ahead of Josh Atkins.
The next stage will run in Rochester and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 30 kilometres.
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