Mauro Schmid secured second place overall at the Tour Down Under while Team Jayco AlUla won the best team classification after five days of racing.
The Australian squad went into the final stage with the Swiss champion in second place on the general classification and despite a hectic last day of racing, the team walked away with the runner up spot.
After yesterday’s breakaway antics, Luke Plapp was once again up the road around Stirling as he escaped with two other riders in the opening laps of the race.
The trio gained a maximum advantage of almost four minutes as, behind them, a kangaroo caused a crash in the peloton. Despite the chaos, the bunch eventually hauled Plapp and the attackers back with two laps to go.
Counter attacks were immediately launched with Team Jayco AlUla keeping a close eye on proceedings as they looked to keep Schmid’s place on the podium secure.
The day ultimately came down to another sprint finish with the squad and Schmid keeping out of trouble to finish the opening WorldTour race of the year on the podium.
Mauro Schmid:
“The day started off quite ok, it was nice to have Plapp in the breakaway. But then the last hour was pretty hard and also the heat, it was not like yesterday, but it was still pretty hot.
The last hour was quite tough, but I’m happy. The boys supported me super well all day and it’s nice to take home the second place on the GC, I think that’s a very good result for us.”
Mat Hayman (Sport Director)
“We come to TDU to win, but when you come up against somebody like Jay Vine with the form that he’s in, he was clearly the best on the Corkscrew and that set up his GC. Mauro was very, very consistent across the week and had great support from the team and had a great ride. To get second is big step for him.
Ben also snuck into the top-10 today and we won the teams GC, so there’s a lot of positives to take out of this week with Michael Matthews also winning in Europe, and now we’re looking forward to next week at Cadel’s.”
Photos: Sprint Cycling
