Peter Kennaugh came up trumps in the second edition of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race following an aggressive final lap of the Geelong circuit. The British national champion jumped away on the Challambra climb and held off the peloton for Team Sky's first win of 2016. Local lad Leigh Howard won the bunch sprint for second place six seconds back, after IAM Cycling worked hard for the chase as Niccolò Bonifazio crossed the line for third on his Trek-Segafredo debut.
"I have to thank Luke Rowe really. The whole race he was saying 'stay calm, stay calm'. I went up the road with just over a lap to go with a couple of riders and right away he said 'sit up, it's not going to work.' He just kept me calm during the race and said 'hit it', like Richie Porte did on Willunga, just don't look back and I did it," Kennaugh explained in a post-race television interview.
With Rafa Valls his carrot on the Challambra climb, Kennaugh bridged across then rode away from the Lotto Soudal rider as the splintered peloton was attempting to organise a chase with 12km to go. However, Kennaugh explained that once he got away, he was racing for the win.
ADVERTISEMENT
"People go on about power all the time these days, I’m not one that likes numbers, but to be honest I’ve been doing a lot of work on that kind of stuff and I just tried to pace myself all the way to the finish and I had the legs," said Kennaugh, whose previous one-day wins both came in the British national championships. "I felt terrible for the first half of the race, but then my legs came around."
Kennaugh's win was reminiscent of his stage 1 victory at the Critérium du Dauphiné in Albertville last year, repeating his late attack to also hold off a fast finishing peloton.
"To be honest, I didn't want to look back once. I am quite an emotion rider, the littlest things if I've see them close to me, that's all it would have took for me to crack. So I just thought 'head down, don't look back until you're on the finishing straight' and that's what I did," Kennaugh added when asked if he knew of the situation behind him.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/1StJ9B3
No comments:
Post a Comment