Despite having only started one race prior to the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Will Clarke stormed to consecutive victories on the 2.1km course along Melbourne Southbank, improving on his 2:35 winning time of 2015. Drapac’s Clarke was the sixth and final rider to occupy the hot seat as the 30-year-old then waited almost 45 minutes before Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) crossed the line in second place, less than a second slower.
While Drapac missed out at the Australian national championships, Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, the Pro Continental team opened its 2016 account at the Tour de San Luis via Peter Koning, Clarke said that a win and the leader’s jersey in the team’s home city was a special occasion.
“We haven’t won in in Australia yet this year. We had a win in San Luis with Peter Koning, our Dutch rider, which is a nice result,” Clarke told reporters having donned the yellow jersey. "To win here at the Herald Sun Tour is our home race so it’s a big goal and means a lot to win here in Melbourne with the team being from Melbourne. It’s good."
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Clarke has won five UCI catergorised races in his career, three of those prologues, and two of those at Australia’s oldest stage race. Having missed the team’s first stage races of the season, targeted training during January helped power him to victory - his first since last year’s race.
“I am just stronger than last year. I think that’s what allowed me to go a little bit quicker,” Clarke said. "I guess I’d done Tour Down Under the previous years before this and maybe in ways it can help to have a race in your legs but I guess I was able to do more specific prologue work before this also which could have helped.
“[It is] pretty much the same result as last year just beating Caleb by about a second," he added of the difference to 12 months prior. "It was a nervous wait for me actually, starting 40-45 minutes before him [Ewan] and sitting up there. I thought he’s good in the corners, he’s very fast so this course suits him as well.”
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