Gianni Meersman of Elixx Quick Step won the first ever Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong, Australia.
A 174km race was the final race for former Tour De France winner and World Champion Cadel Evans of BMC and on a wet day, there were plenty of UCI World Tour Teams and some big names to say goodbye to an Australian sporting icon.
Michael Torckler (BudgetForklifts), Darcy Woolley (African Wildlife),, and Josh Taylor of CharterMason-Giant in their first ever UCI race, were allowed to get clear for a bit until the peloton brought them back so Taylor along with Marco Frapporti (Androni), , Brodie Talbot, Woolley and Laurent Didier of Trek Factory Racing formed a new break.
Taylor took the first sprint as the quartet took a lead of 3.26 but had to settle for third behind Frapporti in the second sprint at Torquay.
Laurent Didier was forced out of the race when he crashed and broke his wrist on the climb of the day which Taylor took.
Attacks from BMC and Cannondale/Garmin meant that with a hundred kilometres to go, the break was caught and a new attack featuring Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh and Luke Rowe, Danilo Wyss, Luke Rowe, Simon Clarke, Mark Renshaw, Nathan Haas, Moreno Moser, Jack Bauer, Alex Howes, Davide Villella, Matt Brammeier, Tyler Farrar, Jesse Sergent, Josh Taylor, Brodie Talbot, Darcy Woolley and Marco Frapporti.took over.
There were three finishing circuits around Geelong left to complete and Kennaugh set off, only to be caught on Yarra St by Maxime Bouet of Elixx Quick Step and then passed by Jack Bauer after Bouet had taken the KOM points.
Seven riders formed a lead group before Cadel Evans made a move with 25kms to go with Danilo Wyss, former British champion Ian Stannard and Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step) taking over on the front.
Simon Clarke made two attacks with seventeen and ten kilometres to go but was caught and Peter Kennaugh went with six to go but Moreno Moser was able to bring him back.
Kennaugh did lead going under the flam rouge but Gianni Meersman powered to victory in 4.15.22 ahead of Simon Clarke of Orica GreenEdge, Nathan Haas of Cannondale-Garmin, Luke Rowe of Team Sky and Cadel Evans, who admitted that he had little chance of winning against the fast men by telling Channel Seven: “They’re pretty quick in the finish.
“I was hoping to make the front group at first, but it wasn’t exactly the easiest group to pick.
“In the finish, I came from a reasonably good position ... but I didn’t have the legs.
“Even if I had the legs, those guys are just quicker than me in that kind of finish.”