Biniam Girmay wins Surf Coast Classic, trumps Elia Viviani in sprint

Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) claimed the win at the Surf Coast Classic on Thursday, celebrating as he turned his run of Australian podium places into a top step in Torquay as he crossed the line just ahead of Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers).

In what was a tight top three, Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) took the final spot on the podium, returning to the fray after having to pull out of the Tour Down Under with stomach issues on the fifth stage.

A break was left to dangle out front right until the final kilometres of the race, which started in Lorne, but the teams of the top sprinters were never going to let it out of their sight, always keeping the gap within reach to make sure it came down to a battle of the bunch. Intermarché-Wanty was prominent among those teams.

“After the Tour Down Under I felt super good so I said to my team today we need to control as much as we can, also we need to be smart, find the better wheel and I think we did a good job," said Girmay. "Also my team was super good - they did perfect.”

It was a challenging final run into the popular beach side location of Torquay, with positioning all important and key rival Viviani having a stacked team to help him along the way. There was a sharp right hander at 4km to go, road furniture to contend with inside the last kilometre and a sharp left with less than 500m to the line.

“The main thing today we talked about is the last 5km, we need to be in the right wheel because we don’t have the big guys to chase in the front to go through," said Girmay. "But I think we managed really well to stay in the perfect position and also in the last part we moved up.”

That meant Girmay could enter the final straight with confidence and laid down a sprint that ended up being enough to pip Viviani.

“For sure the last corner … I am just thinking today is my day,” said Girmay.

How it unfolded

It was a roll out and up for the start of the 1.1 ranked Surf Coast Classic on Thursday, with mild temperatures – by Australian summer standards at least – and a still day, perhaps to the disappointment of the cross-wind aficionados.

It wasn’t exactly a course that let riders ease in, with a number opting to go out and warm up on the opening climb just before the race start in the ocean-side town of Lorne. Not surprisingly, given the start, there was an early break in the 155.5km event with five riders having established a gap of more than two minutes well before 20km of the race had passed. The break was made up of Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost), Bauke Mollema and Natnael Tesfazion of Lidl-Trek, William Eaves (ARA Skip Capital) and Zac Marriage (Team BridgeLane).

As the race headed inland, toward the Otway’s, through the farmland and small town of Deans Marsh and onto Barwon Downs and Forrest – its web of bush trails also providing a popular location for the mountain bikers – the break continued out front.

They were still rolling along in a compact group through the feed zone on the rolling farmland roads south of Birregurra, around half way through the race, with the gap still remaining around two minutes. However, then the peloton decided it was time to start the process of hauling the riders back in and by around 40km to go the gap was already down to a minute and by the time they reached Modewarre, about five kilometres later, nearly another 15 seconds had been shed.

As the peloton began heading back toward the coast, to pass by Bells Beach, the gap got even slimmer and the break fell from five to three, as Marriage and Eaves returned to the bunch. Then by the 12 kilometre to go mark the shrinking gap made the catch an inevitability, but with the trio reeled in to a clearly reachable distance it was let sit out there till within the final four kilometres. It was then shut down as the final pieces of the sprint battle were manoeuvred into place.

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