Race Results

De Bortoli Wines Tour 

Stage 3

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Kathy Watt continued her domination of the of the DeBortoli Wines Tour – a 2 day stage race through Victoria’s wine region – the Yarra Valley.

Taking the advantage, she broke away on the first lap of three and stayed away until the finish. Her lead gradually extended, helped by team-mate Claire Baxter, who blocked all attempts to chase. 

Anna Sutton instigated the first lap activity by attempting to go away at the bottom of the long climb to Pantons Gap (which includes in excess of 7km of dirt track to be negotiated in order to ride over the summit). Sutton's effort was pulled back by Claire Baxter, who then sat up and waited for Kathy Watt to cross the gap. As soon as she had crossed, Watt carried on and was not seen by the chasers again. Sutton punctured on the descent and having just been passed by the spares vehicle, was left at the side of the road trying to change her tube. Unfortunately, her spare included the wrong type of valve extender and she was forced to abandon.

The race was a disappointment for Jenny Macpherson, who was also forced to pack. She punctured yesterday and again today. The VIS rider had not raced for a while, except in a local criterium a couple of weeks ago, where she hit the deck and was wearing the bandages to prove it this weekend. 

Temperatures in the high 20'C and a warming wind caused the day to be too uncomfortable for several riders many packed after 2 laps of the 28km circuit. Many of those had empty water bottles, having drained theirs in the first 2 hours of racing. 

For Kathy Watt, this was a show of complete domination - she won each stage and simply extended her General Classification advantage on each one - the yellow jersey was more than deserved, although WomensCycling.net did predict that yesterday after seeing her looking so smooth and powerful in the Stage 2 time trial yesterday.

Stage 3 Results

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Final General Classification

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