Herald Sun Tour 2011

Herald Sun Tour 2011
Racing series	UCI Oceania Tour  -  Category 2.1
Host country	Australia
Competition period	October 12th to 16th
Stages	5 stages
overall length	680.8 km
Starting field	103 drivers from 14 nations in 18 teams (67 of them arrived at the finish)
winner
Overall rating	1. Nathan Haas 39: 39: 0 h 2. Jack Bobridge + 00:17 min 3. Jonas Aaen Jörgensen + 00:26 min
Team evaluation	Genesys Wealth Advisers 50:19:20 h
Scoring jerseys
Overall rating	Nathan Haas
Scoring	Nathan Haas
Mountain scoring	Cameron Peterson
Young talent evaluation	Nathan Haas
← 2009	2012 →

The 59th Herald Sun Tour (officially Jayco Herald Sun Tour ) was an Australian cycle stage race that took place October 12-16, 2011. It was held in five stages over a total distance of 680.9 kilometers in the Victoria region around the city of Melbourne . The race was part of the UCI Oceania Tour 2012 , classified there in category 2.1 and the first competition in the racing series.

The overall winner was the Australian Nathan Haas ( Genesys Wealth Advisers ), who also won the points and junior ranking. He relegated his compatriot Jack Bobridge from the American team Garmin-Cervélo and the Danes Jonas Aaen Jörgensen ( Saxo Bank-SunGard ) to the places with a few seconds gap.

Attendees

The organizer USM Events invited 18 teams. All internationally licensed Australian teams and four ProTeams were there . In addition to three Professional Continental Teams , there were also teams from Japan or South Africa and a Russian and an Australian national team. Each team consisted of six drivers.

UCI ProTeams Omega Pharma Lotto Saxo Bank SunGard	Garmin-Cervélo Katusha team
UCI Professional Continental Team Skil-Shimano United Healthcare Pro Cycling	Team Type 1-Sanofi
UCI Continental Teams Genesys Wealth Advisers Drapac MTN Qhubeka	V Australia PureBlack Racing Team Jayco-AIS	Jelly Belly Cycling Team Team Budget Forklifts Utsunomiya lightning
National teams  Australia  Russia

Stages and course of the race

All five stages of the race ran over largely flat terrain and therefore offered the sprinters in particular a chance of victory. Nonetheless, on the first day on the way to Ballarat, a fifteen-man breakaway group pulled away from the field and finally reached the finish line with a lead of about ten minutes, so that practically only these fifteen riders were fighting for the overall victory. The breakaway group decimated further and further in the course of the stage, ultimately six riders remained in the lead. The Australian Rhys Pollock ( Drapac ) attacked three kilometers from the finish and saved a thirteen-second lead over the finish line, taking on the yellow jersey of the overall leader and taking his first international win.

On the second part of the day there was a mass sprint on an uphill last kilometer, which the South African Reinardt Janse van Rensburg , who had already belonged to the decisive breakaway group the day before, won. The third stage ended again with a mass sprint, but this time with a flat finish. The German Marcel Kittel from the Skil-Shimano team triumphed here . On the fourth day there was a small mountain finish on the approximately four-kilometer-long Arthurs Seat, which had to be driven several times on some final laps . The Russian Yegor Silin from the Katusha team prevailed here as a soloist after attacking two kilometers from the finish. The wearer of the yellow jersey, Rhys Pollock, lost more than a minute on the final climb and had to hand over the overall lead to the day runner-up Nathan Haas from Genesys Wealth Advisers , who also defended first place in the overall classification in the final criterion in Melbourne , again in the mass sprint of Marcel Kittel, who won his 17th and final victory in 2011.

stage	Day	Start finish	Type	km	Stage winner	Overall rating
1.	October 12th	Whittlesea > Ballarat		174.6	Rhys Pollock	Rhys Pollock
2.	October 13th	Ballarat > Geelong		140.6	Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
3.	October 14th	Geelong > Drysdale		172.6	Marcel Kittel
4th	15th October	Sorrento > Arthur's Seat		131.6	Yegor Silin	Nathan Haas
5.	October, 16th	Melbourne ( Carlton )		61.5	Marcel Kittel

Web links

• Official website of the race
• Results and reports from the race on live-radsport.ch