Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race: Marius Mayrhofer faster than the favorites
This article originally appeared on Velo News
Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM) scored his first pro victory Sunday at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, outsprinting a stack of Aussie stars in Geelong.
Pre-race favorites Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) and Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) were in the mix in the final bunch kick, but it was the 22-year-old German rider Mayrhofer that clinched victory ahead of Hugo Page (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), and Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech).
"This means everything to me. The last race I won was in the juniors and I became a cyclist because I wanted to win races The whole U23s, I wasn't able to win and now I take finally my first win," Mayrhofer said after the race.
"My team did an awesome job the whole day. They protected me, we did this climb four times and every time I was in the front so I saved a lot of energy with it. They covered all the moves so I could stay in the bunch and just save energy the whole day."
"There's this little downhill before the finish where I could build up speed and then with 400m to go I just thought 'now it's victory of nothing' and I just went full gas,” he continued. “I was dreaming of this victory for so long, and I still can't believe what's happened."
The climbers did everything they could to split the WorldTour one-dayer apart and disrupt the sprint Sunday.
Despite multiple efforts from the likes of Jai Hindley (Bora Hansgrohe) and Jay Vine (UAE Emirates) to force a select group and distance the sprinters, the fast-finishers held on to the reduced bunch.
That was until a late break from Mauro Schmid (Soudal Quick-Step) and Sven Erik Bystrom (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) that went away in the final 6km.
It looked like we would see a repeat of the women's race the day prior where a two-up breakaway made it all the way to the line but in the final few hundred meters, the bunch caught up to the two breakaway riders to set up the sprint.
Mayrhofer’s victory handed DSM two victories in 12 hours after Sam Welsford bossed the bunch sprint in San Juan.
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