Norris claims deserved Tour of Tasmania title

The 25 year old, another from a background in elite mountain biking to taste success on the road, winning the overall Tour title by 17 seconds.

His form was never in any question. But he was flying under the radar until he lit it up on Great Lake. There he put the hurt into O'Brien and Earle, distanced McCarthy and won the stage solo.

And after a disappointing team time trial from Drapac it came as a big turnaround. Norris' team proceeded to control the race superbly over the next few days, and Norris himself was always up to the task if and when he was called upon.

The only time he missed a beat was on Stage 6 when he conceded four bonus seconds to Nathan Earle, but it in the scheme of things it mattered little.

The win in the end as much due to his talent as his team, and a long time coming for a rider that's long been consistent but lacked a big stage race win. Second in Bright, second in Wellington, second in New Caledonia. First in Tasmania.

Norris was quick to credit the role of his Drapac team in the win.

Tour of Tasmania final day gallery

"You only have to look at yesterday," said Norris. "We had all eight riders at the front, and it just makes my job so much easier."

"I think as far as the road is concerned this is the biggest win of my career. It feels pretty good."

Prodigious talent Jay McCarthy (Jayco-VIS) won the final stage in a two-up sprint over Luke Fetch (search2retain), with Suzuki-Trek's Ben Hill taking the sprint for third.

A lead group of 11 riders survived into the final lap where McCarthy broke away with Fetch, only to out-sprint the search2retain rider at the end of the 51.6km kermesse in Devonport.

"Today in the last day of the tour so I didn’t care about losing time on GC," said McCarthy. "I went on the attack all day and tried to go off moves and was in that one that finally stuck at the end."

McCarthy finished fourth overall, after missing the key move of the race on Great Lake. He moves to Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank next season.

Budget Forklifts took out second on GC with Mark O'Brien, while Nathan Earle featured as one of three Genesys riders in the race's top-10 on GC in third.

Team Polygon earned themselves success with Tasmanian Ben Grenda who sealed the criterium jersey after his two-stage haul.

Neil van der Ploeg (search2retain) entered the final stage with only a minimal mathematical chance of being overhauled in the sprints classification, but held on easily.

Genesys also took out the team's competition.

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Tour of Tasmania: Jay McCarthy (Jayco-AIS) Stage 9 winner by Cycling Central

Tour of Tasmania: Overall Champion Lachlan Norris (Drapac) by Cycling Central



Stage 9: 51.6km, Devonport
1 Jay McCarthy (Jayco/Apollo/VIS) 1hr 14min 53sec     
2 Luke Fetch (search2retain)          
3 Benjamin Hill (Suzuki-Trek) 0:00:05     
4 James Williamson (PureBlack Racing)          
5 Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys Wealth Advisers) 0:00:08     
6 Chris Jory (GPM-Wilson Racing)          
7 Neil Van Der Ploeg (search2retain)          
8 Jack Beckinsale (SASI)          
9 Daniel Barry (Felt NZ)          
10 Nathan Earle (Genesys Wealth Advisers)

Final General Classification
1 Lachlan Norris (Drapac) 14hr 51min 00sec     
2 Mark O'Brien (Budget Forklifts)  0:00:17     
3 Nathan Earle (Genesys Wealth Advisers) 0:00:54     
4 Jay McCarthy (Jayco/Apollo/VIS) 0:03:13     
5 Peter Herzig (Budget Forklifts) 0:03:55     
6 Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) 0:04:00     
7 Jai Crawford (Genesys Wealth Advisers) 0:04:08     
8 Ben Dyball (Genesys Wealth Advisers) 0:04:20     
9 Alex Clements (Polygon Australia) 0:05:02     
10 Bradley Linfield (Plan B Racing) 0:05:54     

Cycling Central journalist Alex Hinds covered the Caterpillar Underground Mining Tour of Tasmania with the assistance of organisers Caribou Publications.