GEELONG, Australia – The UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling team took the start line for the 174km Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (1.HC) last Sunday. The one-day race marked UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team’s first WorldTour event of the 2017 season.
After more than four hours of tough racing, German powerhouse Nikias Arndt (Team Sunweb) won by a narrow margin ahead of Simon Gerrans (Orica-Scott). Cameron Meyer (KordaMentha Real Estate Australian National Team) rounded out the podium in third place.
Janier Acevedo was the first rider home from UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team, finishing 19th place, with the same time as the winner.
In the opening kilometers, a group of four attacked and established an 11-minute advantage while ProTour teams controlled the peloton.
“Our boys did well and stayed in the front as we talked about in the pre-race meeting,” UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Director Henrick Redant said. “Greg Henderson and Adrian Hegyvary were always present to look after their teammates.”
With 60 km to go, the race entered three, hard 20.2km circuits around the city that took their toll on some of the riders. With the initial break caught, multiple attacks rocked the peloton in an attempt to tire the sprinters.
“Tanner Putt and Travis McCabe were our two sprinters,” Redant said. “However Tanner was in difficulty with 30 km to go and McCabe was dropped with eight km to go, so it was up to our climbers.”
Despite working out some of the inevitable early season kinks, Redant is optimistic for what lies ahead.
“I saw a strong team that was able to compete with the World Tour teams at the highest level, although the other teams came all out of Tour Down Under, we’re on our way now to Herald Sun Tour and are looking forward to more.”
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