Jay McCarthy (Bora-hansgrohe) emerged victorious from a reduced group to win the fourth edition of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

With the mercury hitting 40 degrees, conditions were testing, particularly during the last third of the course, which featured several short yet steep climbs. A small group of riders escaped in the closing kilometres, and McCarthy proved fastest at the finish.

Right from the get-go, the attacks came thick and fast, with a select group of five riders – Lasse Norman Hansen (Aqua Blue Sport), Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha-Alpecin), Alex Porter and Sam Welsford (KordMentha Real Estate), and Robert De Greef (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) – escaping from the peloton.

They worked together well and quickly built up a significant advantage within the first few kilometres of racing, with their lead stretching to 6:40 minutes at one point. After the chase was put on in earnest by the peloton, the gap was reduced to approximately 2 minutes with 25 km remaining.

Photo: Con Chronis/BettiniPhoto©2018

As the breakaway came closer to being caught, several riders jumped off the front of the peloton during the last 20 km, yet to no avail. The break was ultimately caught with 15km remaining.

A small group of riders subsequently escaped from the bunch in the final few kilometres, with Jay McCarthy ultimately surpassing Elia Viviani (Team Sky) and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) in the final stretch to take the win for BORA-hansgrohe at the end of a very testing and hot day in the saddle.

“In this race, everything went well,” said Jay McCarthy. “I was a bit disappointed with my performance at the Tour Down Under, but I came with confidence to Geelong and wanted to achieve a good result.”

“It was good that Daniel was with me in the last kilometre. We had Chaves and Viviani on our heels and it motivated me to have a teammate there in the final. I’m really happy to end my racing in Australia in this way.”

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