UniSA’s Will Clarke delivered what was described as ‘a superman solo effort’ to take victory on the Colemans Group Stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under, finishing 1:02 ahead of the 2011 stage winner Michael Matthews (Rabobank) and putting the newly crowned Australian road race champion, Simon Gerrans of GreenEDGE in third. The Tasmanian rider broke from the peloton in the first kilometre of the 148km long second stage (Lobethal to Stirling) and remained uncatchable from that point in. His success was made all the sweater – and downright unexpected – by the fact that until two weeks ago the amateur cyclist didn’t even know he was going to compete, only securing his place in the squad after qualifying at the National Road Cycling Championships.
A somewhat shell-shocked sounding Clarke commented, ‘This is unbelievable really…this is the biggest win of my career. It’s my first win in the WorldTour. I knew my form was good.’