DEAN Windsor should have been celebrating a top five finish at the conclusion of the third stage of the Jayco Bay Classic in Geelong on Monday evening, but instead the Bathurst cyclist shared in the disappointment of a decision which may have cost his Urban team-mate Graeme Brown the yellow jersey.
After winning the green sprinter’s jersey in the 2008 version of the annual Victorian-based event, this year Windsor has been playing a team role to try and help Brown defend the yellow jersey he had won 12 months earlier.
Windsor and his Urban team-mates had been doing a good job at achieving this goal as Brown won the first stage and remained in yellow after day two of the annual criterium event, but the penultimate leg of the event brought mixed fortunes for the Bathurst talent.
Dean Windsor, who like his younger brother Blair Windsor (Team Budget Forklifts) is contesting the elite men’s category, showed just how good his focus is as he claimed fifth place following an incident which saw Brown pulled off the course and later fined for intimidation.
The drama began as a crash saw officials stop some riders but then others came to a halt as well. Race announcers thought the event had been neutralised but this was not the case, the incident spoiling the plans of Windsor and his Urban team-mates who had been controlling the peloton.
Another crash on the same corner followed the next lap, but during the confusion three riders were able to pull off the front – Tom Scully, Jack Bobridge and Johnnie Walker. Windsor was fortunate enough to find himself in another group of nine which led the chase when the race restarted.
Then the main bunch, which included Brown and Robbie McEwen, was pulled out of the race because the lead group of three riders had caught them.
However, Brown was furious as he was at the front of the caught group and felt he should have been allowed to keep racing.
The now former race leader swerved towards chief commissaire Doug Armstrong as he was shown the red flag, landing him a $250 fine.
“He lined me up while I was executing my duties in a manner that was completely unacceptable ... he rode at me deliberately,” Armstrong said. “Not many bike riders would dare to do it.”
Brown initially thought his chances of successfully defending the series title were over when he was not allowed to finish, but the eventual results minimised his damage.
“That wasn’t such a bad result in the end, I’m going to have to win [stage four],” he said.
“I generally ride well on fury, we’ll see.”
With the rest of the field pulled and Scully beating home Bobridge and Walker for the stage win, Windsor was focused on the final sprint involving his chase group of nine.
While the Bathurst Cycling Club member outdid stage two winner Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton, who took hold of the yellow jersey at the completion of the stage, Windsor had to settle for fifth as Koen de Kort beat him in the sprint.
It was still an excellent effort from Windsor as it also helped to keep Brown’s hopes alive. He trails Sutton by three points while he also sits second in the sprinter’s classification – one point behind Scully.
Earlier in the day during the men’s support race, Bathurst Cycling Club’s (BCC) Angus Tobin (NSWIS Team 1) placed sixth behind Chris Steffanoni for his second top-10 stage finish.
It put him in equal eighth on the general classification but fellow BCC member Craig Hutton, who had been in equal seventh at the start of the day, dropped out of the top 10.
The final stage was concluded late yesterday afternoon.
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