It was a case of third time lucky for Ethan Vernon in the Tour Down Under sprints. After two attempts that didn’t go to plan, a change in race route on stage 4 presented another opportunity for the sprinters and Vernon grabbed it with both hands to score an emphatic win in Willunga.
Vernon was determined to put his name to NSN Cycling Team’s first victory of the season and after coming close in the prologue, where he missed the win by half a second, the 25-year-old Brit timed his uphill sprint to perfection to win by a clear margin while teammate Brady Gilmore followed closely behind in fourth place.
“I really wanted to win out here,” said Vernon. “I wanted to start the season strong. We’ve got a new setup with the team, and to be the first rider to win in this jersey is really special. We’ve got some new sponsors, and I wanted to do those guys proud.
“I think when you win in Australia, it builds momentum for the whole team. Most of our guys are on training camp now, but winning here helps build momentum for them too. Hopefully they start the season in Europe strong as well.”
While the stage didn’t start well for the team with Jake Stewart crashing out and sustaining a left collarbone fracture and Corbin Strong abandoning following his crash on stage 1, Vernon turned the team’s fortunes around after Willunga Hill was removed from the race due to extreme heat and fire risk.
“Today’s stage was meant to be for our climbers, George and Nick, but last night it got changed, so we had to re-adapt our plan,” Vernon explained. “Then we lost Corbin and Jake, who are part of the lead-out, early in the stage. So again, we had to change things on the fly. We had quite a few changes today, but in the end it showed that we can communicate well and adapt to situations that are thrown at us. We came away with the win, and by quite a margin as well.
“Clarkey, George, and Schultzie lined it up perfectly over the last 10 kilometers and kept me out of trouble, which really saved my legs for the finish. Then Brady and Clarkey positioned me really well in the final kilometer. I knew I had good speed and went with about 250 meters to go. It was a long uphill sprint, but I could tell I had good legs and knew I wouldn’t fade.”
Vernon’s win wasn’t just his first win of the season but the first for NSN Cycling Team and an important one to set the tone this season said Sports Director Sam Bewley.
“Today is really meaningful in a number of reasons,” added Bewley. “Obviously, it was a surprise at six o’clock last night when we found out we were going to get the chance to have a sprint. The guys have been working really hard and committing to Ethan in the last couple of sprint stages, but didn’t quite execute. So it kind of felt like fate that we got another chance to do that today.
“So for Ethan, I know it’s going to mean a lot to win today, especially because we lost Corbin after he got hurt on stage one, so we stopped him today early in the stage. And then, of course, Jake today crashing and pulling out of the race with some injuries. So it’s nice for Ethan to be able to repay his teammates for what they’ve done, not just today, but over the last couple of days.”
