Jack wins Stage 5 of Eneco Tour

COMMONWEALTH Games-bound Jack Bobridge earned himself a belated 21st birthday present with a stunning stage win at the Eneco Tour in Europe earlier today.

Bobridge, one of a host of Australians on the Garmin-Transitions roster, rode home solo to take the stage honours and his first race in Europe as a professional with a daring attack in the final two kilometres of the 204km run from Roermond to Sittard in The Netherlands in a time of 4hrs.45.38.

The South Australian had figured in an 11-man breakaway that attacked off the front inside the first 10 kilometres.

Ear-marked to race for gold in Dehli in the individual and team pursuit as well as the scratch race on the track, Bobridge confirmed tomorrow's final stage, an individual time trial in Genk, will be his last road race of the season before joining the track endurance squad under coach Ian McKenzie for a pre-Dehli training camp.

"This is without doubt the biggest road win of my career by far," an elated Bobrdige told The Australian.

"It is also my last race on the road before I join Cameron and Travis Meyer and head over to Switzerland to start our final preparations for the track competition in India.

"This season has been a sharp learning curve for me. I got to race the Giro d'Italia and few other major road events.

"The big bonus for all us Aussies on the Garmin team is having Matt White as sporting director in the team car for most of the races.

"Whitey came to road racing from a solid track career and knows what's required for us to be successful. He's the one that calls the shots and that has been a huge help."

Read the full article as it appeared in The Australian here

Click on the Play button to watch the final stages of Jack's stage win

More from Jack:

Jack wins Stage 5 of Eneco Tour

Excerpt from Slipstream Sports website

"The past couple of days have been pretty hard for myself on these roads. I'm a neo-pro so these roads are pretty technical and you have to have a lot of experience to ride on these roads.

Today I was pretty keen to make the break and I know that once I am in a break with that many riders and it comes close to the finish normally I can go pretty well.

There were a lot of guys trying to attack each other and I just waited for the other guys to do a bit of work. I waited for the one minute when they weren't looking at 2km to go and went to the left side of the road.

All you need is for them to hesitate for a couple of seconds. Just get that gap and they watch each other; with 2km to go you have to be pretty responsive, pretty quickly. I come off the track and I can time trial and pursuit, so 2km is perfect for me. I'm so happy to have gotten the win.

I wasn't sure what the peloton was doing today — didn't let us get more than four minutes. I thought it would have come back towards the end.

That was another goal for us today was to have me up the road because we have Svein Tuft high up on GC. If it came down to a selective group I could come back and help him, and if it came down to a sprint I can back myself with that many riders. Luckily for me it paid off and I got a win!"