Joe Cooper
(Photo: Enthuse; click to enlarge) |
In a display of dominance Joe Cooper from the Subway - Avanti Pro Cycling team won all three jerseys at the Air France Tour of New Caledonia.
After taking the tour leader’s yellow jersey in Friday’s individual time trial Cooper held on to it after the final stage 78 kilometre criterium was completed.
Cooper, the tour’s defending champion, won five stages and also won the climbers and sprint classification jerseys.
Subway-Avanti team mate Nick Lovegrove did an outstanding job of looking after Cooper throughout the tour, finishing 14th, twenty eight minutes behind Cooper.
The pair worked well together to hold off the challenge of second placed Australian Lachlan Norris who was seven seconds behind Cooper leading into the final day of racing.
I’m stoked to win two in a row,” Cooper said. “I missed a key break early on but knew I had the form in the time trials and mountains to get the time back and with great support from Nick pulled it off.”
A third Subway – Avanti team mate Ryan Wills finished the tour in 28th position, 57 minutes behind Cooper’s tour winning time of 24 hours, 11 minutes and four seconds.
