Peter Kennaugh and Chris Froome finish one-two at Herald Sun Tour
Last Updated: 04/02/16 6:20am
Britain’s Peter Kennaugh moved to the top of the general classification at the Herald Sun Tour in Australia after leading home Chris Froome in a Team Sky one-two on stage one.
Both riders attacked out of the peloton on the late, category-one climb to Toolangi and then held off the chasing pack to win by 17 seconds in Healesville.
Ten, six and four bonus seconds were on offer to the first three riders over the finish line, meaning Kennaugh now leads second-placed Froome by seven seconds in the overall standings.
It was Kennaugh's second victory in five days after he won the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday.
Kennaugh said: "It's awesome. We had a strategy, we stuck to it and it worked. Obviously, the race last weekend gave me a quite a bit of confidence going into today.
"We wanted to make it hard going on to that last climb and then for Froomey to have a go. I was just to follow wheels, judge the situation and jump across if I could.
"Massive thanks to the team and especially to Froomey, as once I got across to him, I pretty much sat on his wheel the whole way up the climb. Then, once we went over, I was able to do some good turns into the finish."
The Team Sky duo will now look to consolidate their advantage on stages two and three, which both look set to end in some form of sprint, before aiming to pull further clear in the standings on stage four's race-ending summit finish on Arthurs Seat.
Kennaugh added: "The next few stages are probably sprint days and we've got a strong team.
"Obviously GreenEdge want to keep it together for Caleb Ewan, so then it should just be down to the last day, and I think that should suit me more than today."
Kennaugh's victory was Team Sky's second in two days, after Wout Poels won the opening-stage time trial at the Vuelta a la Communitat Valenciana in Spain.
Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) finished second on the 16.25km course, 15 seconds down, while world time trial champion Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) was 21 seconds back in third.
Herald Sun Tour stage one result
1 Peter Kennaugh (GB) Team Sky, 3:01:47
2 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, same time
3 Dion Smith (NZ) ONE Pro Cycling, +17sec
4 Anthony Giacoppo (Aus) Avanti IsoWhey Sport, st
5 Jack Haig (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, st
Herald Sun Tour general classification
1 Peter Kennaugh (GB) Team Sky, 3:04:16
2 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +7secs
3 Dion Smith (NZ) ONE Pro Cycling, +23
4 Robbie Hucker (Aus) Avanti IsoWhey Sport, +25
5 Joseph Cooper (NZ) Avanti IsoWhey Sport, +26
