Chris Sutton started the season in winning style by successfully defending his overall title at the NSW Criterium GP Series.
Hunt helps CJ to victory in Wollongong
Chris Sutton started the season in winning style by successfully defending his overall title in the NSW Criterium Grand Prix Series.
The Team Sky sprinter powered to victory in the first race in Wollongong on Saturday and was then a close-up second to Michael Matthews in the second event in Cronulla 24 hours later.
Matthews had been planning to lead out his Rabobank team-mate Graeme Brown but kept on strongly to just land the spoils from a fast-finishing Sutton whose runner-up spot gave him back-to-back overall honours.
A day earlier Sutton had been the clear-cut winner in Wollongong following some excellent work from team-mate Jeremy Hunt.
Hunt kept the pace high in the closing stages, leading the field into the last lap before Sutton kicked off the final bend to land the spoils from Brown and Ben Kersten (Jayco-2XU).
Perfect start
Speaking afterwards, Sutton said on www.dailymotion.com: "I had a really easy ride. I had Jeremy there who was looking after me a fair bit so I hardly had to hit the wind and it worked out perfect.
"I just had the perfect sit and Graeme Brown couldn't come off the wheel. It was a tailwind downhill sprint so it's going to be pretty hard to pass people when they hit the front with 100 metres to go.
"It's a good way to start the season and I'm pretty honoured to win in front of all these classy bike riders."
Sutton will now take part in the Jayco Series in Geelong at the start of the season followed by the Australian National Road Race Championship.
His first race of 2012 for Team Sky will be the Tour Down Under in Adelaide in mid-January.
Check back here next week for an in-depth interview with CJ as we look back at some of his highlights from 2011 and ahead to the new season.
