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Davis concludes successful month with Noosa win

Oct 20, 2009
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<p>Team Astana's Allan Davis concluded a successful month with an agressive win at the Noosa Grand Prix yesterday in Australia. The win comes after he won a bronze medal at the World Championships and a gold medal at the Commonwealth road games.</p><p>
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Sprints are his speciality, but Davis took risks to ensure he would win the Noosa GP. He attacked several times and formed a three-man escape group with Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Transitions) and Mathew Hayman (Sky).</p><p>
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"People who know me know there are other things I can do rather than just sprinting and I'm starting to do it now," explained Davis</p><p>
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"In the Tour of Spain, I finished about five minutes behind mountain climbers when the mountain stages finished and that's giving me a lot of confidence."</p><p>
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Instead of waiting for the sprint, Davis attacked Bobridge and Hayman in the final lap and won by three seconds.</p><p>
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"He was just way too strong for me today," Bobridge added. "When Allan hit me I had nothing left."</p><p>
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"Being older," Davis continued, "I think I will probably race more like that because I can do more things than just sprint."</p><p>
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Davis was one of Australia's three captains at the World Championships with Cadel Evans and Matt Goss. Evans defended his title with elegance, attacking multiple times to ensure only the strongest would survive to contest the sprint. Davis was one of those.</p><p>
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"Cadel and I were covered throughout the whole race. Our team-mates were blocking the wind through all the little, but yet crucial moments that the fans don't even realise. I was keeping an eye on Oscar Freire, who was riding the same type as race as me. Also Thor Hushovd and Tyler Farrar, those fast guys who make it to the finish of big one-day classics."</p><p>
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Hushovd won the race, but Davis placed third and gained the confidence to win the Commonwealth games a week later in Delhi and for the season ahead. He will remain in Australia to enjoy the southern hemisphere's summer and to train for his first official race of next season, the Tour Down Under.</p><p>
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"When you have a good break things creep up on you. I will have to keep an eye on that because this year I'm looking to start my season better."</p><p>
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In 2009, he won three stages and the overall classification, but German André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) was the best this year.</p><p>
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"That's my next goal," said Davis, "even though Greipel is pretty hard to beat."</p>

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