Team Katusha’s rider Giampaolo Caruso finished 6th in the Australian one-day race Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, which for the first time was held today in Geelong not far from Melbourne.

Caruso was one of 9 riders in the leading group, who broke away from the peloton some 10 km after passing the penultimate climb of the race. The group of nine was able to get some space and to play victory in the sprint between them.

"We had two leaders in today’s race – Alexey Tsatevich and Giampaolo Caruso. We knew that the last climbs and a small front group would decide everything. Alexey and Giampaolo had to stay in the front, to follow the attacks and to try to fight till the finish. There were a lot of attacks on the penultimate climb, both Katusha leaders were in the front, but finally, it was Giampaolo Caruso, who was able to follow others and to become part of the decisive break. In the finish Giampaolo showed a nice result. Alexey Tsatevich did a good race too, he showed himself in the bunch sprint. In general, our team did a strong race today, the guys were very active. Firstly, Vladimir Isaychev worked over 100 km in front to help others to catch the early breakaway. After that Maxim Belkov and Rudi Selig helped to control the situation. In the final part of the race Sergey Lagutin supported Tsatevich and Caruso. So, it was a really nice few weeks here in Australia, and now we are coming back to Europe to start the main part of the season, - explained sports director of Team Katusha Gennady Mikhaylov.

Finally, Gianni Meersman from Etixx – Quick Step became the race winner, outsprinting Simon Clarke from Orica-GreenEdge and Nathan Haas from Team Cannondale – Garmin. Behind them were Luke Rowe from Sky, Cadel Evans from BMC, who finished his brilliant career with this race, and Giampaolo Caruso.

The main peloton finished 9 seconds behind the leaders. Heinrich Haussler from IAM Cycling won the bunch sprint, taking 10th place, while Alexey Tsatevich was 3rd, taking 12th place in the race.