The McDonalds Women’s Invitation Criterium was staged at Toowoomba this morning and was won convincingly by the current Women ‘s National Road Series leader, Ruth Corset from Pensar SPM Racing.

Emily Roper (Suzuki Bontrager) was second in the event ahead of Kendal Hodges (Jayco Apollo).

Ruth was part of a four rider group that broke away early in the race, and dominated the 30 minutes and three laps event.

“I drove around the course with my parents yesterday and they said there was a hill in it which surprised me, and I said, “What hill?”, but I have to admit the long climb up Margaret Street into a head-wind was certainly a challenge. It ended up being quite a tough course.”

“I attacked early on the downhill, which I don’t normally do, and I looked back and saw they were pretty strung out, so I thought I may as well keep this going.”

Ruth was extremely happy that John Osborne and the Tour of Toowoomba committee had decided to include an Elite Women’s race on the last day. It’s great to be able to race on the same program as the NRS men, and I really hope it gets bigger.”

This sentiment was expressed after the race when the FKG Tour of Toowoomba Race Director praised the support of Mark Ward representing the McDonalds Outlets, who were the major sponsors of the Women’s event.

“It’s not often you get a sponsor who is prepared to commit to a three year venture to grow an event from the grass up. Mark Ward has been a great supporter of the Tour of Toowomba, and now he is branching out into women’s cycling which is the fastest element of the sport in the world” Mr Osborne remarked.

Meanwhile Ruth and her team now head off to the Adelaide Tour in two weeks, a race she is really looking forward to.

“We have a really strong team this year, and there’s a team time trial on offer, which should suit all of us.”

The FKG Tour of Toowoomba concludes this afternoon with the running of Stage 5, the 2.4 kilometre Queen’s Park Criterium.

Nathan Earle (Huon-Genesys) has retained his lead in the FKG Tour of Toowoomba following a dominant performance by the Tasmanian based team on day three of the third round in the Subaru National Road Series.

On a double staged day, Earle was part of a decisive victory by the Huon Salmon Genesys Wealth Advisers outfit in stage three’s team time trial before finishing a respectable 15th in stage four’s road race.

Earle now holds an eight second advantage in the general classification over teammate and current Subaru National Road Series leader Jack Haig, while teammate Ben Dyball is a further 17 seconds behind in third place overall.

“I’m feeling pretty relieved,” Earle described. “It was a really hectic day and we knew it was going to be really hard. I think I have it pretty stitched up as long as everything goes to plan tomorrow,” Earle said of Sunday’s criterium finale.

Stage four’s Greenmount to Glenvale victory went to fellow Tasmanian Ben Grenda (Team Polygon) who showed his strength to win a sprint to the line on the Glenvale criterium course.

Grenda broke away from the field within the final 500 metres, holding off a fast finishing Malcolm Rudolph (Drapac) and Neil Van der Ploeg (Search2Retain).

“Coming down to the last bit on the track there was a big headwind and I thought I might have been run down,” Grenda explained. “But it was great to hold on for the win.”

“I put the boys on the front with about 20 kilometres to go. They are a young team and haven’t done that before, but they really stepped it up,” said Grenda.

In the morning’s stage, it was the time trial specialists of Huon-Genesys who clinched victory by more than a minute to Drapac Cycling and Budget Forklifts.

Huon-Genesys stopped the clock in the 27 kilometre time trial at 34 minutes 12 seconds making them the only team to post a sub 35 minute time.

Drapac Cycling finished their effort in 35min 22sec while Budget Forklifts - a man down after noted climber Michael Cupitt pulled out of the tour due to a concussion - narrowly made the podium with 35min 34sec.

Haig, 19 said the team plan was to have all six riders cross the finish together.

“The team wanted to try and finish with all the riders we had,” Haig described. “Joe and Aaron did some really big turns as well as Ben Dyball and I tried to do my bit as well, everyone was chipping in.”

The Tour of Toowoomba will conclude with a 21 lap criterium around Queens Park in the city of Toowoomba.

The 2013 FKG Tour of Toowoomba will conclude on Sunday 12 May.

The 2013 Subaru NRS will feature 17 individual events across Australia, including six combined men’s and women’s events, and a total of 77 days of racing.

For more photos from today's race, contact Mark Gunter at markgunter.com.au

·      Visit > official website for results, reviews, profiles, galleries

·      Follow > Twitter @cyclingausroad | #tot13 & #nrs13

·      Like > Facebook Cycling Australia - Road

·      Watch > Video highlights