Former Australian champion to add experience to fledgling outfit
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Has anyone seen my leprechaun? Peter McDonald is captured post-stage(Image credit: Cody Stevenson & friends)
2009 champion Peter McDonald (Drapac Porsche) remained with the peloton chasing the lead group.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
2009 Australian Open Road Race champion Peter McDonald, will join the Australian continental team Plan B Racing next season. The 33-year-old will restart his cycling career after a brief forced retirement in the wake of the Pegasus project's collapse late last year.
Team manager Wayne Evans was pleased to add a rider of McDonald's quality to the team, citing his experience as crucial to helping the team's younger riders to develop.
"I am very pleased to announce that Peter McDonald will be a member of the Plan B Racing Team for 2012," said Evans. "Peter brings with him a tremendous amount of experience after having been one of Australia’s leading riders and having ridden professionally and semi professionally for 6 years in Europe, Australia and Asia."
McDonald was pleased to be given a chance to race again after nearly a year without elite level competition.
"I'm returning for my own enjoyment," McDonald explained to Cyclingnews. "I'm based in WA and wanted to do a few races and so it was a pretty natual path to follow. I had contacted Drapac about the possibility of returning with them, but in the end it transpired that by the time I'd made a concrete decision they already had a full roster for next season.
"I'm just really looking forward to returning to some racing."
McDonald also watered down suggestions that he would be looking to return to the same level that saw him take out the national championships in 2009 against a number of seasoned professionals.
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"It takes a lot of work to be up there, like I was in '09. That year I had to really be full time on the bike up until the road race to get the result that I got. I just don't have the time anymore. I'm trying to return to teaching, so riding a few races, in Asia and within Australia is an ideal situation for me."
McDonald has previously ridden for Drapac Professional cycling team and the FRF-NSWIS. He is a former winner of the Tour of the Murray River, the Tour of Wellington, and has taken stages in the Tour of Taiwan and the Tour of Hokkaido on the UCI Asia Tour. In 2009 McDonald was also crowned UCI Oceania Tour champion.
