The Jonker report - The day after the crash
January 23
2009
Today’s stage from Burnside to Angaston saw a lot of the riders just taking it steady in a bid to recover from the aches and pains that were the wash up from yesterday’s spills. It has been a bit of a transition stage in the race.
For Team UniSA- Australia the loss of Baden Cooke was hard felt. Scratched and grazed from head to toe, Cooke had to pull out of the tour and it was a big loss to the team and a great personal disappointment to him.
For years there have been suggestions that the Tour Down Under was a little “soft” for the professional riders and that suggestion gained some currency when the Tour went pro last year and more than one journalist was suggesting changes.
So it is ironic that this year there are whispers from the riders that this has been the hardest tour on record. The combination of some changes to the routes, windy conditions and a highly competitive field with the added crowds in attendance seems to have combined to add a level of tension and grit to the racing. I think everyone is riding at their limits.
In amongst all of this Team UniSA riders are delivering some great performances and today Travis Meyer showed why he is fancied as one of the next big things in road racing. He spent most of the day in the breakaway group and held on to that post right till end of the race. It was impressive and classy.
But as I said yesterday the competition across some key teams and now some of the biggest names in Australian cycling is intense.
There is not much more you can do than smile when Allan Davis wins a stage of the tour. This father of two is still fresh-faced enough to pass off as someone’s teenage son and when he wins he beams. He took the stage today hotly pursued by both Graeme Brown and Stuart O’Grady who are breathing down the collar of his ochre jersey.
Once again I think Willunga will represent crunch time for the riders. Twice up Willunga Hill this year will be a real test for the sprinters so it will be exciting to see how the teams plan their strategy to protect their sprinters and carry them up to pouncing position in the final chase for the line. Yesterday we had enough excitement to last several tours – tomorrow should be exciting in new ways – strategy and determination will mean everything.
Patrick Jonker