Tour Down Under
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Stage Two - Norwood - Kapunda
A gutsy break in the early part of Stage 2 earned
Team UniSA star rider Patrick Jonker the most aggressive rider jersey on Wednesday.
In what he himself termed a 'suicide mission', Jonker broke early and maintained the lead for much of the race, which in the end was down to three riders and a couple of seconds.
He passed the finish line third in Tanunda behind Dave Mc Partland and Alain van Katwijk, but picked up a lot of admiration and valuable bonus points, winning both intermediate sprints on the 157km race from Norwood to Kapunda.
While disappointed on missing out on wearing the yellow leader's jersey in what is to be his last TDU, Jonker was confident of Team UniSA's chances for the rest of the tour.
"It's still very early days," he said. "I'll probably take it a bit more defensive rather than aggressive tomorrow, but as long as we have someone up there all the time then we've got a chance of winning the team classification."
Jonker thanked the university and public for the tremendous support
shown. "There's been great support this year - everyone is getting
behind Team UniSA, I think because we're really the closest thing to a
state team."
Team UniSA coach Michele Pimaro said with strong yet careful performances by Gene Bates, Russel van Hout and Luke Roberts, Team UniSA still had a "few cards to play."
"The fact that Patrick's in second or third place at the moment doesn't mean much because it's only a few seconds apart," he said.
"The real race will come at Willunga Hill on Saturday."
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