Crake’s strong ride keeps us in the game
Stage 2 - 19 January 2006
by
Michele Nardelli
Team UniSA-Australia riders at the start of the of Stage 2 in Stirling |
Today Team UniSA-Australia set out with two goals – to support Gene Bates in his bid for King of the Mountain and to try to win the stage. They did not quite make it but their effort was stunning.
Temperatures on the road would have been hovering around the 40C - as we left Hahndorf after the race the tar in the bitumen on some roads was actually melting and sticky.
Tactically team manager Dave Sanders said it was imperative for there to be two UniSA riders in any breakaway group and in little forays away from the peloton early in the day, this was achieved. McLachlan, Bates and Crake were in amongst it, with Bates ending the King of the Mountain run in second place. But when the final break got away it was only Crake that made the pack of 11 riders and only one team Liberty Seguros, had two in the pack.
Ag2r Prevoyance then took charge of the peloton shutting down any further breaks from there.
In what was a day of tactics and agendas, only riders who had lost time the day before were in the breakaway while others were kept back. With no chance against the iron clad Ag2r gatekeepers there was nothing much to do but conserve energy for the business end of the tour.
Sanders was extremely happy with the team performance today.
“We would have liked to have won this stage but you are not out there alone – there are other team plans in operation as well,” he said.
“When I asked Paul to take off from the breakaway group he knew that he needed to put himself on the line and go for it – he was our only hope for a win so he had to give it all. I am extremely proud of the way he performed – to go out alone took not just a huge physical effort but an enormous mental effort. If the final kilometre of the race had been a steep hill, I think the result might have been different. In climbing mode Paul would leave the sprinters for dead.”
Sanders believes Saturday’s Willunga to Willunga race will be make or break day for the Tour.
Team UniSA-Australia is still leading the team classification by about six minutes. At stage three he will again ask the riders to be represented in any breakaway groups. The goal now it to stay on top.
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