A spirited start
January 22 2008
The riders of the UniSA-Australia team showed they meant business today
with an outstanding ride by youngster Richie Porte and a fourth placing
in the sprint to the finish by team leader Allan Davis.
Porte was the outstanding hero of the day after leading an early
three-man breakaway, which held for more than 70km and was in with a
real chance of winning the stage had the trio managed to keep the
peloton at bay.
In a heartbreaking twist for Porte, the breakaway riders were reigned in
by the peloton about four kilometres from the finish, resulting in an
exciting sprint across the line led by Australian rider Mark Renshaw
from team Credit Agricole. To his credit, Porte held third place in each
of the two sprints at Lyndoch and Nuriootpa.
Davis praised his team mate Porte on his debut ProTour performance and
the mammoth effort that he had put in for the team.
“Richie did the job of the day for us by being in the breakaway for
most of the race. It was really great to see him in such a good
position,” Davis said.
“Only two other teams had riders in the breakaway so that meant we could
sit back and watch what happened. We pretty much controlled the race and
it was the other teams who had to work hard to peg back the breakaway.
It was a great effort by Richie.”
Porte’s role, as part of the breakaway, stretched the lead to almost
seven minutes at one stage, which gave Davis a chance to secure a good
position in the final sprint to the finish line.
Davis also acknowledged the courage and determination of team mate Karl
Menzies, who crashed about 20km from the finish line.
“It was a great effort by him to finish the race after what was a pretty
hard knock, but that just shows the kind of team we are,” Davis said.
Team Manager Dave Sanders said that the boys were out to ride
aggressively and really show what they were made of.
“By being in the breakaway lead, Richie took the responsibility for the
rest of the team, which took the pressure off the other riders. He
proved himself and I’m really proud of him. He’s certainly earned his
stripes,” Sanders said.
“It’s a great result for team UniSA-Australia and the race is still wide
open. We have riders who can win and it’s a wonderful start for our
ProTour debut in South Australia.”