Aggressive riding continues to pay off
Thursday
January 21 2010
After two days of aggressive riding, Team UniSA-Australia has again proven they are among the world’s best cyclists. The team was represented on the presentation stage for the third day in a row, as they continued to ride hard and put their stamp on the race.
Team UniSA-Australia Team Manager Dave Sanders said it was another great day for the team, with Simon Clarke being awarded the Most Aggressive jersey for his efforts.
"Forty degree heat today was uncomfortable but we were always going to deal with it better than anyone else," Sanders said.
"We were in everything today, we got Most Aggressive again; it's all we can do."
The UniSA riders were among the main action today, having a go at breaking away from the peloton and chasing down leaders; pushing hard during the sprints; and continuing to be up there in the King of the Mountain.
The first sprint at McLaren Flat, 30km into the race, saw 31-year-old Peter McDonald from Team UniSA-Australia take second place.
The King of the Mountain at Wickhams Hill saw UniSA’s Tim Roe hold onto some points (after winning it during the first stage), managing fourth place.
The team continued to ride strong with Rohan Dennis and Jonathan Cantwell moving away from the peloton along with a third rider from Francaise Des Jeux, to chase down the two leaders. It was a successful chase with the peloton catching the two leaders soon after.
Long-time team member of Team UniSA, Simon Clarke, then made a break for it with Karsten Kroon from BMC Racing. South Australian Jack Bobridge (Garmin Transitions) who was a 2009 UniSA team member, also edged out and the three of them fought it out for the second sprint at Echunga at the 74km mark.
They were closely followed by Maciej Paterski (Liquigas-Doimo) and Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank), and once they caught up, the five riders held tight as the pack completed two circuits around Stirling, Mylor and Aldgate. They got the gap out to 1:25 minutes as they completed the first circuit but it quickly started getting chopped back by the peloton.
Clarke and Bobridge managed to stay together in the lead while the other three were overtaken by the peloton. Another Aussie, Matthew Lloyd from (Omega Pharma-Lotto), caught up to Clarke and Bobridge and while many spectators would’ve loved to have seen an Aussie photo finish, they were overtaken by the peloton about 17.5km from the finish.
Clarke said although he gave it a good go, he wasn’t surprised the small breakaway couldn’t hold onto the lead.
"I knew we needed a good gap to stay away and we were trying to get that but they wouldn’t give it to us," he said.
"It was a hot and hard course – it's a hard course even when it's not hot. You could see the European guys were really starting to hurt in the heat, they were starting to struggle. We had a few goes up the hill and they didn’t come and I thought maybe this was a good opportunity and we just went from there. We put our heads down and had a go.
"Tomorrow's going to hurt, but this is what we do so you get used to it, but I’ll still be hurting tomorrow."
Dave Sanders has a lot of confidence in his team.
"They’re young but they’re some of the best in the world," he said.
"All you can ask is that they put themselves in there and have a go."
Sanders expects South Aussie youngster Tim Roe to continue to perform well with some serious climbing still to come in the final stages.
"Tim’s a real climber and he's a loaded gun when you get to the real
steep ones," he said.