Santos Tour Down Under (World Tour)
The first World Tour race of the season started with a bang as the recently crowned Australian National Champion, Simon Gerrans (Orica GreenEDGE) took the win and the race lead on home soil. The stage began in a predictable manner, with the two wild card teams getting a rider into a break, they were Will Clarke of Drapac Professional Cycling and Neil van der Ploeg of the Avanti Racing Team but here representing the UniSA-Australia team. Behind the break Team Sky controlled the pace for much of the day, as is their wont though there was no real reason for them to do so. The only flurries of activity came at the two intermediate sprint points where 3rd place and a one second time bonification were up for grabs, Simon Geschke (Giant-Shimano) took the first while Gerrans nabbed the second. The two leaders were caught before the race reached Menglers Hill and the peloton then hit the hill with speed, with Sky and then Garmin-Sharp setting a strong pace throughout, many riders were dropped as a result, including most of the sprinters. Towards the top a few riders tried to attack to take the KoM points, but they would go to Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) who had been brought to the front by Andre Greipel, Hansen then continued his attack on the descent down to the finish, but was brought back. Further attacks ensued but they were all back together when the race reached the ramp up to the finish line. Andre Greipel, who had surprisingly stayed in the front group, launched his sprint first but victory went to Gerrans who had taken Greipel’s wheel and beat him to the line. Gerrans wouldn’t normally be able to out sprint a rider like Greipel, but the tough run-in and a difficult uphill drag of a sprint gave him the chance, a chance that he took superbly.
Stage two followed a similar pattern as Will Clarke, Boy Van Poppel (Trek) and Campbell Flakemore (UniSA-Australia, though really from Avanti Racing) got themselves into the break. Clarke was seemingly chasing the KoM Jersey as he picked up maximum points and now sits level with Adam Hansen in the competition. The peloton were largely led by Orica GreenEDGE as they sought to protect the race leader Simon Gerrans, however they did receive some assistance from the Lotto Belisol team. The stage finished with two laps of a lumpy circuit around Stirling, and as the peloton swept up the break several riders tried to launch attacks, though none managed to stay clear for long. Numerous teams hit the front at pace in the run-in but it was Orica who were in charge in the final 500 metres with Daryl Impey leading out Simon Gerrans, that finishing stretch featured a couple of short but steep ramps to make it difficult for the sprinters. Gerrans was keeping an eye on Cadel Evans (BMC) to his right, and had another fast finisher to his left in Francesco Gavazzi (Astana), but he never saw the dangerous Diego Ulissi lurking behind him. Ulissi launched himself as soon as Impey pulled over, using the short ramp to get the most out of his explosive climbing skills and jumping clear of the others. It was a fine win for the Italian climber and the time bonification puts him 2nd in the GC and very much in contention.
Tour de San Luis (2.1)
The opening stage did not go at all to plan, the small teams, extreme heat and a stomach bug which has been making its way through the teams, all combined to create an opportunity for a break to succeed. Early in the race the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team found themselves with sole charge of controlling the peloton and trying to keep the five man break in check. It was tough for OPQS, but no others teams were willing to help bring Mark Cavendish to the finish since they lacked any confidence in their ability to beat him once there. When Alessandro Petacchi had to withdraw through illness, the OPQS team was reduced to five riders and simply stopped chasing, waiting until other teams came forward to assist with the chase, that took some time to happen and allowed the break to establish too much of an advantage. An unfortunate crash reduced the lead group to two, and Phillip Gaimon of Garmin-Sharp was able to break away from Emiliano Contreras in the run-in, winning his first race as a professional cyclist and taking a very healthy 4:35 advantage over the prerace favourites.
The second stage featured the first of three summit finishes in the race, the Mirador de Potrero de los Funes. This time the peloton refused to let the race slip from their grasp as Garmin-Sharp kept the breakaway under control to defend Gaimon’s lead. As a result the final members of the break were swept up before the climb, and the GC contenders could have their first skirmish, a skirmish which would be won by Julian Arredondo of Trek Factory Racing, who beat Peter Stetina (BMC) to the line to claim the first win for the new team. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) showed he was getting over his stomach problems by finishing 3rd, just ahead of John Darwin Atapuma (BMC). However none of them were able to make much of a dent into Phil Gaimon’s lead as he finished 15th, just 19 seconds down on Arredondo. I confess that I don’t know a huge amount about him, but I had seen that he had some good performances on stages full of climbing, such as coming 4th in the Monster of the Gila stage of the Tour of the Gila, so his advantage looks very healthy. One person who knows a lot more about Gaimon is Neal Rogers of Velonews and this is what he had to say about Gaimon yesterday.
The race has proven quite difficult to follow online, coverage mainly coming from some camera’s placed along the route, and tweets from teams who get information from the race. Follow @katushacycling and in Follow @Lotto_Belisol particular have proven to be very helpful with their tweeting of the latest news during the race.
2014 rider watch focus
While I have cover Ulissi’s success here, he isn’t the only member of my watch list in action in Australia. Both Matthew Goss (Orica) and Jens Voigt (Trek) have been stretching their legs as well, though that does appear to be the height of their personal ambitions thus far. Goss has been doing some work protecting Simon Gerrans and his Ochre Jersey, while Voigt’s most noticeable effort came in the People’s Choice Classic, prior to the race proper, where he closed down an early attack by an FDJ rider, shortly after frightening Richie Porte.
GCN have included Jens Voigt in their rider diaries for the Tour Down Under, you can see the first instalment below.
Meanwhile in Argentina Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol), Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Moreno Moser (Cannondale)are all getting their season underway and using the race to get some racing in their legs. Van den Broeck was 22nd on the first mountain top finish, a respectable performance for a rider who hasn’t raced in over six months, while Moser hasn’t shown anything so far. Phinney’s 14th place finish on the opening stage, the 7th finisher from the main peloton, shows he is here with some decent form, we will learn just how decent that form is during the ITT on Friday. It does make sense that Phinney will be a little ahead of the fitness curve as he has his mind on some early season targets, including the spring classics as you can see in this interview http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/01/news/after-an-illness-phinney-eyeing-tt-win-in-argentina_314207
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The Week in Cycling 