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Stage 7, Bateau Bay - Gosford, 99 kmsResults and Report |
As the race approached it's halfway point, the riders faced their first real climbing test today. The notorious Bumble Hill - despite being less than 4 kilometers long, is renowned for it's steepness, and can often cause major splits in the bunch. Sometimes it comes back together like last year, but it is more usual for the gaps to remain over the final 50 kilometers. Before the start, Scott Sunderland (QANTAS One World) spoke to us about his chances on the stage and how the race was going so far. He felt that MROZ Poland and the Slovenians would probably be the major aggressors, as well as Jonathon Hall's Festina team, although they might have done a bit too much yesterday. His own QANTAS team would probably not be strong enough to support him, so he would have to play the others off against each other. He was feeling quite strong though and would certainly give it something on this stage. For his overall chances, he felt that he would need at least 30 seconds over riders like Hall coming into the final time trial to be a realistic prospect. The stage got under way with an early attack by three riders: Sunderland's teammate, Harm Jansen (Ned), Ben Litchfield (Aus, Caravello) and Brent Dawson (Aus, NSWIS) went clear after 8 km, building up a gap of some 2:30 to the base of Bumble Hill (48 km). The pace of the bunch was controlled again by Festina who were putting in some good work for Hall, although as it turned out it was probably too much, too soon. On the climb, it was Litchfield who went clear, just managing to hold off the leaders in the bunch to take the KOM. Sunderland (QANTAS), Hickson (Caravello), Hall (Festina), Rumsas (MROZ) and Stangelj (Slovenia) were amongst the front riders to catch Litchfield, and the race eventually formed into a front group of 14. The other major players in this group included van Heeswijk (Websdale), Murn (Slovenia), Piatek (MROZ), and Kam Po Wong (Sportscover). The first two on GC - Hunt and Wadecki had both missed the cut, as had the entire Bosch team. Also, all of Hall's and Sunderland's teammates had been dropped on the climb, so they were forced to work hard themselves to consolidate their gap. They managed this well and led by over 3 minutes by the end of the stage. The second climb over Mooney Mooney (89 km) was not enough to split the front group and it came down to a sprint into Gosford. Max van Heeswijk tried a bit too hard too add to his stage win haul, and led out uphill into a headwind with 500 m to go. Such was his strength, that Raimondas Rumsas only just managed to beat him by a meter or so. In third place was Scott Sunderland who picked up some valuable bonus seconds to move into sixth on GC, as well as taking over the mountains jersey from Michael Rogers. However, the new yellow jersey was Slovenia's Gorazd Stangelj who now holds the lead by just six seconds over Hickson, with van Heeswijk looking very threatening in 3rd place, a further 25 seconds down. With his sprinting and climbing strength he must be a favourite to take the tour, although Stangelj, Rumsas, Sunderland and Hall will all be hard to beat. He admitted to struggling up Bumble Hill, being some 100 m off the back of the leaders at the top although able to bridge across. Jamberoo Pass and Cambewarra Mountain will certainly test his abilities. This mornings leader, Jeremy Hunt came back to earth today, finishing with the second group. He confessed to not having the required legs to get up Bumble and is now going to concentrate on stage wins. "If you have the yellow jersey, you think you can win it [the Classic] but it's over now," he said. The riders' next test will be a 30 km criterium around the coastal town of Terrigal, and may see van Heeswijk get closer to the lead. For Complete Results
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