John Leiswyn's Sun Tour diary
The Local East Coast Australian Time is
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John Leiswyn's Sun Tour diaryThe Local East Coast Australian Time is |
Vichealth Herald Sun Tour, Australia October 14-24Team Australia Post Race Summary: 10 days, 15 stages, 1300 kilometers total, throughout Victoria $104,000 prizemoney : split amongst top 10 teams, best sprinter, best climber, best Australian, most aggressive rider, prizes along the road, top 10 in each stage, and top 50 overall (lowest cumulative time). There's a jersey for the leader in each category and the yellow jersey for the overall race leader. 75 riders, 15 teams, 5 riders per team, 13 countries Team Australia Post consists of : Riders Eric Wohlberg, 34, Canada, Commonwealth Games gold medalist for the
time trial Staff Lenny Hammond, Manager Stage 1: Thursday October 14, 1999 Beautiful warm weather finally. Today started off hard : everyone charged up the spectator lined start-finish uphill straightaway with pent up energy. Eric carried the torch early for the team, placing himself in several breaks before Tony took over and won a few lap prizes (called primes). At 10 laps to go I got in the action and went on a solo attack for 3 laps, earning a few more dollars for the team while setting the stage for Eric's brave solo bid for victory. As soon as I was caught by the group, Eric launched a fast attack on the hill and immediately opened the biggest lead of the day, about 15 seconds. Tony monitored the front of the bunch and tried to place himself so as to negate chase efforts, while I could only hang onto the wheel in front of me halfway back in the group. Peter Rogers (Hamilton) began a "bridging" attempt at 5 laps to go, getting a quick 7 seconds ahead of the field and closing slowly on a tiring Eric. At less than one lap to go Eric was caught and passed by eventual winner Peter, while hanging on to second place ahead of the hard charging bunch. Tony rolled in for a respectable 8th place. Everyone finished, and I saw no crashes either. Eric won the most sprints to take the sprint ace jersey, the most aggressive rider jersey, and by virtue of time bonuses earned in the sprints he took the overall lead by 4 seconds over Rogers. He obviously can't wear all 3 jerseys tomorrow, so he'll wear the most important : yellow. It is very early for a full-on defense by our team so we'll be playing it cool tomorrow. We'd rather have one of us in yellow at the finish ! Our young Australian teammates Ben and David felt today's race wasn't as physically challenging as they'd been led to believe. Where they found difficulty was in the amount of contact: elbows to elbows, bar to bar: guys cutting each other off in the corners. They'll be all right when we get out on the open road, I'm sure. Stage 2: Friday October 15, 1999 morning The skies opened this morning at 6 am and it poured until 10:30, but the sun came out strong and dried the 800-meter criterium course for us. Although the rain stopped, Mother Nature threw us gusty 60kph winds to make things interesting. It was every man for himself in these conditions, and early on I was moving up in the inside of the 2nd turn and didn't make enough room on the course for Arvis Piziks (Team Jack & Jones). I looked back, an impending sense of doom foretelling what was to happen. In the space of two seconds Arvis was off balance, wheels scraping against the curb, and then I cringed as he fell heavily on the gravel median. Nothing to do but keep racing, but I'd be apologizing later. It would turn out he wasn't to finish the stage and went to the hospital, and my apology felt empty to me. Friends in the bunch told me that's racing and to get over it, but I still felt bad. Anyway, back to the race: I got myself into the early breakaway of four riders. In defense of tour leader Eric Wohlberg I made sure not to assist the efforts of the other three. I also worried about my breakaway mates- they kept winning the primes from me and I was having a hard time keeping my front aerodynamic wheel planted to the pavement in the wind gusts. At five laps to go the field was breathing down our backs and teammate Tony Cruz joined us along with about 10 others. A Jack & Jones team rider would win the sprint with Tony 4th and myself just outside the moneyed placings. Eric was now out of the jersey while I moved into 2nd with my sprint time bonuses. Stage 3: Friday October 15, 1999 afternoon The wind would split the bunch, I was sure. All of us stayed close to the front. Glenn Mitchell of New Zealand won the first mountain prime handily, and the bunch began to split shortly thereafter. Eric was initially the only Post rider to make the first group, but Tony and I groveled our way to the lead group on a series of difficult hills. Team Jack & Jones was driving the pace hard and the front bunch numbered about 25. We had a huge lead of about 45 seconds when my rear tire blew with a sharp crack. Looking back, I could see I was in trouble because the race officials hadn't allowed any spares cars up to our group. I gritted my teeth and gave it everything to stay with the group, rear wheel grinding on the pavement. After a kilometer of this, I let my frustration overtake my cool and found myself losing contact with the back of the lead group, which at this point was doing in excess of 65 kph. The media motorbikes were of no use, they couldn't even call the officials on my behalf, and for the next five minutes I was in no man's land between the first and second groups. I didn't get a wheel change until after the second group had left me behind, and it took a hard 5-km chase to make it back to the second group. It quickly became apparent to the strongmen of the second group that chasing was futile and we dropped over seven minutes on the leaders by the finish. My overall race hopes were now dashed, and we lost the teams competition race lead which is calculated on the top 3 riders every day (at least 6 teams had three men in the lead bunch). As we pedaled in to the finish, Robbie Ventura (USA, Tatterstalls) and I had a small bet on who the winner would be. He picked my teammate Tony, and as much as I hoped Tony could do it, I picked Robbie McEwen of Australia. I was disappointed to learn I'd won our wager: Tony did finish top ten while teammate Eric Wohlberg flatted a tire in the final kilometer. Race rules provide for same time finish if you flat within 1 km of the finish, which was good. Ben Day (Queensland, Post) finished with me while another flat tire around the same time as mine cost David Pell (Bendigo, Post) more than 14 minutes on the day. We'll have to work hard now to pull our team standing up again, but we're more than up to the task, and I'm FIRED UP. The rest of the bunch better watch out, I'm coming out swinging tomorrow!! Stage 4: Saturday, October 16, 1999 morning stage Sunshine again. We are getting really lucky! We figured with the relative lack of wind that an early break might be successful, but apparently so did everyone else. Despite our best efforts at attacking, no break gained more than 30 seconds before the escapees ran out of steam and returned to the bunch on their own. I know our average was over 50kph even with a string of tough hills. At about 20 km to go, our own Tony Cruz got in a ten-man breakaway that nearly got out of sight. The race leader missed the break and his team, Home Jack & Jones, set hard tempo at the front of the bunch trying to get back into contention. Meanwhile Tony pulled through at 80% effort, trying to save something for the final climb before Lorne. One of the leader's teammates, Michael Blaudzun, had made the break and took fiercely strong turns at the front, at complete odds to his four teammates trying their best to bring the break back. At the top of the climb, the ten splintered into three groups. While the first two got back together and finished 21 secs ahead of the bunch, Tony and an Australian rider were dropped and caught 1500 meters to go. Blaudzun finished 5th, last in the break - not good for them. Notes: the way to Lorne was incredibly beautiful, especially the ribbon of pavement down to sea level 10 km before town. Team Tatterstalls has been decimated by stomach flu, their top riders struggling to finish each day. Australia Post rider Ben Day (QLD) is finding his form, looking better with every stage. Overall leader: Konecny Stage 5: Saturday, October 16, 1999 afternoon
stage After a 2-hour lunch break that I used to bike up the climb on a reconnaissance mission, we assembled for the afternoon stage. Not 900 meters into the stage we were directed straight up a 10km climb. At 5km there was a sprint that shattered the bunch into 44 riders ahead, 30 behind. On the descent the lagging group caught the tail end of the caravan (where was the caravan when I flatted yesterday?) and between our slow pace ahead and the draft of the cars the bunch was soon together again. This stage saw Team Australia Post aggressive as ever, trying our best to get something going. Another blistering average speed produced fast action, but nothing got away until 18 km to go (again). This time we missed the five man break altogether. In the waning kilometers Team Aust Post took over the pacesetting trying to reel in the break and set up a bunch sprint for Tony. It wasn't to be as we came into town 50 seconds in arrears and 37 seconds down after a 2-kilometer final circuit to the finish. Overall leader : Heirewegh 45 sec ahead of Konecny Stage 6: Sunday, October 17, 1999 Another beautiful day: sunshine and warmth greeted us. I'm starting to wonder when the peloton (riders) will tire: it was another fast race after a slow warm up for the first 17kms. The first attacker ? Brendan Vesty of NZ again. He stayed away solo for about 15 kms and picked up the first 3 primes before he was caught by the bunch and spat out the back (he couldn't keep up after his effort). This guy is known as a climber but should get the most aggressive award. He's always attacking the bunch even when a team has a 45kph tempo going. That move is known as unproductive but he tries it anyway. Today's race has 11 sprints and 7 category 3 (relatively easy, 4-5% grade over 1-4 kms) hill climbs. On the second climb Robbie McEwen jumped away with Ciaran Power (IRE) and Blaudzun (DEN, Home Jack & Jones). They got out of sight but not out of mind as various chase groups formed over the undulating terrain and narrow country lanes. I got into a four man chase group containing a couple danger men, especially Pozzi (ITA, last year's winner and within a minute of Eric). I took my turns but went at 80% so as to make the other teams chase us without ensuring the success of this less than optimal breakaway. Media and team cars were passing us 2 wheels on the pavement and 2 wheels in the dirt, kicking up clouds of dust in our faces and making breathing difficult. As we turned onto a highway our break lost momentum and we were caught. Everyone was trying to catch a breath when Eric made his big move. He bridged up to the three leaders, who were holding a minute lead on us. Pozzi went nuts chasing after them, and the peloton looked like it had hit a land mine (to use Robbie Ventura's description). We were split into groups of 10 all over the road, everyone chasing each other. He finally admitted defeat. The best efforts of the Belgians over the last 20 kms could only bring us within 1:12 of the leaders by the finish. Eric finished second to Robbie McEwen and moved up to third overall. For Australia Post in the teams classification we jumped up from 8th to 5th. After the race we had to hang around the lake in Ballarat for Channel 7 News, who wanted to use the team (doing post-race things) as a backdrop for the sports news at 6 pm. I went for a long 100 meter nature walk while waiting, and fed the swans in the lake and the terns in the wetlands. Our staff did a wonderful job keeping us warm and then preparing a barbeque feast for us that night. Stage 7: Monday, October 18, 1999 The rain held off but the temperature dropped to 16 C and the winds kicked up. Today was the first day we rode "piano" slow for 80 kms, the only accelerations coming when the Czechs (TyrePower) would slam us all for the primes. I tried a few times to light things up, and got in a couple short lived breakaways. Each time I got away I'd look back and see the peloton split into pieces chasing in the strong crosswinds. After a 45 minute lunch break during which we rode 25 kph max, a Czech got away solo. Soon thereafter David got away with Brendan Vesty. The gaps were 4 minutes to the Czech and 2:30 to David/Brendan when Home Jack & Jones dropped the hammer on us. I was 8th in line, riding right on the edge of the road for 3 minutes, max heart rate, 55 kph, hoping the guy in front of me wouldn't detonate and open a gap. The Danes left only enough room on the road for themselves to get a draft and the entire bunch was riding single file behind them, no one getting any shelter from the wind. In Europe a 2nd and 3rd echelon would instantly form and keep pace, but not here. Eric made it up to me and slotted in as the Danes began to move left and allow more riders into the echelon. Pozzi and Tony were dangling around 25th in line as McEwen yelled to move left. Pozzi made the same mistake I made last year, moving left in hopes of starting a second echelon, but no one joined him and he roasted himself in the wind and got dropped. McEwen was the last rider to make the selection in a huge sprint onto the back of the echelon. We had 18 riders and we rolled it hard. Whenever it looked like more than one rider was shirking their turns at the front, someone would put us all back "in the gutter" (on the edge of the road). It wouldn't take long before everyone would clamor "LEFT, LEFT" and take their turns at the front again. Within 5 minutes we'd caught David and Brendan Vesty. Brendan made it, but David was blown out the back of the group during one of the gutter jams. This was bad for us on team classification, which is calculated on the times of the top three riders from each team. Only the Danes (Home Jack & Jones) had three in the group and if we could have kept David with us we'd have moved up to second on teams. At 60 kms to go my left knee went from a dull ache to a full blown screaming knife-like pain whenever I put real pressure into the pedals. I would hang on to the finish, trying to spin easier gears and stretching my left hamstring on every down slope in the road. Our group finished about 20 minutes ahead of the bunch. Two riders escaped at 11 km to go and we chased them all the way to the line, finishing about 15 sec down. Whew, what a hard day. I'm icing my knee, taking ibuprofen, and hoping that it'll allow me to race tomorrow. Notes: I'm really glad my friend Robbie "The Plumber" or "RV" Ventura (USA, Tatterstalls) is in the race. He keeps me laughing so hard during the relaxed pace sections with his nicknames for everyone in the peloton. His team is down to 3, with Canadian Mat Anand flying home today (stomach ailment) and Aussie Robert Tighello breaking a collarbone in a crash yesterday. Stage 8 Tuesday October 19, 1999 morning Overnight leader Robbie McEwen of Tour de France fame lost the jersey this morning after the peloton blew to pieces on the final category 2 (pretty hard) climb of 6 kms. The stage was animated early by multiple jam sessions in the crosswinds. Tony and I made a massive effort to bring the second group we were in up to the leaders, and as soon as we did the bunch put on the brakes for a bit of rest. The peloton regrouped over the next 20 minutes until nearly everyone was back in contact, and Adam Sbeih (USA, Tatterstalls) jumped away in a brave effort with 60 kms remaining. He was 56sec clear on the summit of the climb and bombed the descent so fast that he dropped all the cars and motorbikes, and entered the final km with his win assured. As he is 2nd to last on the overall, he was unconcerned about time and coasted to the finish with 18 seconds over the next group of 10 (which included Eric and all the contenders except McEwen). I finished in the 3rd group 1:30 down, with Ben in the 2nd and Tony in the 4th groups. Eric sprinted in for 5th on the stage. My knee was dodgey the whole time, only feeling ok when I pedaled standing up. The weather didn't hold for us, as we battled cold, rain, and stiff crosswinds the whole morning. Stage 9 Tuesday October 19, 1999 afternoon After an hour lunch break we were back at it again, and the "suicide King" (Robbie Ventura's nickname) Brendan Vesty (NZ) attacked straight away with Glen Mitchell (NZ) and 4 others. One of them was a threat to Eric's overall position, so I went to the front and took a few hard turns to help bring them back. The offending highly placed rider up there realized his presence in the break was the deathknell, and as he had a teammate also up there, he dropped back to us. Too late: we already had all pistons firing in the chase effort and we were soon back together. The crosswinds were fierce, and we used the whole road in two giant echelons so close together that from above you wouldn't have been able to distinguish the two rotating groups of riders. At 20 kms to go a few feisty riders attacked the echelons and pulled away. Unfortunately none of us Post riders were near enough to the front to go with it, and over the next two Category 3 climbs to the finish we could see the break but didn't ever get close to them. Rain showers and biting winds made it all so much fun. New overall race leader is Blaudzun (DEN, Home Jack & Jones) while Eric is still in the hunt just 30 seconds down & in 3rd place. I'm hoping my knee will come around so I can help him defend his position until the time trial, where he has the ability to smoke everyone and take the lead. Stage 10: Wednesday October 20 32 laps, 15 sprints (every other lap !) flat course with winding backstretch through the trees It was a good 3 hour drive to get to Shepparton. After clambering out of the vehicles our legs were stiff as boards and my bad knee didn't want to bend. I limped around feeling sorry for myself until I realized how awesome my job is, and how lucky I am to be from a 1st world country visiting another 1st world country. My stiff knee and head cold didn't seem so important after I put myself back in perspective. We had arrived a scant 40 minutes before the stage started as many other teams had, so everyone was happy to start the race with a bit of warming up at a leisurely 45kph pace. In '98 I had escaped the bunch in a 8 man break with 10 laps to go and been caught less than a kilometer from the finish, so I expected much the same this year. This course is just too easy for a team who has missed the break to chase on, and when our field sprinter Tony Cruz made the break at 10 laps to go several teams tried to bring it back. Eric and I went past the point of casual interference and got ourselves thoroughly in the way of Echuca & Moama, the Kiwis, and the Czechs. All of the above had missed the 4 man break. Jan Hruska (CZ) set a fastest lap record and pretty much shut down the break with 2 laps to go, and Eric and I watched helplessly as Tony was caught 500m from the line. He still sprinted to a top 10 finish. Notes: An Echuca & Moama rider, top Australian Peter Milostic, crashed hard into a tree about 4 laps to go. He went to the hospital with another rider also involved in the wreck. No broken bones, luckily, but both riders were out of the tour. Down to 66 riders now. Stage 11: Thursday October 21 Along with the Stage 13 time trial, this was supposed to be the big one as far as the overall classification. For Team Australia Post, it was DISASTER. Eric says it's because Post liason Ms. Maya didn't show up to cheer us on. I don't know why, but Murphy's Law was proven today BIG TIME. Early on, I felt pretty good and I was optimistic about the 20km climb to the finish at Lake Mountain. As the only mountain climb in this tour rated at Category 1 (categories are hors categorie, 1, 2, 3. The latter is easiest) we knew it would be a real test for Eric, who was still in a awesome overall position to win the whole enchilada with his time trialing prowess. We started the stage with 10 laps in Nagambie, sprint every other lap. 4 riders were pulling away from us at lap 5 when I rode alongside Tony and recommended we put into action our pre-race plan. On lap 8 as the break was nearly out of sight I went to the front with Tony tucked in my slipstream and made a huge sacrificial effort at 55kph. When I looked back a lap later, he and I were clear of the bunch and halfway to the break. I pulled off and sat up, spent of energy, and Tony completed the bridging effort before the 10th lap. I returned to the main pack. Two more riders got across as we left town, and the seven men were to stay away until the base of Lake Mountain. Home Jack & Jones employed (literally) the out of contention Southern Grampians (Die Continentale from Germany, riders are Australian though) to pull all day long at the front and keep the break from gaining more than 3 minutes. A waste of energy, in my opinion, as the highest placed rider in the break was Robbie McEwen at 9 minutes down on the overall. We had covered just 80kms when the first problem occurred. Eric faded back through the peloton with a broken stem bolt, handlebars swinging loosely. Ben and David dropped off the back with Eric and the three stopped. David gave Eric his bike, which took about 10 minutes as the pedals had to be switched over and the seat height reset. I wasn't to know what was happening except by the reports on race radio, relayed to me by the team managers leaning out their windows in the 40 car long caravan following the race. Encouraged by multiple reports that Eric was riding again (2 minutes after he stopped) I dropped out of the draft of the caravan to wait and help him chase back on. After riding slowly at 20kph for 5 minutes in a mounting panic, I stopped for to take a leak. After 15 minutes I caught up to a stopped neutral spares car and talked, having by now given up all hope of ever rejoining the main bunch. I knew the four of us would be riding in by ourselves, probably to finish an hour down on the hard charging peloton. While leaning on the driver's window, I heard the sound of an engine at high speed and looked over my shoulder to see Lenny blast by at 100kph with Eric spinning his ass off in the slipstream, millimeters off the rear bumper. I sprinted up to 50kph and tried to get the draft of a following Channel 7 TV news motorbike, but I couldn't get going fast enough and had to settle back into a solo rhythm, now thinking about how useless it was for me to have dropped out of the safety of the peloton to wait for a time consuming problem like a bike change. I thought maybe Ben and David would catch me and the three of us would ride in together. At least Eric would get back in the race, saving our individual overall class position if not the teams classification (which requires three riders to finish well each day to stay in contention). But I would end up doing my own 100kph motorpace back to the caravan behind the race organizer's 4wd truck. To any of the riders who would later complain about our motorpacing: let me tell them here and now that a 100kph motorpace over hills with an impatient driver is far harder than riding the same distance in the bunch at 40kph. And we would be fined AUD $500.00 for our infraction by the officials anyway. Problem 2 came about 2kms before the bottom of Lake Mountain. Eric (again!) flatted and I stopped with him. Quick wheel change and we chased back on to the back of the bunch just as the grade pitched skyward. Wham... the peloton shattered and Eric was already maxed out from chasing. I felt good, however, and set the highest tempo I could without dropping Eric in an effort to limit our time losses. I could see a second group forming containing most of the riders placed around 10th-20th on the general classification, and it was just 200m ahead of us. Eric's labored breathing reminded me of how I rode at Tour of the Gila in New Mexico earlier this year. Roles reversed, he constantly grunted my first name to indicate when I was going too fast. After 10 minutes of hard work, we had latched onto the back of the 2nd group and the road was beginning to level out from 6% to about 3%. Now for Problem 3. Riding an unfamiliar bike with different handling characteristics, Eric crashed when a rider cut in front of him. This time I didn't stop with him. Call it frustration, but I also thought that if I stayed near the front of the 2nd group I could control the pace and make it easier for him to catch back up. This happened, and a few minutes later a bruised Eric was back with us. In no mood and condition to go harder, he declined my offer to drive up the pace of the 2nd group in the remaining 10kms to try and get some time back on the 1st group. At 1km to go, we caught sight of (but never passed) Tony, who was the last member of the original breakaway to be caught by the leaders. He had been passed by the eventual winners at 6km to go, and would end up 3 minutes down in 9th, while we were 3:20 down in 10th-18th. Ben and David? They would come in last, over 75 minutes later. The only result we could be happy with was as a team, because no other team had more than 2 riders in the top 20 except us. We would move up to 3rd on Teams behind Home Jack & Jones and the Czechs. Stage 12: Friday October 22 I got in a long breakaway nearly from the word go today. There were 9 of us. My knee is feeling better and my congestion goes away when I get on the bike, so I figured if we stayed away I'd have a good shot at a stage win. The leaders team, Home Jack & Jones, gave us some rope and kept our lead around 2 minutes FOR EVER. The synergy was not good in the break, as a Czech rider was sitting on doing absolutely zilch work at the front. We kept trying to attack him, drop him off the back and make him chase back on, everything. He doggedly stayed with us and refused to work. Over a series of smaller hills 40km to go, just as our lead was dropping to around a minute over the peloton, we really started sticking it to him with 2 man attacks one after another. He couldn't chase us all, and he finally let an Irishman and Eddie Salas (AUS) get away. Next went Chris White (AUS) and then I attacked and got clear as well. I caught White and we set about chasing down the two leaders. It wasn't to be despite my hardest efforts, as we chased them all the way to the finish line. The entire time we were just 25 seconds behind. The Irishman made the classic mistake of posting his hands in victory 20m before the line and Salas threw his bike and won by a tire width. I dusted White to get 3rd, the last podium spot. Meanwhile, Eric crashed HARD in the peloton behind us and had to pick up his bloodied battered body and chase for 5km to get back into the group. Stage 13: Saturday October 23 morning Eric was 4th. He's really sore from yesterday's crash and very disappointed. Jan Hruska, Czech, was beat Eric by 30sec or so. Eric had taken over a minute out of Hruska at the World Championships in Italy last month. Tony was 13th and I took 22nd, one second faster than my Shaklee teammate Graeme Miller. We always ride the same speed in time trials. I'm in 17th overall about a minute behind Graeme, and as he's not my teammate at this race I'm going to find a minute this afternoon and move ahead of him overall. Blaudzun crushed everyone to cement his lead. Konecny (Tyrepower, Czech) will finish 2nd barring unforeseen events. Ciaran Power (Ireland) has ridden a strong tour and is in a tenous 3rd place overall. Stage 14: Saturday October 23 afternoon Wow, I'm coming around. A bit late, but coming around nonetheless. It was raining after the time trial and I ate too many cookies in the bakery waiting for the afternoon stage. Unmotivated, I sat in the car listening to the rain fall and watching the trees bending in the fierce wind outside. 5 minutes before the start I got dressed to race and lined up. There was a mountain prime, last of the tour, 4km from the start and since 2nd and 3rd placed riders in that category were tied on points it would be a hard fought prime. I wasn't even shivering as we blasted downhill out of Mirboo North at 80-90kph. Halfway up the hill, sitting in the protected top 5 riders, my body went "Nahhh" and I blew to pieces. Got dropped out the back of the peloton before the summit and started wondering if there would be a grupetto (easy group of off-the-back riders) The bunch slowed up a couple km after the climb and I went straight past on the windward side and rode up to Eric. "Is the break dangerous to you?" I asked. He said no. Right then the guy in front of me, Pozzi, accelerated to follow David Lee, one of the Kiwis. I caught the train ride up to the break and the seven of us floored it to a 45 second lead over dangerous, wet, windy, and winding descents. Over the last 20km we opened it up to 2 minutes as Team Home Jack & Jones knew there were no dangerous overall contenders in the seven of us and gave us a bit of rope. Entering Leongatha I was thinking about how to win and figured my best shot would be to sprint it out as two of the seven were from the same team, and could therefore afford the manpower to chase any solo breakaway down. I figured I'd follow the one of them whose been strongest throughout the tour, Bart Heirweigh. He's already won a stage and been tour leader earlier in the week. Sure enough, his teammate brought back all attacks until Bart himself jumped away in the sidewinds. I stayed with him and then it was just us two. He was far stronger than I. I can sprint well on uphill finishes, and I was pleased to see a hard little uphill 300m from the line as we passed under the banner for the final 2km circuit. I refused to work the last km and sat on his wheel. At 250m to go he started his sprint and I tried to draw even with him. I could get no closer than my front wheel to his rear wheel before he simply dusted me off. Damn, would have been a nice way to end the 1999 season with a win. 2nd place. At least I moved up a spot on the overall classification to 16th. Stage 15: Sunday October 24 Nervousness before the start meant I kept eating and eating and eating. Usually we stop eating 2 or 3 hours before a race (unless it is a long road race, in which case you eat all day). I was feeling overly full at the start line and had to sit back for the first 15 laps until the blood stopped going to my stomach and started getting into my legs. Then I attacked with Pozzi and we stayed 10 seconds ahead of the field for 9 laps, taking 1-2 on the sprints every other lap. Hey, it may only be $30 for 1st and $20 for 2nd each prime sprint, but it adds up after 15 stages! We were of course caught, partly because Pozzi wouldn't go fast through the first 120 degree turn and I'd have to wait for him to close a 20meter gap on me every lap. Tony and Eric were active at the front too, and Tony escaped in a good looking break near the end. It was also caught, and at 3 laps to go, just as I was considering a solo bid of my own, a Swiss rider jumped hard and took advantage of a lull in the peloton's pace to open a 10 second lead by himself. He held us all off and won by a bikelength. Tony was 4th and I was 9th. Overall General Classification: 1. Michael Blaudzun (Denmark, Home Jack & Jones) This win is worth a million $USD to their team because it got them enough UCI international pro points to get their team into the Tour de France and now they won't have to spend the million bucks on a world's top 8 rider to get their points. They've got enough points of their own. 3rd Ciaran Power, Ireland Teams Classification: Sprint and King of the Mountain categories won by Robbie McEwen, Australia I was top 6 in both categories. Full results available at the cyclingnews.com & Herald-Sun web pages. Seeya next year!
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