The battle lines in the Classic were well and truly drawn between the visiting English and American camps in the racing on Monday. As the British Ampol-Caltex and US professional Motorola teams assumed the roles of race powerbrokers, the hopes of Australia for a top GC finish suddenly fell on Steve Williams of the NSW Sport and Recreation team.
At the end of the 4th and 5th stages, England's Jeremy Hunt (Ampol-Caltex) increased his lead overall from 1 second to 10 seconds from fellow countryman, John Tanner (Ampol-Caltex). In third place is Dutchman, Max Van Heeswijk at 29 seconds. However, the prospects of the 15 stage Classic becoming a battle between two sides strengthened when the two teams took 7 of the top 10 placings on GC.
Ampol-Caltex had Chris Lillywhite 4th overall at 55 seconds, while Americans Bobby Julich (5th at 57 seconds) and George Hincapie (8th at 1.05) and New Zealander Steve Swart, riding for the American Motorola team, (10th at 1.10) were playing strong supporting roles to Hunt and Tanner in the GC.
For Australia, the journey along the coast from The Entrance to Newcastle, which was short but extremely windy and wet, saw Steve Williams, aged 21, move from 28th at 0.40 to 7th at 1.04. The Sutherland rider (a suburb of Sydney) is expected to take all chances in the next stages to make his dream of an AIS road scholarship a reality.
While some consolation for Australian hopes, Williams faces very tough challenges over the next 10 stages, as the Classic enters the more hilly terrain.
In yesterday morning's 66 km 4th stage into Newcastle, it was evident that the two big teams (Ampol-Caltex and Motorola) had "dug in for a tense tactical battle. Having controlled the race since the outset, Motorola relinquished their commitment yesterday, putting the onus on Caltex to take over."
Hunt later said that he did not place a priority on the defence of the GC. He said "It is still early days. We still have 6 days to go. I thought i would have lost it today. But I wouldn't mind if I didn't have it....or at least if it went to another teammate."
Tanner implied that Caltex would force the workload back onto Motorola. He said "I think there are still a lot of guys who haven't shown their cards yet. And Motorola will have a lot to do with it. They are a European based team and I am sure they will only get stronger as the race gets on."
In cross winds that reached 70 kms per hour, Ric Reid (NZ-Sanitarium) outsprinted Hunt and Lillywhite to win the stage. The 25 year old rider from Auckland crashed 100 metres after the finish when a large wind gust blew his front wheel out while he was giving the V salute for victory. Very embarrassing.
Hunt gained an 18 sec bonus, and Lillywhite a 10 sec bonus for their efforts. "better was to come in the mostly uphill 3.6 km ITT some 1.5 hours later." Tanner, who won Stage 3 on Sunday, clocked 5.22 over the testing and windblown ITT course, at an average speed of 40.25 kms per hour.