| TDU Home |
| Races & Results |
| Live coverage |
| Startlist |
| Photos |
| News |
| Features |
| Diaries |
| Map |
| 2003 Results |
| Official Site |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
6th Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under - 2.3
Australia, January 20-25, 2004
News for January 19, 2004
FdJeux.com the team to beat
By Karen Forman in Adelaide
|
The half Australian-half French FdJeux.com team has been flagged as the team to beat in the 2004 Jacobs Creek Tour Down Under, which begins in Adelaide tomorrow night, and stage five - 147 hilly and normally searing hot kilometres from Willunga to Willunga on January 24 - has been picked as the stage that will determine the overall winner.
At a press conference introducing the event to the media today, the 2003 winner, Spaniard Mikel Astarloza (Ag2r-Prevoyance) and second placegetter in 2002, Russian Alexandre Botcharov, (Credit Agricole) named the Australians Baden Cooke, newly crowned national road champion Matt Wilson and Brad McGee as their major rivals.
Astarloza told media the Australians were probably his main competition, but he believed there were 10 riders in the race who could take the overall classification. He is aiming for another win this year and, proving their serious attitude to the event, his team arrived in Australia to prepare especially for the six-day Tour.
|
"I think we have come nice and early so we are getting a good preparation," he said in Spanish through interpreter Neil Stephens. "Our objective is obviously 100 per cent on winning the general classification.
"The Australians are probably our main rivals, they have raced quite a few races. I tend to think that. Generally speaking the run of the race will be the same as last year until stage four, then there will be the element of surprise for the fifth stage. After the fifth stage is when the race will be won or lost."
With weather forecasters predicting warm but not searing temperatures this week, he said he would prefer the weather to be as hot as it was last year, given that he had won in the searing temperatures, which had proved he was in good shape.
"Baden Cooke and Brad McGee are probably the strongest riders with the rest of the FdJ team, but we can't forget about other riders. There are 10 riders who could probably win this race." He said the main difference this year would be the absence of Adelaide's own Stuart O'Grady, who has left Credit Agricole for Cofidis this season. "Unfortunately some great riders such as O'Grady are not here."
|
Botcharov, meanwhile, said in French through interpreter Stephens, that while his team was perhaps not in a position to be the strongest team in the race, particularly with the loss of O'Grady, after the first few stages it would take a chance to fill out for the win. "Stage five will be the decisive stage, the defining stage this year," he said. "I think that before the fifth stage there will already be some selection."
Botcharov has only recently joined Credit Agricole and said his decision to do so felt right. "I was looking for new fire, new motivation and it feels good. It was the right decision." He said his preparation this year, during the European winter, had been the same as in previous years. "It is now just a matter of getting to know my new team mates," he said.
Cooke, meanwhile, was in good humour despite his hard ride in yesterday's Australian road championships near Ballarat in Victoria, joking: "I'll be translating for Matt".
He said he didn't think Wilson's win yesterday would change things "a hell of a lot" for the team going into the TDU. "The Australian contingent certainly has got good form," he said. "Obviously I have got good form and will be doing my best in the general classification and stages. We were all motivated to wear the jersey and it was the first year Brad has been focussed on it. The win has been good for everybody. Psychologically you can ride well on confidence. Sometimes mentally other teams resign themselves you are going to beat them."
Cooke said after his ride yesterday he felt he was capable of winning the TDU, but under the right circumstances, any of us could."
|
"For Matt and I we need to get on a flat stage and get away to get there, while Brad could wait on the other big riders and is better on the hills and he can sprint as well. Matt and me have to get away." He said, however, that it was January, the start of the new season, and that a lot of teams weren't so motivated to ride hard on the front to bring back a breakaway. "It's really who has done the most preparation and training, not who is the biggest name," he said.
Of the other Australians, Cooke said he couldn't discount Robbie McEwen, despite the fact he struggled in the national road race yesterday and Graeme Brown, who he said appeared to be over his bronchial problems after the Jayco Bay Classic the previous week.
Wilson, meanwhile, said the national jersey meant that he had probably lost his "unknown" advantage. "This time last year I was unknown but now they will be marking me," he said. "I don't think it (the win) will change the team plan though." He said he was feeling "a bit tired" after a low-key celebration last night but that he would be all right. He also wants to give the TDU his best shot - both for stages and the overall. "I have always set high goals for myself," he said.
"The biggest advantage I had was that I was unknown and people would let me go in the breaks. Now that's gone."
