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Jayco Tour of Queensland - 2.5
Australia, November 1-6, 2004
2003 results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners
McKenzie vs Ljungblad in Queensland 'rematch'
By Rod Morris
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Everything is in readiness for a successful second staging of the Jayco Tour of Queensland cycling classic. The elite 60 rider event will start in Maryborough on Monday with the pressure on Victorian David McKenzie to repeat his winning performance from last year.
McKenzie will wear the No. 1 saddlecloth for the Jayco team and carries good form into the 390 km event. McKenzie (30) finished second in the recent Malaysia Airlines Herald Sun Tour of Provincial Victoria and the Tour of Queensland course should be suited to the versatile rider.
The race is predominately a flat sprinters course, and McKenzie will be aiming to avenge his second placing in the HST to Swedish rider Jonas Ljungblad, who will captain the Bendigo Bank team.
For the TOQ, McKenzie has a strong team behind him, including fellow Victorian Matthew Goold, Canadian duo Eric Wohlberg and Dominique Perras and local Queensland rider Mark Roland, who scored a stage placing in the HST.
Ljungblad's team will include fellow Swede Thomas Gronqvist, England's Jamie Burrow and Polish pair Artur Kraeszowiec and Mateusz Mroz.
The TOQ will feature riders from 13 different countries, but Australia will not be overawed.
Outside of McKenzie, other Australians to watch will include former gold medal Olympian, Brett Aitken, who has come out of a six month retirement to ride for the all-South Australian Lysaght team; Queensland's Ashley Hutchinson, who was a member of the successful Australian 4000 m pursuit squad at the Athens Olympics this year, New South Welshman Trent Wilson, who will ride in the Subaru team and little known Victorian Dylan Boone, who might cause a few surprises in the UNO Clothing team.
French rider Benoit Poilvet is facing a personal dilemma in the Bundaberg Sugar team. Poilvet, a Tour de France finisher, is extremely superstitious and has been allocated to wear the No. 13 saddlecloth. Poilvet refuses to sleep in hotel rooms or sit on airline seats that carry the number 13.
Following Monday's stage in Maryborough, the TOQ will include other stages in Hervey Bay, Oakhurst, Bundaberg, Miriam Vale to the Town of 1770, Mount Perry to Gin Gin and climaxing in Bundaberg next Saturday. A feature of this year's tour will be a 4 km individual time trial next Friday in a steep part of Mount Perry to the Normanby Range Lookout.
The Stages
- Stage 1 - November 1: Maryborough Criterium, 27 km
- Stage 2 - November 2: Hervey Bay Kermesse, 72 km
- Stage 3 - November 3: Oakhurst Canefields, 70.3 km
- Stage 4 - November 3: Bundaberg Criterium, 33 km
- Stage 5 - November 4: Miriam Vale - Town of 1770, 90.2 km
- Stage 6 - November 5: Gin Gin - Mount Perry, 63.3 km
- Stage 7 - November 5: Mount Perry ITT, 4.1 km
- Stage 8 - November 6: Bundaberg Criterium, 42 km
Past winners
2003 David McKenzie (Aus) Jayco
