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Herald Sun Tour, Australia, October 14-24, 2004
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Matt Goold's Sun Tour diary
Although it's one of the two biggest stage races his home country hosts, Australian Matthew Goold is riding the Malaysia Airlines Herald Sun Tour of Provincial Victoria as part of the multi-national Active for Life Team, alongside Canadians Eric Wohlberg and Dominique Perras, New Zealander Glen Mitchell and Jorge Libonatti from Uruguay.
Hailing from the Southern Australian state of Victoria, Goold is a former state road champion whose role in the team will be to ride support for Wohlberg in the hunt for stage victories.
Stage 10 - October 22: Mansfield Criterium, 33 km
Stage 11 - October 22: Mansfield - Jamieson, 38.0 km
Moving on up
There were two stages today, a 33km criterium in Mansfield, then a road stage from Mansfield to Jamieson. The stages were separated by a 1.5 hour break, that gave the brain just enough time to switch off, and the legs just enough time to seize up.
The pace was fast and furious from the first stage start, with the Bicycle Superstore team pushing hard to protect the yellow jersey. Glen Mitchell managed to ease himself into a successful break of five riders that stayed away for the final 15 laps of the circuit. Unfortunately, he couldn't outsprint Robert McLachlan (Argon 18 Bikes-Caravello) for stage honours, but he picked up second place and quite a few bonus points, which we need - to put it bluntly!
The second stage was just as frantic as it was only 38km, but we were more focused on tomorrow, which is when a significant time gap can be achieved.
The Active For Life team is sitting in second place in the teams classification, and we are fairly confident we can overtake Bicycle Superstore up Mt Baw Baw. General classification is another story, with Glen currently in fifth, and Dominique in eighth. We want a top three finish, so we have some work to do over the next two days.
