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7th Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under - 2.HC
Australia, January 18-23, 2005
Stage 3 - January 20: Glenelg to Victor Harbor, 139km
Commentary by Jeff Jones, with additional reporting from Anthony Tan and Gabriella Ekström
Complete live report
Live coverage starts: 11.15 ACDT
Estimated finish time: 14.44 ACDT
10:50 CST
Welcome to our coverage of the third stage of the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under,
a 139 km journey from the popular Adelaide seaside suburb of Glenelg to another
coastal location, Victor Harbor on the southern side of the Fleurieu Peninsula.
After a 7.3 km neutral section through the southern suburbs of Adelaide, the
riders will turn onto the Southern Expressway - the first time that this road
has been used in the JCTDU. There is a climb out of town before the race heads
south, parallel to the coast and Gulf St Vincent.
The terrain on the Peninsula is brown, bare and windswept, and although the
temperatures won't get up much over 25 degrees, there will be head and crosswinds
for most of the way.
The day's only climb is at Sellick's Hill (km 43.7) and there are two sprints
at Mt Compass (km 66.7) and Goolwa (km 92). It's a day for the sprinters teams
to control things, and race leader Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) is odds-on
favourite to keep his yellow jersey and even extend his lead by winning another
stage.
11:00 CST
There is a very big crowd here at Glenelg to witness the start of the stage,
braving the wind and cooler temperatures (21-22 at the moment). The gun goes
off and the riders roll out for a 7.3 km neutral section. The start proper should
be at around 11:15am.
11:16 CST
The flag is dropped by race director Mike Turtur and the riders are under way
in the 3rd stage. Many riders who we spoke to this morning are predicting an
aggressive stage due to the winds. And Robbie McEwen himself told us that he
wanted to rest his boys today, as they'd worked hard yesterday. Admittedly that
was in the company of riders from other teams, so he might not have wanted to
give the game plan away...
11:25 CST
Scott Davis (United Water) didn't start today's stage, meaning that there are
now 93 of the original 95 starters left in the race.
11:31 CST 15km/124km to go
The peloton is now cruising up the Southern Expressway before turning off into
Main South Rd at Huntfield Heights.
11:40 CST 17km/122km to go
The bunch is not going too hard at the moment, and it's all together.
11:43 CST
We spoke to Liberty Seguros sprinter Allan Davis, who is currently sitting in
second overall. Davis has not been able to get his nose in front of McEwen yet,
and believes that Robbie means to go on with it. "I think he's definitely thinking
about the overall and winning - he's a talented bike rider and he's got good
form, so that's a pretty hard combination (to beat)," Davis told us.
According to Alby, today's stage "is pretty much like yesterday - we saw a break
go yesterday - but three teams, Cofidis, Liberty Seguros and Lotto brought it
back. Today, we'll just watch the breaks, make sure we've got a rider in it
and if it comes down to a sprint at the end, I'll make sure I have a crack."
On his own chances for the overall, Davis said, "You need luck here. Any day
a break could go, but I'll try and if I'm in a position to go for the overall,
I will."
11:48 CST 21km/118km to go
The first attack of the day is reported over race radio: Johan Vansummeren (Davitamon-Lotto),
Partrice Halgand (Credit Agricole), Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros), Luis
Leon Sanchez (Liberty Seguros), Fortunato Baliani (Ceramiche Panaria Navigare)
and Steve Cunningham (Uni SA). Unsure of when it went, but the peloton has caught
them at km 16.
12:03 CST 26km/113km to go
Panaria teammates Graeme Brown and Julio Perez Cuapio have crashed. Perez Cuapio
has been forced to abandon as a result, while Brown is being seen by the race
doctor for his injuries.
A group of 26 riders has split off the front of the peloton, notably not including
race leader McEwen.
12:10 CST 30km/109km to go
The front group of 26 riders (sans McEwen) has 28 seconds lead on the second
peloton. This could be very dangerous, although it's often hard to get a group
this size to work together.
12:12 CST 33km/106km to go
At km 33, the front group has 42 seconds.
12:28 CST 42km/97km to go
The big break is moving along nicely now, and is 1 km from the top of the mountain
sprint at Sellick's Hill. The gap is 57 seconds. We'll try to get some names
in the break.
At the top of the climb, it's 1'06 to the peloton.
12:35 CST 45km/94km to go
The results of the KOM at Sellick's Hill: 1 Gene Bates (Uni SA), 2 David O'Loughlin
(Navigators Insurance), 3 David McPartland (United Water), 4 Rob Mclachlan (United
Water), 5 Laszlo Bodrogi (Credit Agricole).
We've also got brief results from the second race of The Advertiser Women's
Criterium Series, which was held in Goolwa today: 1. Kate Bates (NSW), 2. Kate
Nichols (NSW), 3. Emma Rickards (Vic), 4. Candice Sullivan (Qld).
12:39 CST
We spoke to South Australian road champion Russell Van Hout (UniSA) this morning.
Although typically known for his "suicide breakaway" efforts, Van Hout is a
little more mellow at this JCTDU. "I'm not planning on anything, but there might
be one or two guys trying to get away early," said Van Hout. "I'm going to save
myself for the finish today. We've got to be aggressive because we haven't got
any sprinters that could be up there for the win."
For the general classification, Van Hout said, "Me and Gene [Bates] are going
to try and focus on that. Gene's in really good form, so he's our number one
GC rider, and I'll try and make sure I'm there with him."
We asked him about his attempt to bridge across to the break yesterday: "I'm
not feeling too bad; I had a couple of bad moments yesterday, but I pulled through
OK and I'm feeling pretty good."
12:46 CST
The full composition of the break: Stuart O’Grady and Jans Koerts (Cofidis),
Johan Vansummeren and Jan Kuyckx (Davitamon-Lotto), Bradley Wiggins, Sebastien
Hinault, Laszlo Bodrogi, Benoît Poilvet (Credit Agricole), Juan Fuentes and
David Loosli (Lampre-Caffita), Allan Davis, Aaron Kemps, Javier Ramirez and
Luis Leon Sanchez (Liberty Seguros), Matthew Wilson and Mark Renshaw (FDJeux.com),
Erki Putsep and Simon Gerrans (Ag2r Prevoyance), David O'Loughlin (Navigators
Insurance), Paride Grillo (Ceramiche Panaria Navigare), David McPartland, Ashley
Humbert and Rob Mclachlan (United Water), Gene Bates, Steve Cunningham, Chris
Jongewaard (Uni SA).
McEwen is absent, which means that Allan Davis is the race leader on the road.
The group has 3'25 over the peloton, which seems to have given up the ghost.
12:52 CST
Panaria only has one rider in the break today, but he's a fast one: Paride Grillo.
He is one of three sprinters in the team that is led by Graeme Brown. We spoke
to Brownie this morning before the stage, and he ran us through what went wrong
for him in the stage 2 sprint. "Yesterday I felt awesome. I had Robbie's wheel
and I had awesome legs, but someone pulled out from the bunch and ran into me,
so I was a bit disappointed. It was either hit the fence or hit the fence so
I locked it up with a couple of hundred metres to go. But I've got good legs
today too...
"We've got three sprinters here, so it's pretty obvious, and one guy is going
really well [Grillo]. I always seem to lift here in Australia, so I think we
can roll Robbie in one stage at least."
Brown also wasn't looking forward to today. "It's going to be very hard today
because of the wind. It's blowing a head/crosswind, so it's pretty hard unless
you're on a wheel."
13:01 CST 67km/72km to go
The break flies past the first sprint in Mt Compass, still holding a handy lead
of 7'30 over the peloton. Paride Grillo (Ceramiche Panaria Navigare) won ahead
of Davis and O'Grady.
13:08 CST 72km/67km to go
Stuart O'Grady is in the break, and definitely up for a win today. He's done
it before in Victor Harbor, and will be one of the main favourites. "The plan
is to try to follow the attacks at the start; it [the stage] doesn't look too
hard on paper, but it could turn out to be pretty hard. It's going to be hard
from the start, so we've just got to make sure we're represented out there with
our team."
We asked him whether he was here for the overall or for stage wins, to which
Stuey replied: I'm here to get a result, so I'm going to do everything I can
to do that."
13:13 CST 76km/63km to go
One of the reasons why the gap has blown out to 7'40, is that 11 of the 12 teams
are represented in the break. Quick.Step is the only team to have missed it,
and they're not really chasing. Credit Agricole (4 riders, including Brad Wiggins),
Liberty Seguros (4 riders, including Allan Davis), United Water (3 riders) and
UniSA (3 riders, including Gene Bates) are all strongly represented. Not forgetting
O'Grady and Koerts (Cofidis), and Gerrans and Putsep (Ag2r).
13:21 CST 82km/57km to go
The break is now heading southeast towards Goolwa (km 92) where the second sprint
is located. These sprints are important for the overall GC due to the time bonuses,
which are 3, 2 and 1 seconds respectively. The finishing sprint is worth 6,
4 and 2 seconds for the top 3.
13:31 CST 84km/55km to go
As the break passes the 83 km mark, the gap has increased, nay ballooned, out
to 11'00. The 26 riders who escaped at the 28 km mark are on course to take
out the stage in about an hour and a quarter. O'Grady, Davis, Grillo, Gerrans,
McPartland, Bates, Mclachlan, Wiggins - they're all good finishers.
13:35 CST 91km/48km to go
They're coming up to the sprint in Goolwa now...
13:44 CST 95km/44km to go
Davis wins the second sprint in Goolwa, ahead of Grillo and Stuart O’Grady
(Cofidis).
By the way, Goolwa comes from the Aboriginal word for elbow, because of the
bend in the river around Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island. There is a bridge built
across the river, that has rather a controversial history. Google for "Hindmarsh
Island" and "secret women's business" and you'll find out why.
13:54 CST 100km/39km to go
Simon Gerrans (Ag2r) is one of our 10 picks for today (it pays to hedge your
bets). The young Victorian said that Ag2r doesn't really have a game plan. "I
don't think we've got anyone [from our team] protected. We'll just see how the
race pans out. I'm sure a break will go away and we've got to make sure we've
got someone in there. Everyone in the team is doing really well at the moment
so we don't have one designated leader."
On Robbie McEwen, Gerrans said: "I think he's definitely up for the overall.
He's won three races in the last six days so he'd be saying he can't win, he's
definitely downplaying his chances.
"Allan Davis can definitely win overall. I think he can climb a bit better than
Robbie so on the Willunga day, if he can get an advantage over the hill it's
very likely he could win.
Before the stage, Gerrans assessed the conditions. "With his wind it could definitely
blow apart, so I think everyone will be racing aggressively and trying to put
a bit of pressure on Robbie."
Spot on, Simon.
13:59 CST
The word of the day is Open House, even though it's two words. That's the answer
- the trick is to find what it refers too...
14:04 CST 105km/34km to go
The break is now heading west towards Victor Harbor, but won't quite pass through
there. Instead with about 25 km to go, the riders turn to the northwest and
do a circuit before approaching Victor Harbor from the northwest.
14:08 CST 109km/30km to go
Peter from Victoria, writes that "Open House" relates to a real estate sign
that the riders have passed advertising an "open house".
Scott ponders whether it means that "that the stage could go to anyone from
this breakaway group?"
Nope, sorry guys :-) We might reveal it at the end of the Tour.
14:08 CST 109km/30km to go
With 30 km to go, the attacks are starting from within the 26 man breakaway
group. This is always the "who's got the best legs?" part of the bike race.
14:15 CST
For those wondering about an apparent half hour discrepancy between the updates
and the time on your watch, do not adjust your set. This is quite normal as
we are in South Australia, and Australian Central Daylight Time is half an hour
out of kilter with Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Or, depending on your perspective,
AEDT is half an hour out of kilter with ACDT.
The rest of the world generally stays within discrete one hour zones, although
HAT (Heure Avancée de Terre-Neuve) in North America is another one that's 30
minutes out.
But it's all relative anyway, even at the speed at which these riders are moving
along.
14:17 CST 114km/25km to go
Two riders - Luis Sanchez (Liberty) and Johan Vansummeren (Davitamon-Lotto)
- have established a 30 second lead over the rest of the break. The peloton
is now lagging rather forlornly at 22 minutes. We doubt whether it will be eliminated,
however.
14:20 CST
Open House has nothing to do with a big street party in Adelaide or Century
21, a sponsor of the JCTDU.
14:27 CST 119km/20km to go
Open House having something to do with "secret women's business" is about the
closest guess we've had. But it's still fairly wide of the mark.
14:29 CST 124km/15km to go
The two riders have passed under the 15 km to go point, so we can expect them
to finish in about 20 minutes.
14:34 CST
Well, local hero Stuart O'Grady won in Victor Harbor in 1999, and went on to
win the whole tour. Can he do it again today? Other past winners here include
Alessio Galletti (2001), Robbie McEwen (2002) and Philippe Gilbert (2004).
14:43 CST 136km/3km to go
The two leaders - Luis Sanchez and Johan Vansummeren - have 1'08 on a chase
group of eight with 3 km to go.
14:47 CST 139km/0km to go
And it's Luis Sanchez who takes out the stage from Vansummeren in Victor Harbor!!
That means that the Liberty rider will also take over the leader's jersey, as
the next group was 15 seconds back.
South Australian Gene Bates (UniSA) leads the small chasing group home for third.
He was aggressive all day, but missed the final move from Sanchez and Ramirez.
Results
Unofficial 1 Luis Sanchez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 2 Johan Vansummeren (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto) 3 Gene Bates (Aus) UniSA ... 10 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis General classification after stage 3 1 Luis Sanchez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 2 Johan Vansummeren (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto)
Following live coverage on Cyclingnews: To view the latest four reports on a page that refreshes automatically every five minutes, click on the Latest live report. To view the full live report, which doesn't auto-refresh, click on the Complete live report link.
