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Wilson 'shocks himself' to keep Sun Tour lead
Morabito takes two and an outside chance of victory
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With just one stage to go, Matthew Wilson of Unibet.com is poised to take the biggest victory of his career in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, riding what may well have been a race-saving, race-winning time trial Saturday in Melbourne.
Though the margin is small: a superlative performance against the clock saw Steve Morabito the fastest rider around the short but testing 8.6 kilometer course, his time of 11:32 moving the Astana all-rounder within three seconds of Wilson by the day's end. Right now, however, the yellow jersey appears to have all the confidence in the world in what has been a perfect start to the weekend.
"I feel very confident. I knew if I was in yellow tonight, they'd struggle to get me out of it," said Wilson, who opted to ride without an ear-piece, eventually conceding 11 seconds to place sixth on the stage.
"I was going to go as hard as I could either way, so [an ear-piece] didn't matter. People were screaming for me all the way round - I've got just about all my friends and family here from years gone past. Me and Baden [Cooke] have been [high] on [the overall] classification, so it's been pretty much three guys controlling the whole race and I've got nothing but confidence in them to control it tomorrow. Barring mishaps, I think we should be right."
For 24-year-old Morabito, it was his second stage win of the race after a dominating ride on the 30km climb to Falls Creek two days ago, demonstrating not just his versatility, but future prospects as a Grand Tour rider.
"I'm good on the climbs but I'm not a light rider; I'm 73 kilos and for that, it's good today where I have a lot of power," explained Morabito. "The first thing was to do a good time trial, not to calculate. In eight kilometers, you can't calculate - you have to go full gas.
"It's possible, but it won't be easy," he said on his chances of winning overall. "Wilson is strong in the sprints and he has a strong team with Baden Cooke and Jeremy Hunt - he's the favorite. I will try, but if tomorrow I don't win, it's okay."
A second behind Morabito was Jayco's Trent Lowe, who leapfrogged previous race leader Joost Van Leijen (Netherlands) to find himself third overall, 14 seconds off the lead. After losing the lead and his cool in controversial circumstances the day before, where he was penalized 20 seconds for pacing, the Dutchman never managed to screw his head back on, and his tenth place result showed.
Bissell-SRAM's Ben Jacques-Maynes held the early best time for much of the day, stopping the clock at 11:36. With four riders remaining, the man all the way from Watsonville, California was still looking good, until Lowe sullied his chances with a time four seconds quicker.
"I saw the course and I said this fits me to a T. I've been saving it the last couple of days; I started this tour feeling pretty bad, so I'm glad the legs have finally come good and today I put in a good time trial. I couldn't have gone any faster, so I have to be happy," said Jacques-Maynes.
Wilson, who turned 30 less than three weeks ago, first rode the Sun Tour as a promising 18-year-old junior with the Victorian Institute of Sport. But never - not even in his wildest dreams - did he believe he could win his home tour.
"I completely shocked myself; this whole tour, I've shocked myself. The only thing that gave me confidence today is that I shocked myself all week!" he said, laughing with all the vitality of the kid he once was.
"It [winning overall] would mean so much to me. Just having so much bad luck the last couple of years, and to finish off the season like this is just a dream come true. The fact that I don't have a contract is just secondary to me winning the race."
The road aheadUtilizing part of the time trial course, Sunday's circuit race in downtown Melbourne is the setting for the seventh and final stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Flat and fast coupled with 16 seconds’ worth of time bonuses, this 80 minutes plus three laps kermesse of sorts will provide a thrilling conclusion to an arduous week of racing, which has embraced all the elements of a top-notch European stage race.
Now that he's ahead, will Wilson now approach the race differently? "Yeah, definitely; if I was behind, it would be up to me to attack tomorrow. Now it's up to the other teams to attack, so we'll play more of a defensive game," he said.
