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Garmin takes control in wind at Sun Tour
Fly V’s Cantwell in yellow but Garmin sitting pretty
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Garmin-Slipstream took control of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour Tuesday during a 141km battle of attrition from Colac to the coastal town of Warrnambool that was marked by strong winds that fractured the peloton into pieces.
By the finish only six riders remained at the front of the race, three of whom wore the blue-and-orange argyle of the American squad, including stage winner Chris Sutton.
After finishing second in the opening criterium and again in the stage 1 bunch kick, Sutton finally got the victory he was looking for in Warrnambool, just beating out opening criterium winner Jonathan Cantwell (Fly V Australia) for the win. As Cantwell had done to Sutton two days earlier, Sutton came around Cantwell on an uphill drag into a headwind for the win.
Due to his third-place finish on stage 1 and his consistent time bonuses at intermediate sprints Cantwell moved into the race leader’s yellow jersey. However Cantwell’s assumption of the race lead was a bit of a hollow victory for his Fly V team after its main GC contenders Phil Zajicek and Ben Day lost contact with the front group near the end of the stage, while Garmin’s Bradley Wiggins, Svein Tuft and Sutton all finished at the front, almost a minute ahead of Zajicek and four minutes ahead of Day.
Following the stage Garmin had placed three men in the top six overall, with Sutton second, at three seconds, Wiggins fifth, at 28 seconds, and Tuft sixth, at 46 seconds.
Zajicek, now Fly V’s best shot at the overall podium, sits eighth at 1:21.
The decisive moment of the race came with 10km remaining, when Tuft rolled away from the leading group of 13 men, bringing Matt Wilson (Jayco Australian National Team) and David Pell (Savings & Loans) on his wheel. Sensing his opportunity to take both the race lead and the stage win was slipping away Cantwell valiantly bridged across a 15-second gap to the three men. The strongest sprinter in the group, it was a perfect move for the Fly V rider. However Tuft stopped rolling through, and just a few moments later, Wiggins followed suit with a powerful surge out of the remaining group of eight riders.
Only Sutton could hold Wiggins’ wheel, while the remaining seven men — Zajicek, race leader Jann Kirsipuu (LeTua), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly), Nick Aitken (Jayco Australian National Team) and Rock Racing’s David Tanner and Aaron Kemps — were left to dangle behind in the wind.
Suddenly Cantwell’s promising chances to take the stage win, the race lead and a large GC advantage over Wiggins had been erased, and he was outnumbered by three Garmin riders with less than 10km remaining.
“It took a lot of work for me to get across to that break, because they already had about 15 seconds,” Cantwell said. “As soon as I got across Tuft was sitting on. It was a perfect move for me, but having three guys against the chasing pack was tough. When I heard Wiggins and Sutton were coming across, I was in a tough spot. (Fly V Australia director Henk Vogels) was telling me to sit on, but I wanted to keep working, because I knew behind I had the yellow jersey of Jann Kirsipuu to contend with. The way it panned out, anything was possible.”
Zajicek said Wiggins’ surge across to the leaders was humbling.
“When Wiggins smashed it there at the end, it was unbelievable,” Zajicek said. “I’m feeling really good, great actually, and looking forward to the climbs tomorrow. But after seeing Wiggins ride like that… it was pretty phenomenal. I mean, it was an amazing ride by Jonny, and if he keeps picking up time bonuses, that’s how we’re going to beat Garmin. But Wiggins is the strongest man in this race. No one is even close to him.”
Perhaps even more humbling is the fact that Wiggins took two weeks off the bike following the world road championships, and only started riding again with a few short riders after he arrived in Australia last week.
“If people knew how little he’d ridden in the last two weeks, I think a lot of people would be pretty scarred by that,” Sutton said. “To come here and be able to ride like that…. he’s such a talent, he’s a freak of nature. I love Wiggo, he’s like an older brother to me, he’s a mentor, he’s always looked out for me, and when I race with him, I always get results.”
A WINDY DAY AT THE OFFICE
Proving that the Sun Tour was so named for the Herald Sun newspaper that sponsors the race rather than the climate, racers were greeted at the start with rain clouds that opened up just moments after the start, combined with brutal 40mph winds from every direction as the course weaved its way through some of Victoria's finest dairy country.
As Jacques-Maynes noted, “no one ever attacked all day long. The wind just battered the peloton and split the race up.”
Just 10km into the race the peloton split into four groups, with all seven Garmin riders making into the front selection, which led the first chase group by about a minute for more than 30km.
The tough conditions brought several crashes and splintered the pack into several groups. A puncture or a moment’s inattention saw riders permanently lose contact with their respective groups. Drapac Porsche had a particularly tough day, with three riders — Gene Bates, Zak Dempster and Joe Lewis — sent to the hospital following three different crashes; none were seriously injured.
By the time the peloton rolled over the day’s second KOM at 85km, three main groups had formed, with a chase group of approximately 20 riders merging with the front group of roughly 40 riders.
Once back together, the front group of 60 battled a block headwind until a right-hand turn into a strong crosswind with 30km remaining shattered the pack. It was there that 13 men got away, including Wiggins, Tuft and Sutton from Garmin and Cantwell and Zajicek from Fly V Australia. That group remained intact until a rider lost Tuft’s wheel, and the big Canadian rolled away from the bunch. Wilson and Pell chased down the Garmin rider, and next to come across was Cantwell, prior to Wiggins’ demonstration of force.
“It would be nice to have an Olympic and world medalist to pull you across to the breakaway at 1000 watts, or whatever it was,” Vogels said.
Both Tuft and Wiggins attacked the group of six in the closing kilometers as Sutton sat on Cantwell’s wheel until the final uphill drag.
“Wiggo opened up the sprint early, which was a good move, because it forced Cantwell to hit the gas and I just lined him up and came straight around him,” Sutton said. “It was close, but it was a big enough gap that I could put my hands in the air.”
Cantwell finished second on the stage, and though Sutton won the first intermediate sprint, by taking the second and third intermediate sprints Cantwell was able to take the race lead by three seconds as well as hold on to the green points jersey. He said he realized his Fly V Australia team was now responsible for defending the jersey against a Garmin squad that was more heavily stacked on the general classification, but for the moment, he was going to savor his time in yellow and concentrate on putting as much time between himself and Wiggins as possible before Friday’s 10km time trial.
“It's a dream come true to put this yellow jersey on my shoulders,” Cantwell said. “I’ve been trying to get as many time bonuses as I can on guys like Tuft and Wiggins before the time trial on Friday. If I can go with 30 seconds on them, I'll be happy. A 10km time trial is definitely in my reach.”
First, however, Cantwell will have to climb like he never has before. Wednesday’s stage, a 164km route from Warrnambool to Apollo Bay along the scenic Great Ocean Road, features two categorized climbs, including the cat. 1 ascent of Lavers Hill and a cat. 2 that tops out just15km from the finish. Heavy winds and more rain are forecasted — as is another demonstration of force by Wiggins, who will look to put time into all comers prior to Friday’s time trial.
RACE NOTES
• Garmin’s Alex Howes took top points at both KOM points along the course and now holds a commanding lead in the KOM jersey, 38 points to Jelly Belly’s Kiel Reijnen.
• Australian national team’s Nick Aitken leads the best young rider’s competition by 3:09 over Prime Estate rider Mitchell Pearson.
