Tour Down Under Resume + Australian National Championships Resume:

It's been another busy week here at miss Fede's place, with all the exams-preparation going on and a respectable amount of my time being spent insulting those who caused the Costa Concordia's tragedy. I spent a day on Isola del Giglio some years ago and I'll always remember it as one of the best days of my life. The sea was simply wonderful and, when I dived into the cold, high water next to some rocks, far from the main beach of the island, I immediately discovered a marine paradise . Colourful fish, sea stars, even a spiny lobster, all living peacefully in the wonderful clean water. And now, this amazing scenery is likely to be destroyed by a tragedy caused by a few stupid people. And don't even get me started about all the people who lost their lives because of someone's stupidity and arrogance!

As far as my exam preparations is concerned, the first exam of my university career was last Wednesday. My professor hasn't corrected my test yet, but I'm pretty optimistic about my mark.

As far as my other exams are concerned, I'm having a 'How to use a computer' test this week and an 'Italian Language' test in 10 days time. In these days however I'm also studying 'Linguistics', which I find very fascinating and interesting, and 'Italian Literature', the most hateful and useless subject I have to study this year.

However. After giving my 50 cents about Isola del Giglio's tragedy and after giving you some useless, boring info about how my university life is going, let's start talking cycling. Or, better, let's start talking about the the Australian National Championships and about all the stages of Tour Down Under.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:

Also this year the big cycling season has taken off in Australia. A few days before the beginning of TDU, the land of the kangaroos chose its new national RR champion in a 162 kms long race. Said race was won by Simon Gerrans, who is the only Aussie to have won a stage in every single Grand Tour. Gerrans won the race with 2" of advantage on Matthew Lloyd and Richie Porte.

Right after getting the victory, GreenEdge's Gerrans was extremely happy. "This is one of my proudest moments in cycling", he told Cyclingnews. The Flying Aussie also had a special mention for his team, which had 16 riders (!) lined up at the start of the race in Buniyong. That, according to Gerrans, created extra pressure around the GreenEdge guys, since everyone expected them "to try and win the race and really utilise the guys that we had." GE eventually had a very active role in the race, with guys like Durbridge, Bobridge, O'Grady and Meyer taking part in every important action.

Whereas GE had 16 riders taking part in the Australian Championships, poor Matthew Lloyd was the only Lampre rider to take part in the race. Still, the Victorian was eventually second. Lloyd was very happy with his result, especially because it marked the end of a terrible period for him. In fact in the last 12 months Matthew (who had won the Australian National Championship back in 2008) has been hit by a vehicle twice while training and, most important, he has been fired by his former employers, team Omega-Pharma Lotto. Now, however, Matthew is 'back in the hood' (quote by himself) with Lampre and he's incredibly happy about that.

The  third rider to cross the finish-line after Gerrans and Lloyd was Richie Porte, who was the protagonist of a super effort towards the end of the race. During the last lap of race (each lap was 10 kms long)  in fact he, Gerrans and Lloyd formed a breakaway. All of a sudden, however, Lloyd launched a solo attack and Richie was the one who closed the gap from his Lampre colleague. After the race Richie congratulated Gerrans on the new victories and had many good words for his new Sky teammates Hayman, Sutton and Rogers.
4th in the men race was Adam Hansen, 5th instead  was an-inform Will Clarke.

The women national championship was won by Amanda Spratt, a 19 year-old who races for GreenEdge. Spratt launched a solo attack with 30 kms to go and crossed the finish-line 45" before Tiffany Cromwell and Rachel Neylan.

As for the TT races, the winner of the women competition was Shara Gillow, who had won the national TT championship also in 2011. The Green Edge rider got the victory ahead of Taryn Heather and Bridie O'Donnell, whereas Amanda Spratt was 4th. The men race instead was won by neopro Luke Durbridge. Luke is the U23 World Champion in the discipline and at the National Championships he rode 7 seconds faster than his GreenEdge teammate Cameron Meyer, who took the silver medal. "I train all the time with Cam and we were sort of trash talking each other leading into it, we're really good mates", the 20 year old said about besting his teammate. Third in the race was Michael Rogers, whereas 4th was another neo pro, Michael Hepburn. 5th was Richie Porte, 6th was Cameron Wurf and 7th was Travis Meyer, who has just come back racing after he underwent surgery on his left external iliac artery in July.

One of the pre-race favourites, Jack Bobridge, crashed within the first km of the race and had to retire from the race.

TOUR DOWN UNDER:

A few days after the Australian Championships were raced, some of the biggest stars of the ProTour took part in the Down Under Classic in Adelaide. The race was always controlled by the sprinters' team and the 9 brave rider who tried to go on a breakaway never gained more than 25" of advantage on the peloton. However one of the breakawayers, neo pro Nathan Haas, got some good results by winning 3 of the intermediate sprints. The race was strictly controlled by Lampre, Rabobank and Lotto Belisol. When Mark Renshaw punctured in the last lap, Rabobank's place at the front was taken by Sky.

Lotto Belisol's lead-out train (which was formed by Jurgen Roelandts, Marcel Sieberg, Adam Hansen and Greg Henderson) was simply perfect and André Greipel managed to get the victory ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen and Heinrich Haussler. After the finish-line, the German had good words for his team and for Greg Henderson in particular. "I think the guys were awesome. I just needed to stay on the wheels. I saw Rabobank and Sky - they couldn’t pass so I think that meant we have a lot of horsepower in our team", Greipel said after the race. Greg Henderson had some very good words for his captain too, as after the race he told Cyclingnews: "You know how much power he’s got. I’m leading out at 70km/h and he just comes past me. I just don’t understand how anyone can go so fast. You’ve seen it. He’s right up there with the likes of Cavendish. The two are going to have a great rivalry this year".

4th in the race was Rojas, whereas 5th was the surprising Steele von Hoff.

After the Down Under Classic, the ProTour cycling season officially took off with Tour Down Under's first stage, which featured 149 kms from Prospect to Clare. The riders had to race in a terrible heat and often had to deal with the strong headwind. 4 brave men (Rohan Dennis, Marcello Pavarin, Martin Kohler and Eduard Vorganov) formed a breakaway right after the beginning of the stage and the last of them, Rohan Dennis, was caught with 15 kms to go. O'Grady did a great job at the front in order to close the gap from the adversaries, whereas his teammate Durbridge couldn't fully help him because he had problems caused by the heat.

The road that led to the finish-line was slightly downhill, so that the peloton reached a very high speed and that Will Clarke decided to launch a brave but useless solo attack. With 800 meters two Vacansoleil riders touched each other's wheels and crashed, causing a domino effect inside the peloton. As a consequece of the crash, Jurgen Roelandts broke a vertebra, whereas 40 year old Guesdon broke his hip. The French rider wanted to end his career on the 8th of April, after Paris-Roubaix, but his plan is now in doubt. "The doctors seemed optimistic about his quick recovery but it's difficult to envisage that he'd be on the start line of Paris-Roubaix in less than three months from now", FDJ ds told Cyclingnews. Then he added: "Fred wasn't emotional about the accident and the consequences. During the time I spent with him, he didn't talk about cycling at all. He never said it's game over. He was happy to be treated very well and his only concern was that he couldn't talk to his wife who was at work with no mobile phone." Let's hope Guesdon will manage to recover quickly then!

Anyway, let's go back to the race. Right after the crash, all the riders who hadn't crashed had to recreate the lead-out trains for their captains. Greipel was very far from his Lotto teammates at that point, and Petacchi launched an early sprint in order to surprise his adversaries. Still, Greipel was much faster than the Italian and he got the victory in front of him and Hutarovich. Right after the finish-line Greipel didn't look very happy and he had some critics for Petacchi. "I’m lucky that I won today," the German told Cyclingnews. "There was a massive crash with 800 metres to go. My pedal got touched and I lost positions from about 5th to 20th, but I managed to bridge the gap. Then Petacchi went from left to right, he didn’t care about the crash. He’s a big star but he shouldn’t do this. Two of my team-mates crashed as a result. All I care about after winning this stage is how they are". The Lampre rider denied any wrong-doing and the race commissaries agreed with him.

4th in the stage was Fabio Sabatini, whereas 5th was Bennati. You can watch the highlights of the day here.

The second stage of the TDU led the riders from Lobethal to Stirling. 1000 meters after the beginning of the 148 kms long stage, the brave Martin Kohler and former LT rider Will Clarke went on a breakaway together. The two young, hard-working guys were allowed an initial 11 minutes advantage. Kohler's goal of the day was getting the leader jersey, which at the beginning of the stage was on Greipel's shoulders. After winning two intermediate sprints (thus getting some seconds of advantage on Greipel in the GC) and with still many kms to go, the Swiss rider decided to return to the peloton, whereas Will Clarke continued his lonely adventure at the head of the race. With 20 kms to go Clarke still had 10 minutes of advantage on the peloton, which now started to race in order to catch the Tasmanian. With 10 kms to go Clarke's gap on the peloton was down to 4 minutes and 20", and with 5 kms to go it was down to less than 3 minutes. Still, Will really gave it all and eventually managed to win the stage after climbing the Stirling hill for 4 times. The UNI SA rider was worn out after the stage and he didn't even have the strength to raise his arms while crossing the finish-line. After the finish-line, the Tasmanian told Cyclingnews: "This is unbelievable really. This is the biggest win of my career. It's my first win in the WorldTour. I knew my form was good - but this is unbelieveable. Kohler probably thought it was not worth keeping going but the peloton gave me more time and I thought 'you guys have to chase me hard to catch me'. I was dying in the last ten kilometres. Team Manager Dave Sanders was telling me to go for GC. It's amazing that a breakaway rider can stay away for so long. It's sort of my speciality to keep going".

Second in the stage was Michael Matthews, whereas 3rd was Simon Gerrans. 4th was Valverde, 5th was Boasson Hagen. The peloton reached the finish-line 1'02" after Clarke. You can watch the highlights of the stage here .

 

 

The 3rd stage of TDU led the riders from Unley to Victor Harbour. As soon as the stage began, Eduard Vorganov, Jan Bakelant, Thomas de Gendt and Matt Brammeier went on a breakaway. However, the 4 riders had to abandon their hopes of victory with about 40 kms to go. The most active teams at the front were GreenEdge (who had Matthew Goss as main sprinter), Lotto Belisol (Greipel's team), RadioShack-Nissan (Bennati's team) and Rabobank (Renshaw and Matthews' team). The stage winner was eventually decided by a bunch sprint, in which André Greipel showed all his power once again. The German outsprinted Hutarovich and Boasson Hagen, who suffered a puncture in the last part of the race. 4th was Renshaw, whereas 5th was the eternal McEwen. Daniele Bennati was 8th, Jacopo Guarnieri was 6th. By achieving this victory, André Greipel got back the leader jersey from Martin Kohler. In spite of this, the Lotto rider told Cyclingnews that this year he wasn't going to win the final GC of the race. "The Willunga stage [Stage 5] is too hard for me to win GC this year", he sincerely admitted. "With two stage wins, we've already reached our goal. We can't have everything and we just take it day by day". As well as saying that, Greipel also dedicated his victory to Jurgen Roelandts, who broke his sixth cervical vertebrae during the first stage of the race.

While Lotto was happy with the day's result, Rabobank was frustrated because its riders had missed a podium spot. The team's main sprinter for the day should have been Michael Matthews, but the Australian couldn't follow his lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, who eventually got the 4th position in the sprint. After the stage, Renshaw said that that was completely normal. "Michael and I still have to sync a little bit – we're definitely not on the same level as myself and Cav, but that comes with time", he told Cyclingnews. Matthews, on the other hand, was very angry with himself. "Mark did an awesome lead-out but I just wasn't there to finish it.It's just experience: it's my first time trying to follow him…I'm really disappointed.", the young rider told Cyclingnews.

The 4th stage led the riders from Norwood to Tarunda. After 28 kms of race McCarthy, Kadri, Ruben Perez and Smukulis formed a breakaway. They were caught with 29 kms to go, at the bottom of a Cat. 1 climb called 'Mengler Hill'. Rohan Dennis was the first rider to reach the top of the climb, followed by Javi Moreno, Simon Gerrans, Thiago Machado, Jack Bauer and Linus Gerdemann. In the meanwhile, Greipel was struggling at the back of the peloton and he eventually got dropped. BMC made a good job trying to make the race hard for Greipel and just 40 riders didn't get dropped on the Merger Hill climb.

The race eventually ended with a sprint between the riders who hadn't got dropped on Merger Hill. Michael Matthews tried to win in order to get the leader jersey, but 4 guys were faster than him: Boasson Hagen, Bennati, Ciolek and Freire, with the Spaniard taking the victory ahead of the Italian and of the German riders. "It was a difficult finale. I knew I had a really good chance to win," Oscarito told Cyclingnews after getting the victory. "The race was hard, it was better for me. I'm happy to score the team's first victory of the year after joining Katusha".

Greipel eventually crossed the finish-line 7 minutes after Freire, together with many other riders.

Martin Kohler was very happy to be back in the leader jersey, whereas Michael Matthews claimed that he wanted to get the ochre jersey for himself on the following day. "The jersey I want is Ochre," he told Cyclingnews after the stage. "I'll try to get it tomorrow. It's unfortunate that I missed it today by only two seconds. Not having the jersey today takes a lot of pressure off you but it's also better to be ahead of everyone else."

The 5th stage of TDU led the riders from McLaren Vale to the Old Willunga Hill and had a uphill finish. The breakaway du jour was formed by O'Grady, Miyazawa, Haas, De Gendt, Fenn and Goddaert. Going into the final 75 kms Lotto, Radioshack and BMC tried to create some echelons. Matthew Lloyd and other 30 riders lost contact from the main peloton, but they managed to get back on the leader group after some kms. In the meanwhile, the breakawayers's advantage was getting smaller and smaller as a consequence of BMC, Movistar and GreenEdge's hard work at the front. As soon as the first climb up to Willunga hill began, Garmin's Haas said goodbye to his breakaway companions and launched a solo attack. He was the first rider to get on the top of the climb, followed by De Gendt and by Rohan Dennis, who sealed himself the King of the Mountain Classification by topping the climb in the third position.

With 20 kms to go, Voigt and Rojas started working hard at the front of the bunch. That caused the end of Haas' lonely and brave adventure at the front and reduced the number of riders in the main bunch to 20. These twenty riders were Dennis, Machado, Madrazo, Gerrans, Bakelandts, Rogers, Valverde, Boasson Hagen, Gutierrez, Pate, B. Sulzberger, Matthews, Kohler, Rojas, Ballan, Thomas, Moreno, Bauer, Ciolek and Gerdemann.

At the bottom of the final climb Sulzberger punctured, whereas Dennis, Pate and Machado attacked. Movistar however soon closed the gap between those riders and Valverde and did the same when Michael Rogers attacked. Simon Gerrans was the following rider to launch an attack and this time only Valverde could resist the Aussie. The Spaniard eventually outsprinted the GE rider, who received the ochre jersey as consolation prize for not winning the stage. "It’s such a big deal for GreenEdge to take the lead into the last stage in their first world tour outing so I’m thrilled and really rapt with the whole team’s performance, they have really supported me all week so I really can’t thank the guys enough", Gerrans told Cyclingnews after the stage.

Valverde was very happy too after the stage and, just like Gerrans, he thanked his teammates for their hard work. "My team has been perfect today. I couldn't have won without them. It's a really emotional moment for me. This win is for all those who have supported me during my time off the bike. The stage suited me", he said in an interview to Cyclingnews. "We put the team at the front, and to finish it off - it's a perfect comeback for me". Alejandro seems to be as fast and as strong  as he was back in 2008 and I'm sure that not many riders welcomed the news of his victory with joy. After all, we shouldn't forget that Valverde has been one of the strongest Classic riders of the last few years...

The last stage of the TDU took place in Adelaide and was just 90 kms long. The day started with a very particular situation, since Gerrans and Valverde were 1st 'ex aequo' in the GC. Still, the ochre jersey was on the Australian's shoulders because of the number of placements he had collected during the race.
As soon as the last stage began, a very big breakaway was created by B. Sulzberger, McCarthy, Durbridge, C. Meyer, Maaskant, Hansen, Lagutin, Hayman, Izagirre, Trentin, Cimolai, Van Avermaet, Cimolai, Voigt, Bonnet and Jorgensen. Unfortunately for GreenEdge, this break was soon caught by the peloton, led by Rabobank. Before of the second intermediate sprint Bakelandts, Sicard and Cameron Meyer formed another breakaway and this time they managed to stay clear from the peloton for a while. Sicard and Bakelandts eventually gave up with 6 kms to go, whereas C. Meyer launched a solo attack with 4 kms to go. Still, Lotto, Lampre and Liquigas weren't going to let Meyer win and they pulled hard in order to catch him.  The stage winner was decided by a bunch sprint once again, and once again the stage winner was André Greipel, who outsprinted Renshaw and Petacchi. Gerrans eventually won the overall classification.


So, this was my little resume of the Australian races that took place in the last few days. Unfortunately I could just read the race reports on the newspapers and on some websites, so I apologise if there are any mistakes in my post. Moreover, if you haven't had enough about Australia yet, I suggest you two interesting links:
- on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gallery-riders-get-the-chance-to-meet-adelaides-other-locals you can find a selection of photographs showing some riders playing with kangaroos and koalas before the beginning of TDU.
- on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wouter-mol-on-his-2012-tour-down-under-as-the-obscure-pro instead you have a very funnny story about Wouter Mol's TDU. In fact it seems that this yar Wouter was adopted by many Australian supporters, who decided to keep a special eye on him and even gave him some presents.

That's really all for the moment, folks. Have a good evening!