Jongewaard survives day-long breakaway
17 October 2008
Avanti rider Chris Jongewaard from the Panasonic team won the stage as the only survivor of a breakaway group of nine that attacked as soon as racing got underway on the 115km journey from Alexandra.
CSC Saxo Bank continued their domination of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour on stage four to the top of Mount Buller as Stuart O'Grady surrendered the leader's yellow to his teammate Lars Bak, albeit only by four seconds.
Jongewaard's breakaway companions were swallowed up by the main contenders in the tour on the slopes of the 15-kilometre Mount Buller climb but the South Australian held onto a 45-second advantage over Christopher Froome (Barloworld) in second place and Bak in third, a further 13 seconds behind.
The main peloton allowed the leading group a maximum advantage of four minutes until they hit the steep gradients of the final climb where Froome's teammate Marco Corti begun the hostilities in an effort to put O'Grady under pressure.
With the peloton splitting under the effort of the attacks in the final kilometres O'Grady gave his Danish teammate the all clear to chase glory. "With three or four kilometres to go he [O'Grady] said he was not feeling super-duper," Bak said. "He said if they go, you go with them. I put the hammer down in the last one and a half kilometre and it was enough to take the jersey."
Bak admitted O'Grady is still very much in contention for the overall classification. "He's still not that far behind. He's a good time triallist but I'm also a good time trialler so let's see.
Former yellow jersey wearer, Stuart O'Grady was content with his efforts. "I limited my loses pretty well today and Lars has got the jersey so it's worked out alright," O'Grady said. Once again CSC Saxo Bank's teamwork was a feature of the stage with Bak stating "I must say we had tremendous teamwork again. Bradley McGee, Lasse Bochmann and Matt Goss they were riding really, really good."
The Kenya-born Froome was one of the animators of the day in taking second place and has moved to fourth overall at just 17 seconds behind. Ben Day from Toyota-United conceded time to Bak but is still in contention for overall honours, heading into the time trial at 20 seconds behind in fifth place overall.
Bak will start the time trial with the advantage of being the last rider out of the start house but knows with such small time differences among the top 10 overall the race is a long way from being over. "Nothing is settled yet," the race leader said. "I have the advantage that I can get the split times. But Ben Day is a good time trialler, Stuart is a good time trialler. You can have a puncture, you can be unlucky, you can have a bad day. I'll just ride hard and then we'll see what happens. It's going to be a good day. I hope I stay in yellow."
The Dane will leave no stone unturned in his pursuit of yellow, saying he would ride the time trial course a couple of times in the morning and do at least a 35 to 40 minute warm-up for stage five's 16km race against the clock.
Matt Goss (CSC Saxo Bank) maintained his lead in the Budget Forklift sprint points classification. The Cyclismo Bendigo King of the Mountains jersey stayed with Matt Wilson (Team Type-1). The Make it Happen in Provincial Victoria U23 category leader's jersey was taken by Marco Corit (Barloworld) on a count back, as he is on equal time with Wes Sulzberger (South-Australia.com-AIS). Chris Jongewaard was awarded the Volvo most aggressive rider on the stage.
With 14 riders within one minute of the overall lead the stage is set for a fascinating individual time trial stage tomorrow through the Yarra Valley that looks set to determine this year's winner.
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