Thursday 16th August - Day one of the Tour of the Great South Coast started off in typical Aussie fashion yesterday, as PureBlack Racing took on New Zealand’s closest rivals in the Scody Cup.
Cycling races in Australia have a reputation of being ruthless and aggressive, and yesterday’s criterium and road race provided no exception.
The weather in Victoria was bleak and wet, leaving no doubt that the morning’s first criterium was going to be dangerous.
PureBlack Racings team captain, Roman van Uden, was the stand out performance for the team; taking third in a sprint during the course, and 9th overall in a tight sprint finish.
“It was a really fun race, very tight and very technical,” said Roman, “the weather did not have much of an effect on the speed of the race - it was very wet, but in those conditions we only slow down on the corners.” [Didn’t really follow – said the weather doesn’t slow us down, but we slow down for the corners. Changed it a bit.]
The first stage was won by Brenton Jones from Australian team, Genesys Wealth Advisors.
Just an hour and a half after the conclusion of the criterium, the riders were on the road again for a road race from Portland to Nelson. The race featured 4 sprint premes and one KOM.
It was a solid ride from PureBlack Racing, facing a strong head wind, with teams struggling to create breakaways until the final kilometers of the 75.9km stage.
Within 3km to go disaster struck as PureBlack Racing prepared for an attack for a sprint finish.
“With about 1.5km to go it looked like a sprint finish and we were there leading the boys out, then we just got swamped,” said Roman, “another ride chomped Taylor [Gunman] and everyone went down.”
With everyone scrambling to get back onto the bike again and finish the stage, it was a bunch finish and riders all crossed the line with the same time. Luke Davison of Team Budget Forklifts took the Stage Two win.
Unfortunately for PureBlack Racing, the one crash was not the end of the drama. After getting back on his bike Dion Smith crashed again coming around the final corner, this time breaking his collarbone, forcing him out of the rest of the tour.
PureBlack Racing fought a tough battle on day one of the Tour of the Great South Coast, and with five riders still in the mix there will be plenty more action to come over the next four days.
Day two begins this morning at 11am (1pm NZT) in Heywood with a 36km criterium consisting of 11 sprint premes. This is followed by a 95km road race from Heywood to Castertown at 1.30pm (3.30pm NZT).
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