Tuesday, January 20, 2009

One good turn deserves another







It's funny how things work out - today I got to pay back Brett and Alan for bringing over the seat collar. 9:05 AM today heading out to One Tree Hill to ride out to the Stage 1 KOM I get a call from Brett - 'Hey Jeff - where are you - Alan's bike is not fixed yet so neither of us are going to ride - are you near enough to come and pick us up?' As it turned out, I was close enough, and in the process discovered the 'correct' way of getting around the city as well. And - best of all- I was able to score a great coffee at the drive thru coffee spot near where Brett and Alan are staying - cool idea for those languishing drive thru bottle shops in Perth! So, Brett and Alan stayed at One Tree Hill to watch the first sprint and I rode out to the KOM points - plan was to go to the second KOM point at 40k's but, after the 1St one (at 10k out) kicked my butt AND all the people there said it was better than the 2nd one, I put in a few extra K's towards the 2nd and then headed back to watch the show. A good vantage point was obtained - just before the KOM banner there is a hairpin - pretty much on the steepest part of the climb so the speeds would be slow (10-15kph) and the picture opportunity greatest.



Pretty much right on schedule the lead motos came through - followed closely by a breakaway of two riders - Andoni Lafuente of Euskataltel and Olivier Kaisen of Silence-Lotto, then about 6 min to Australian Will Walker (Fuji-Servetto) just ahead of the peloton being driven by Uni SA (see photos). And then they were gone - time for me to get back to Brett and Alan in One Tree Hill and then on to Mawsons Lake for the finish. Lafuente and Kaisen held off the peloton until about 25k to go, then Jack Bobridge attacked and built a 2min cushion which he held until about 2km out. So it was a group sprint - Columbia driving the pack and this time getting the result they wanted with Greipel taking the spring followed by O'Grady and then Brad McGee (UniSA). Turns out Robbie had an altercation with a spectators camera on the final stretch - he may not start tomorrow.



And speaking of tomorrow - more hills are on the menu - plan is to drive to the finish in Stirling (after coffee at Cibo's in Hyde Park) and the do about 60k's and end up watching the 3 laps of the finishing circuit.



More tomorrow!!



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