Hot racing coming up in Australia

[Dazed and Confused]

Durbridge won in Portarlington.

Good, I expect much more from him in '13.
Possible the biggest talent on Orica.

 

[rgmerk]

Good, I expect much more from him in '13.
Possible the biggest talent on Orica.

Time trials, or do you think he can pull off some wins in road stages?

 

[Wilba60]

Good, I expect much more from him in '13.
Possible the biggest talent on Orica.

Is certainly a talent but there are others who have left the track to keep an eye on this year as well. Hepburn, Bewley, Howard and Meyer will have full years with a road pre-season and Hepburn especially could be as good, if not better than Durbridge. I think Durbridge's great year and more improvement has also helped Tuft, who has shown excellent progression and seems to be a good mentor type for the up and coming time trial capabilities of OGE.

Hot and 36C for the final day of the Bay Crits. Williamstown will be a perfect location. We also get to see the Herald Sun Tour prologue later in the day.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Time trials, or do you think he can pull off some wins in road stages?

I think he can, possible this year already.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Is certainly a talent but there are others who have left the track to keep an eye on this year as well. Hepburn, Bewley, Howard and Meyer will have full years with a road pre-season and Hepburn especially could be as good, if not better than Durbridge. I think Durbridge's great year and more improvement has also helped Tuft, who has shown excellent progression and seems to be a good mentor type for the up and coming time trial capabilities of OGE.

yep, lots of interesting youngsters on Orica.

 

[42x16ss]

I think he can, possible this year already.

Very possible. The kid has a monster engine, can climb a little and is a full year younger than the likes of Phinney, Matthews, Degenkolb, Sagan, Moser etc.

 

[Ferminal]

‏@HeraldSunTour

Due to EXTREME HEAT tomorrow, stage 1 from Sunbury to Bendigo will be brought forward 2hrs. Start: 9:30am, Finish: 1-1:30pm #suntour

 

[auscyclefan94]

Docker won in Williamstown. Ewan takes the overall victory.

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Start lists for nationals
http://roadnationals.org.au/start-list/

 

[greenedge]

I shall say Porte to take the ITT. The criterium Davison, Renshaw or Matthews.

U23 RR Law or Flakemore, Phelan animating it. U23 Criterium shall be Ewans' quite easily. The ITT winner in my view will be Howson though Kerby could challenge.

For the womens RR i shall say Neylan, Cromwell or Gilmore who looks to be getting better.

No idea for the rest.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I shall say Porte to take the ITT. The criterium Davison, Renshaw or Matthews.

U23 RR Law or Flakemore, Phelan animating it. U23 Criterium shall be Ewans' quite easily. The ITT winner in my view will be Howson though Kerby could challenge.

For the womens RR i shall say Neylan, Cromwell or Gilmore who looks to be getting better.

No idea for the rest.

No way Gilmore will win. She has only just come back and is not a good climber, especially in comparison to Neylan and Cromwell.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I agree with this. I rode for a week with both Neylan and Gilmore in December. Neylan is WAY stronger.

In the men's Simon Clarke is getting pretty strong. He had his appendix out in late November and so lost a bit of training - I think he might be ahead of Gerrans right now in terms of fitness.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Massive bushfire just outside of Ballarat. Supposedly it is not far away from Wendouree, where tomorrow's time trial will be held. Seems likely that the race will have to be called off. The fire is only 25km away from the course. In saying this, there will be much cooler weather tomorrow with some rain which may help the situation.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Prediction for the time trial:

1. Durbridge
2. Dennis
3. Porte
4. Bobridge
5. Wurf

 

[theyoungest]

Prediction for the time trial:

1. Durbridge
2. Dennis
3. Porte
4. Bobridge
5. Wurf

No, Durbridge grabbed the Cyclingnews headlines by hitting a pothole, so now he'll finish dead last

BTW, why no Meyer in the TT?

 

[Ferminal]

No, Durbridge grabbed the Cyclingnews headlines by hitting a pothole, so now he'll finish dead last

BTW, why no Meyer in the TT?

I guess he thinks he can challenge in the RR and doesn't see the point in racing for Silver in the TT. He's still in Perth but will do the crit on Thursday.

 

[theyoungest]

I guess he thinks he can challenge in the RR and doesn't see the point in racing for Silver in the TT. He's still in Perth but will do the crit on Thursday.

Last year he lost it by just a few seconds... if he gives up they might as well all do the same.

 

[Wilba60]

I like Meyer as a big chance in the RR. This is a guess but I reckon he is really disappointed in what happened last year at Bunniyong when he looked the winner at one stage. To go hunger flat and almost ride backwards would have been a big shock to him and I am guessing he is out to avenge that "mistake" and win the jersey. He will be on a much stricter road racing training regime now and I feel he will have a top year, which would be nicely supplemented with the Aussie champs jersey.

Of course none of us know what the OGE plan is but going on last year they tend to go with 3 or 4 adaptable plans based on how their riders are feeling and also the positions of the main contenders. My pick though is still Simon Clarke, he looked good up Arthurs Seat in the HST and as long as the team management give him the green light, he is a huge chance. Hopefully he will also be riding the TDU. Plenty of great opposition for OGE though and it will be interesting to see what allegiances are built by other professional teams and independant riders. Great race coming up.

 

[auscyclefan94]

On the bush fires, it seems odd that there has been no media on it from the organisers. This map shows were the bush fires are currently relative to the course, which is from Lake Wendouree and to the west of that.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Howson and Gillow won the U23 and Women's ITT championships respectively. The men to start in 10 minutes.

 

[asdfgh101]

Any updates ACF?

 

[Ferminal]

http://metarace.com.au/carn/mentt#

 

[auscyclefan94]

Durbridge fastest at split 30:23.34, Dennis 2nd + 12" and Porte 3rd +19" #roadnats. Average speed for Durbridge is 53.3km/h. The speeds have been super fast today.

 

[auscyclefan94]

News is that Dennis is coming back to Durbridge in the latter half of the course

 

[auscyclefan94]

Durbridge wins by 21 seconds over Dennis. Average speed 51.1km/h.

Bobridge finishes 18th.

1. Luke DURBRIDGE (WA) 43:26.71
2. Rohan DENNIS (SA) 43:47.98 +21.2
3. Michael MATTHEWS (ACT) 44:11.85 +45.1
4. Richard PORTE (TAS) 44:14.86 +48.1
5. Jacob KAUFFMANN (NSW) 46:10.39 +2:43.6
... ... ... ...
9. Cameron WURF (TAS) 46:45.28 +3:18.5
18. Jack BOBRIDGE (SA) 47:56.46 +4:29.7