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Tour Down Under - Stage 5: McLaren Vale - Wilunga, 131km

Jun 16, 2009
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Saturday 22 January 2011

Start Time: 11am McLaren Vale

Skoda King of the Mountain: Willunga Hill

Jayco Sprint Locations: The Esplanade, Aldinga Beach (Snapper Point)

Feed Station: Main Road Willunga at Kell Street

Finish Time: 2.19pm

tdu-stage5.PNG


TDU11_PROFILE_Jaycostage5_FINAL.jpg
(Don't trust the final km profile as the finish is actually slightly uphill)

Preview of Stage 5

Weather: 28oC (in wilunga) 28km/h SSE winds.

Past winners
2010: Luis Leon Sanchez
2009: Allan Davis
2008: Andre Greipel
2007:pieter Ghyllebert
2006: Russell van Hout
 
Sigh.... Those final 3k profiles are really mindscrewing me.

Either way. I think that despite the best efforts of a combined Garmin-Rabobank flotilla trying to shell him out/catch escapees, Goss hangs on, takes the stage, and makes stage 6 exciting.... Hopefully.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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General Classification: Top 10:
1: Cameron MEYER (AUS) - GARMIN-CERVELO 12:54:30,
2: Laurens ten DAM (NED) - RABOBANK @ 0:10,
3: Matt GOSS (AUS) - HTC-HIGHROAD @0:12,
4: Robbie McEWEN (AUS) - TEAM RADIOSHACK @0:15,
5: Andre GREIPEL (GER) - OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO @0:16,
6: Michael MATTHEWS (AUS) - RABOBANK @0:18,
7: Ben SWIFT (GBR) - SKY PRO CYCLING @st,
8: Blel KADRI (FRA) - AG2R @0:26,
9: Francisco VENTOSO (ESP) - MOVISTAR TEAM @0:27,
10: Allan DAVIS (AUS) - ASTANA @0:28


Personally I still think Goss will win overall. 12 seconds is not enough and Meyer will need a gap to get away. Just driving a hard tempo is going to cut it.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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I'll tip Greipel to win the stage. This stage sums up why the tour down under isn't a great race. The main climbing stage has two 3.5km climbs at 7.5%. With a strech of straight flat roads and then a descent to the finish. Hopefully a pure sprinter wins this so Tutur and all the other muppets at SBS can wake up about this race.
 
Is there any reason they don't do a few stages in Adelaide and then take a rest and finish in Melbourne? Just popped into my mind as I was thinking about the World's course. Something with ownership/the state I'm assuming.

Haven't read much about Madrazo this year either, compared to Vichot last year.
 
May 6, 2009
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luckyboy said:
Is there any reason they don't do a few stages in Adelaide and then take a rest and finish in Melbourne? Just popped into my mind as I was thinking about the World's course. Something with ownership/the state I'm assuming.

Haven't read much about Madrazo this year either, compared to Vichot last year.

Distance and logistically a nightmare, and the locals are still peeved about Melbourne stealing their Grand Prix.
 
luckyboy said:
Is there any reason they don't do a few stages in Adelaide and then take a rest and finish in Melbourne? Just popped into my mind as I was thinking about the World's course. Something with ownership/the state I'm assuming.

Haven't read much about Madrazo this year either, compared to Vichot last year.

Same reason they dont finish the TDF in London.

The TDU has been built up over many years.
The riders stay in Hilton Hotel for the whole time they are in Adelaide, normally about 10 days. Believe the riders enjoy staying in same place.
The tour village where all the bikes are is immediately in front of the hotel.
Adelaide Hills are 15 mins away by bike.


Regards


hugh
 
Remember that Meyer DOESN'T need to attack - he just needs 3 riders who are out of contention to be out there ahead of the pack so that Goss has no access to bonus seconds. I wouldn't be surprised if the break of the day is left hanging by Garmin for this reason, as long as the people in it have lost enough time. If there's anybody who's even remotely a threat, then Garmin will need to try and toast people with a high pace to drop Goss.

I'm not particularly hopeful that they can, because there's such a large amount of flat roads and time between the top of the hill and the finishing line, and HTC have such a strong team with them, and of course last year they were able to get on the front and limit Greipel's losses to a very, very strong breakaway group to a small handful of seconds... so in reality I'd expect that we really need a similar quality attack group - and frankly, there isn't that calibre of all-round rider in the race this year.
 
May 25, 2010
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Great, live coverage finally. Except its seems that in W.A. news programs in dialects 95% of the country can't understand are more important than showing the race live for us. Thanks SBS, ya ****s.
 
Libertine Seguros said:
Remember that Meyer DOESN'T need to attack - he just needs 3 riders who are out of contention to be out there ahead of the pack so that Goss has no access to bonus seconds. I wouldn't be surprised if the break of the day is left hanging by Garmin for this reason, as long as the people in it have lost enough time. If there's anybody who's even remotely a threat, then Garmin will need to try and toast people with a high pace to drop Goss.

I'm not particularly hopeful that they can, because there's such a large amount of flat roads and time between the top of the hill and the finishing line, and HTC have such a strong team with them, and of course last year they were able to get on the front and limit Greipel's losses to a very, very strong breakaway group to a small handful of seconds... so in reality I'd expect that we really need a similar quality attack group - and frankly, there isn't that calibre of all-round rider in the race this year.
I'd be surprised if they manage to drop Goss, with Meyer still being able to hang on. Meyer, while being talented, is no Valverde himself.

Rabo are the only ones with two GC cards to play, at least in the top-10, but I don't really see how they could use them. Ten Dam is probably the strongest climber up on GC, but he's a diesel, Willunga is too short for him.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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luckyboy said:
Is there any reason they don't do a few stages in Adelaide and then take a rest and finish in Melbourne? Just popped into my mind as I was thinking about the World's course. Something with ownership/the state I'm assuming.

Haven't read much about Madrazo this year either, compared to Vichot last year.
Melbourne is too far away...:(
Libertine Seguros said:
Remember that Meyer DOESN'T need to attack - he just needs 3 riders who are out of contention to be out there ahead of the pack so that Goss has no access to bonus seconds. I wouldn't be surprised if the break of the day is left hanging by Garmin for this reason, as long as the people in it have lost enough time. If there's anybody who's even remotely a threat, then Garmin will need to try and toast people with a high pace to drop Goss.

I'm not particularly hopeful that they can, because there's such a large amount of flat roads and time between the top of the hill and the finishing line, and HTC have such a strong team with them, and of course last year they were able to get on the front and limit Greipel's losses to a very, very strong breakaway group to a small handful of seconds... so in reality I'd expect that we really need a similar quality attack group - and frankly, there isn't that calibre of all-round rider in the race this year.
Garmin shouldn't waist their time setting a high tempo on Wilunga. They don't have the riders to do it. Meyer needs to make a late attack like Roberts last year so he can get some time on Goss. That is meyer's only hope to win the gc. Putting in long range attacks on Wilunga Hill won't work.

Meyer certainly needs to attack. He needs more time on Goss who will likely place or win tommorow and then he will be able to get time bonuses on Sunday. Goss doesn't need the intermediate time bonuses on this stage.
theyoungest said:
If Luis Leon Sanchez, with the help of Valverde and Evans, can only keep a 6 second advantage on the bunch at the finish line, Ballan and Gerrans will hardly be able to stay away.

People are trying to tell me that Garmin will launch Bobridge on Wilunga for him to ride away and go for the overall and that he would win with a big gap. Firstly for the same reason theyoungest listed, Evans and Valverde could only get 6 seconds and I doubt Bobridge has the engine to hold off the field by himself on that course. Nobody can.
 
luckyboy said:
Is there any reason they don't do a few stages in Adelaide and then take a rest and finish in Melbourne? .

Thats a point i made on an earlier stage thread. It would be so much better if they actually went from a to b. Thats what cycling is about. Show us Melbourne. Show us Australia, not just Adelaide.

hughmoore said:
Same reason they dont finish the TDF in London.

The TDU has been built up over many years.

Stupid comment. In cycling 12 years is not many years. TDF went about 70 years until they made PAris the set finish.

Also mate, the 100 years war is over. London no longer is part of the same country as the Pale of Calais. So finishing the TDF in London would be stupid. FInishing the Tour Down Under, Down under, would be logical. If you so badly want the race to finish in Adelaide, let it start in Melbourne then.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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When Ben Swift is on good form, as he seems to be, he loves hills like this. I think he has a really good chance at a second stage win.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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People were *****ing about how the nationals course didn't change at all from Ballarat. But then those same people like to keep it in adelaide. But this is the tour down under? Down Under is Australia. So why is it always in the state of South Australia? Shouldn't it be shared around?
 
May 25, 2010
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Oh wonderful idea for sure. I mean if the logistics and rigmarole of getting a 6 day stage race around Adelaide running smoothly is a tough task, imagine the bedlam of moving it around.

Unless cycling suddenly grows wings in people's minds and comes up to the level of association football in this country (in terms of popularity) there's going to be no change at all and no new international races here.
 
Jul 5, 2009
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Australia is a federation, much like the USA. It's founding fathers did not have any intention of creating a homogenous group of provinces such as exist in France or Britain. In fact, the rights of each state trump those of the Federation in most instances besides limited, enumerated, common interests as specified in the Australian Constitution which only got drafted in 1901. Such matters as national defence, maritime laws, national highway maintenance, etc.

Most people struggle to understand this. States rarely combine forces to produce anything, let alone any big events. It's probably a big reason why we failed in our bid to host the 2018 World Cup. The distances between each state's capital cities are enormous in comparison to those between counties in GB, or even the states of the USA. The sheer logistical complications to move an event literally thousands of kilometers per stage would be simply ridiculous. Look at a map of Australia and compare distances with those of England or Europe. I hope this task will allow some trolls to feel slightly less insular for a few moments.

Each state was a separate, unrelated colony when founded. Some like SA were not colonised by the UK dumping convicts. This is why SA is classy, and Victoria is feral. ;o)

Other colonies like WA strongly resisted Federation and merging with the other states as part of the Federation. It took WA a long time to agree to being a part of the federation as we now know it. With all their natural resources and vast wealth, they still whinge from time to time about not being separate from the rest. ;) Much like how New Zealand is still a separate "colony" and nothing to do with Australia - and nowadays obviously a separate nation-state in it's own right.

Little known and shocking trivia fact for many: to this day New Zealand's Constitution still has a clause within it which provides the option for it to merge with us as another Australian state! It frankly should be. ;)

The Australian Constitution document protects each state, as separate entities, from having their rights and interests encroached upon by the Federal government. Where the states were stupid, the Federation intervened. Things like railroad guages were standardized nationwide, for instance.

This is much the same as per the USA. It is very different from the UK in that regard. But it differs from the USA in that it maintains a Westminster system where laws, courts, and Parliament are concerned.

Our federating fathers of 1901 borrowed heavily from the way the US was set up and gradually federated. We are a direct cross between the USA and the UK down here.

Our distances are vast and not comparable to any other federated nations on earth. It's a little known fact that each state down here has, by default, nothing to do with each other in terms of governance.

That's why SA's government funds it's own race and none of the others want to. As a tax payer in SA, I help fund the event. ACF, as a Victorian, does not. Therefore the race stays here.

SA is south and is the bottom, central section of this continent. Adelaide, being on it's southern central coast, has a point when it says it's Down and Underneath the vast majority of the rest of the continent. We're Down and Underneath most of it. We hold a bike race in our Federated, but separate, state. We call it the Tour Down Under, not the Tour of Australia.

We are sorry if you feel short changed or angry about this. We are sorry we bothered setting up a race down here. If you dislike it, you're welcome to continue pretending we don't exist. We are sorry we are not European and we are sorry we don't share your timezones and seasons. We are sorry we have set up a competent-enough event to attract UCI support. ***** more if this annoys you. It's of little consequence. We're here to stay. We're sorry. Deal with it by ignoring us and denigrating us if this makes you feel better about yourself and your snowed-in, overpopulated location. We'll continue holding an event and we'll keep doing the best we can. You're welcome to hate less, reduce your cynicism, and join us in enjoying it if you like.

Otherwise consider dealing with your displeasure in whichever way you see fit. Just troll a bit less. You don't own the sport and your trolling demonstrates that you sure as hell aren't better than anyone else. you're quite a bit worse in fact.

Thanks and hope this helps!
 

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