October 21/07 10:24 am - Jayco Herald Sun Tour: Stage 7 report, photos, results and final GC

Posted by Editoress on 10/21/07
 

Herald Sun Tour - from the Canadian camp
Report and photos by Monique Hanley

Photos

The final stage of the Herald Sun Tour has been run and won, and Eric Wohlberg sits back into the Bicycle Superstore - Canadian National Team chair, whips off his shoes and breathes an audible sigh. 'Geez, I am glad that's over'.

The strong crowd out to watch the final spectacle of Melbourne's 'Festival of Cycling' were now milling around each teams tent. While many are there to catch a glimpse of local heroes such as Stuart O'Grady, most are taking advantage of what is now known as an end-of-season run out sale. A quick wipe of his face, and Wohlberg is up and ready to serve customers. He places the final touch on his stall: his shoes, still fresh (sreaming) from the 80 minute crit in which he featured strongly, making the break and finishing eighth on a technical and leg sapping circuit. "Everything here is for sale" he says, pointing at his table of spare team Symmetrics kit, many with clothing tags still attached. "what size is your feet? These are even customized, I drilled ventilation holes in the bottom of them!"

The sale is now infamous for both spectators looking for a bargain, and riders keen to offload some of their kit and equipment from their 2007 race season. Uniforms, socks, helmets, frames, bike chains - everything is usually available and of course, negotiable. (This writer even picked up a BT track frame at the 2006 sale from former Junior World Champion Simon Clarke.)

The motivation for sale may be greater following the 2007 Herald Sun Tour, thanks largely to a tour made known for strict enforcement of race laws by way of time penalties, disqualification and fines. A twenty second time penalty on Stage Two to Swiss rider Steve Morabito (Astana) cost him a chance of claiming the overall lead following his stage win on Stage Four. Instead, the lead was awarded to Dutch rider Joost Van Leijen (Netherlands National Team). Yet his claim for the overall title was stripped on Stage Five, when he too was penalized 20 seconds for motorpacing following a puncture, placing Australian Matt Wilson back into the overall lead which he defended to claim the overall Tour, his biggest career win.

While the time penalties were making local headlines, each team was also docked an unusual amount of penalties, often in the form of monetary fines. Bicycle Superstore Canadian National Team manager, John Pritchard, estimates the Canadian team penalties have totalled approximately 500 Swiss Francs. "We've had at least a page (of fines), I've been fined every day and the day I wasn't fined I put in a protest - I wanted to know why I wasn't fined!

Fines ranged from drafting to incorrect feeding and little trivial things. We got fined for cutting the race numbers down in size. If you start with 6 inches of plastic but race with 5 inches of plastic - he fines you. As you drive down the road trying to feed a rider and your car overlaps the commissaire, he fines you because you are not supposed to do that. But at the same time you are supposed to be looking after your rider and not running him over, and concentrating on what is going on!"

Chief Commissaire, South African-born Canadian Wayne Pomario, defended the rule interpretations and highlighted the consistency of the enforcement all week. A report on cyclingnews.com quoted Pomario with using the example of Dominique Rollin during Stage Five, noting he had effectively used the caravan to rejoin the peloton. Although happy to avoid the fine, Rollin himself was unsure on the consistency of the rule interpretations. 'I got one fine on Tuesday (Stage Three) for coming back into the caravan after a bike swap, and then the same thing two days later he complimented me on cyclingnews.com for moving up with the caravan. But I did the same move on two different days and I got a fine one day and the other day I got complimented by him!'

Overall, the Canadian National Team certainly made a strong presence on the Herald Sun Tour. Two Top Ten placings on GC (Wohlberg, 8th, Dominique Perras, 10th), Sprint Classification Jersey Winner (Rollin), Third in the overall Teams Classification, 10th in the Young Rider Classification (Ryan Anderson) and Two 'Most Aggressive' Jerseys (Rollin).

"It would have been nice to have guys higher on the GC but I think the level of competition is so high here, so for us to come in here and to recover from the travel is a pretty big achievement," remarked Wohlberg. What makes the results even more impressive is the mixed lead up to the event for the teams riders.

Track star Zach Bell has used the week to help launch his base training phase in the lead up to the Track World Cup in Sydney in December, while youngster Ryan Anderson has come off the back of an intense two months of racing and learning in Europe, including the World Championships. Dominique Perras, riding with US based Kelly Benefit Strategies in 2007 finished his season five weeks earlier, arriving in Melbourne feeling fresh for his fourth Herald Sun Tour.

Both the Canadian riders and their Australian management (Bicycle Superstore, a local bike shop chain) were pleased with such a showing in a strong field. Said Pritchard, "We've been happy with the team. They've been great. We had a good time last year, and they wanted to come back this year which is great. We had four new guys this year, but they fitted in as if they rode with us last year. Just a great bunch of blokes."