What’s your young fellas name?
Nicholas. He’s running around in senior C grade at Hawthorn and also in the VICs school series. But to be fair, he’s not a sprinter, but a climber at the moment. If you know Melbourne climbs, he’s just got a top 25 on Clintons, and sub-16m on the 1:20, which I think is pretty good for someone that turned 17 a couple of months ago.
He’s only just jumped on a decent bike as well (he won a D-grade race on a crappy alloy bike with Sora …).
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Have no real connection - I am merely a couch potato in Hong Kong - I live in a good time zone to watch races with most starting in the early evening and finishing around midnight. I watch lots of races and for exaple today watched a one day women’s race from Spain - Get a bit of third hand info from a source about the Aussie team Jayco Alula.
I hope this new venue for the Aussie Nationals can find some challenging terrain outside Kings Park or it will be a sprinters fest, unless Jayco can send riders up the road.
S.Yates is doing a tour of the world in the last few months - He was in taiwan for the sponsor Giant and rode the Taiwan KOM, then in OZ in January to ride the TDU andnow off to Saudi to ride the Alula Tour - I’d be surprised if he is not at the team in 2025.
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It will be an interesting few months for Matthews - Form permitting he is wanted by both Groenewegen and Ewan to be the second last rider in the sprint train - He would be excellent in this role but if he wants to win races he should be going to the Vuelta - This is particularly pertinent because the World’s in not suitable and he should be devoting his resources to the Classics and the Olympics.
The Jayco team for the Alula Tour is Groenewegen, Mezgec, Reinders, Juul-Jensen, Hamilton and Yates - Groenwegen will face oppostion from Merlier and Milan, while I am unsure that the climbing stage will suit Yates.
The team for Ride Torquay is the same team as the TDU except Quick and Porter come in for Hepburn and Yates.
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Good women’s race in Geelong.
Gigante couldn’t get away on the climb, Ludwig blew them away on the 2nd go, and then Reijnhout and Wlodarczyk caught her, Gigante couldn’t quite bridge.
Reijnhout then attacked with 4km to go and couldn’t be caught, Wlodarczyk wasn’t far behind ahd Ludwig just on the back of her.
Gigante finshed up 11th.
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No Jayco riders in the top 10 which sums up their ordinary team - They’ll need to be tactically savvy this year and choose a suitable calendar to have a decent year - They have a good budget and must recruit better riders for 2025.
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It’s a great circuit. Comes past our place every year in Highton. We go up every year to Montpellier Park in Highton to watch them come up the climb.
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So happy to see Laurence Pithie win his first world tour race … his dad was over last week but had to back to NZ and missed the win …
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Was a good race. Enjoyed the course on the TV, remembering riding my skateboard down a few of those hills when visiting my grandparents 40 years ago.
*for about 20metres before I got terrified and bailed out
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Pithie was good on the final stage of the TDU, except he attacked over the final climb, instead of waiting on his sprint. FDJ had a decorated development team in 2023 and bravely upgraded seven riders to their WT team - It’s proving a successful strategy.
Plapp got the finish wrong for O’Brien - He needed to wait to 600 metres to go to do his leadout for O’Brien, instead of going with 1.1km to go which left O’Brien exposed.
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Yeah, as soon as he got going he hit that corner which negated the attack completely. He needed to attack after that corner.
Poor, O’Brien was left in the wind with 700 metres to go - Outside of the National’s its been a disappointing Aussie summer for Jayco - Anyway Alula tour in 2 days and Valenciana in 3 days - The team should get a result in both races.
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Groenewegen runs an unlucky second to the surprise winner Van Uden in stage one of the Alula Tour. Unfortunately, he lost contact with his lead out after De Marchi carshed with 1.5kms to go - He then made up ground but was boxed in until 50 metres to go - He looks fast.
Interesting interview with S.Yates before the start of the Alula Tour. Main takeways
- He had two bad stages 14 and 15 in the 2023 TDF which he claims was because of nutrition and being unable to get sustenance for 5okms.
- he suggested that the team’s comparatively smaller budget means that they cant have helpers every 10kms on the route.
- The interviewers then suggested maybe he could move to a bigger team and he suggested he had never been contacted by a big team.
- He enjoys being at Jayco because he can organise his own altitude camps ( lives in Andorra ) instead of being forced to attend team-wide altitude camps.
- He gave every indication that he will stay at Jayco if wanted by the team.
- His calendar will be Strade Bianche, Tirreno, Basque and Ardennes leading into the TDF.
Apparently, Jayco wants another Aussie or NZ rider to be a leader at the team. I have no doubt they’ll make contact with Hindley and O’Connor. They may even look at Pithie. I favor O’connor because he’s decent in one day races, good in one week stage races and can do a top 10 GC in a GT if needed.
The team for Valenciana is Matthews, Zana, Dunbar, Berhe, Jansen, Englehardt and De Pretto. Jansen is a good late addition and he could help Matthews snare a stage. It’s an average route with UAE and Bora having strong teams. Interested to se ehow Dunbar performs.
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Jayco must be hoping they’ve used up all their bad luck for the year - The start of the year has seen injuries/illness/crashes decimate their season, yet, everything I’ve observed is the riders are in good form.
You have the TDU where Jayco had three leaders in Plapp, Yates and Ewan - Ewan gets ill before the race and then struggles, while Plapp crashes out. Then you go to the Alula Tour where they had three leaders Groenewegen, Yates and Hamilton - Groenwegen is unlucky in stage one then leaves the race with illness while looking as fast as merlier, then Hamilton who wa slooking his best for two years is brought down in a crash with 6kms to go. Then you go to Valenciana where the team looked very strong. Dunbar is brought down in an innocous crash in stage two and is out of the race, then Matthews and the sprint train crashes 1km from the finish. Anyway, Yates still must be the favorite for GC at Alula, while Zana can do a good ride for GC in valenciana. Hats off to neo-pro De Pretto who has looked good in each of his race days in varying terrains and has always finished with Bling.
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Perennial bridesmaid, Mark O’Brien wins the Warnie!
I thought O’Brien must have won solo.
Yates outsprints LeClerf and Fisher-Black to win the stage and the GC at the Alula Tour. Gerry was on hand to offer celebrations. Bling out of Valenciana after his crash in stage three. Finally, I’m interested in how Ewan goes in Oman - Groenewegen and Merlier seemed to be on a par in stage one of Alula, and with Merlier riding Oman we will get a guide on Ewan’s form.
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its the only way he could. He was clearly the strongest of the final selection, but waited until Connor Sens attacked got a bit of a break. O’Brien then bridged across and the attacked on one of the final hills to get away and never looked like he’d be chased down.
Had a good look at Valenciana with my Jayco eyes on - Berhe did well to finish top 10 on GC but there were good signs and bad signs - He did well on the Queen Stage to be in the last 4 but went into the red and dropped back later on the climb, while he got dropped on the climb in stage 5 and was lucky to get back on the descent - He has talent, however he needs to ride within his limits - Bling looked good but crashed in stage three, while Dunbar crashed in stage two but seemed to be struggling climbing in stage one - Bling should have a good season if he avoids bad luck, while Dunbar has time to find form. Zana was the same as last year and struggled in his first race - Englehart came into the season underdone while he crashed with Dunbar but rode through injury to get miles in the legs. It was good to see Janssen riding early in the season and if he stays sound he needs to ride the Giro or the TDF - The big revelation has been neo-pro Da Pretto - Rode well all week, could get over the climbs, could help Bling in the finals and sprinted to 6th in today’s stage - He must be a certainty for the Giro as he can fill multiple roles.
I watched the Vuelta Femininas one day race which was the same route as the men’s final stage. Jayco notionally had their WT team in attendancem but in fact it was their conti team with one WT rider Caroline Andersson. Actually it was a frustrating race because Andersson was in the break of three that went to the finish, until she crashed out with 8kms to go. Think she looked the strongest in the break. Disheartingly the four remaining conti all finished OTL . Anyway they have the Saudi cyclist joining the team and apparently she has good numbers.
The womens team for UAE is Garcia, Baker, Campbell, Smulders, Paternoster and Korevaar. It’s a good team for the race which they should be in attendance but it’s hard to see them winning a stage. Baker is making a rushed trip from Adelaide after the track world Cup, while I am interested to see if Paternoster has got a bit more speed. Garcia can do a good GC with a top 5 possible.
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Jayco’s Ella Wyllie wins the NZ Elite RR, after winning the U23 TT a couple of days ago.
She’s got a similar trajectory as Gigante, it appears, so they seem to have a good one.
Good win by Wylie - I don’t rate her as highly as others but it will be interesting to measure her development in 2024.
Jayco had to make last minute changes to the team for Oman - Hamilton who was to ride for GC has not recovered from his crash at Alula and likewise De Marchi - They flew Da pretto over from Europe as a last minute replacement and he road in the lead up race The one day Muscat classic - He was close to winning as he was the only one who could go with Finn Fisher Black when he attacked on the final climb and only got dropped in the last 100 metres and then got boxed in while contesting the sprint for second. I wonder why sprinters are at this race because after stage one they have nothing.
Baker did well to finish fourth in the first stages of the women’s UAE tour - I don’t understand why AG Insurance are not at this race. Woolaston could do well in the sprints while Gigante could do well in Jabel hafeet.