Cycling fans losers in Tour shake-up

The sad thing about this year’s Jayco Herald-Sun Tour is that Nathan Haas will be unable to defend his title.

The Garmin rider, who secured his pro contract on the back of a sterling performance in this race two years ago, will be lining up in an Australian national team alongside pre-race favourite and two time winner Simon Gerrans.

Having lost its UCI status, the race can no longer play host to the pro teams, forcing Gerrans and Haas to join forces in a cobbled together national outfit. Instead of going head to head for their respective trade teams, Haas will now play domestic to Gerrans and Matthew Goss, who is also a part of the squad.

This robs the race of a potential showdown that could have generated the type of interest and drama that the media and fans crave – the darling of Australia’s first pro-team chasing his third Jayco Herald-Sun Tour victory versus the audacious reigning champion, no longer the unknown quantity after a year in pro ranks.

Promoters would have loved it.

Instead we have ahead of us a Tour that looks, on paper at least, decidedly unbalanced. The Jayco Australian National Team is stacked with pro-riders.

Gerrans, Haas and Goss are joined by Orica-GreenEdge’s Vuelta hero Simon Clarke, veteran Stuart O’Grady and under 23 rising star Jay McCarthy.

No other team can boast a line-up with such depth.

The New Zealand national team boasts veteran Greg Henderson and young power house Tom Scully, while for Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisors, Anthony Giacoppo, Jai Crawford and Pat Shaw will no doubt be in the mix once again.

Drapac Cycling, another of the local teams to always put up a good show, have former Australian road champion Darren Lapthorne, a rejuvenated Will Walker, Bernard Sulzberger and Rhys Pollock to lead them into battle.

But after that, the surnames become harder to recognise to all but the most ardent follower of the local scene.

It is in stark contrast to the last time the event was run, in October 2011, when the race still had UCI status. Garmin-Cervelo, Saxo Bank-Sungard, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Katusha and Skil-Shimano all sent squads, and the domestic riders cherished the chance to take it up to their more fancied rivals.

It produced some scintillating racing and the newspapers and sports reporters lapped it up. It was pure David and Goliath stuff.

On stage one, veteran Aussie cyclist Rhys Pollock of the local Drapac team, outpointed Garmin-Cervelo’s highly fancied Jack Bobridge to claim stage one in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Ballarat’s picturesque Lake Wendouree.

On stage two, little known South African Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg, riding for the even lesser well known MTN Qhubeka team, beat home Saxo Bank-Sungard’s Baden Cooke.

German sprint sensation Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano) restored some pride for the big name trade teams by beating the bunch to the line at the end of stage three, but hot on his wheel was Steele Von Hoff, the Geneysis Wealth Advisers rider, who had claimed 17 victories at domestic level and was hell bent on pushing the big shots from Europe as far as he could.

But the event will be forever remembered for its race-defining fourth stage. Taking place on the hairpins of the dreaded Arthurs Seat climb, Haas and Bobridge duked it out for the overall classification in front of thousands of hysterical fans, with the young domestic rider proving too strong for the professional.

Haas, holding a slender eight second general classification lead over Bobridge, crossed the line in second place (Katusha’s Egor Silin won the stage after a solo breakaway) with Bobridge left to fill third and finishing second overall.

The final stage, a criterium style circuit centred around Melbourne’s Lygon street gave the pros one last chance to prevail. Kittel once again wowed the locals with his extreme speed in the sprint finish.

The race was a highlight from start to finish. There was neither a dull stage nor any negative riding and it proved to be one of the best stage races to have ever been held in this country.

Now though, without international teams and having lost a day and two road stages (stage one is now a prologue and the ever popular Lygon circuit has been cut) the race that an emerging Bradley Wiggins won in 2009 appears to be a shadow of its former self.

With no disrespect to the riders competing in this year’s watered down event (for more on this read Jono Lovelock’s article from earlier in the week), the race can’t possibly hope to reach the dazzling heights it set in 2011.