2007 Jayco Herald Sun Tour - Review
Bicycle Superstore Canada
Review by John Prichard (Team Manager)
October means Suntour time once again for the Superstore Support Crew. So, out to the airport to pick up our Canadian National Team which Superstore has sponsored for the last two years. The team this year is made up of Eric Wolhberg, Dominique Rollin, Dominique Perras, Zac Bell, Andrew Randall, Ryan Anderson and Jeff Sherstobitoff. From the airport to Bendigo where the Tour starts; we have a request from the local media to present our team for media photos and TV report as we are the first complete team to arrive in town.
After a days rest and the opportunity to fine tune bikes and get to know the riders or rekindle old friendships, we were prepared for the prologue of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour Classic, a 60 minute criterium around the city of Bendigo. The start was frenetic setting the tone for the week of racing to come. A break of 10 riders finally emerged with our best sprinter in the break, Zak Bell. He was looking forward to a win until a crash on the second last lap, disappointingly Zac finished fourth.
STAGE ONE of the tour headed off from Bendigo to Nagambie, our boys were keen to be in any break that went up the road. Not a good start, a flat battery in the race car results in us finally get going behind six other team cars only to find that we are out of race control and ''racing'' through Monday morning Bendigo traffic, great fun, not! Back into the convoy and all finally goes to plan with two of our riders in a successful 12 minute break that survives to the finish. We have our best climber, Dominique Perras and our ''legend'' Eric Wolhberg in the break.
STAGE TWO headed off from Mitchelton Winery to Mansfield. The race starts from the gate and in the mad dash Zac crashes on the bridge one kilometre into the race. We managed to get him back to some of the other riders that had been hurt in the hectic start and have to leave him to make it home. Further into the race our wild card, Dominique Rollin, goes up the road with a successful break and survives only to be backed off in the winning move, to finish a good, but disappointing fourth. The effort of our team has put three of our riders in the top ten, giving us the lead in the team classification, in front of Unibet and Astana, both multi million dollar pro teams. Well done Superstore Canada!
STAGE THREE leaves Mansfield and heads off over a good climb to Beechworth. After some serious attacks, we again have a man in the break. Zac Bell has found his legs and is heading into Beechworth feeling pretty confident. Pity the peloton was too, as they rode the break down in the last kilometre to make it a bunch sprint. No money for us again.
STAGE FOUR and its starting to get tough with the arduous trip from Beechworth to Falls Creek; another great move by Dominique Rollin, who gets away with Trent Wilson and Scott Zwizanski. Big Dom ends up on his own climbing Falls Creek, only to be gobbled up by the climbers, looking for the win. Along the way Dominique has picked up the sprint points, putting him equal to Matt Wilson, the leader of the race.
STAGE FIVE is a fairly flat stage from Mt Beauty to Wangaratta. After some bike trouble with Dominique Rollin, our main focus is to hold position in the general classification, which we do, and head off down to Melbourne for the final weekend.
STAGE SIX is an eight kilometre time trial, which was fairly technical, and again our main focus was holding position, as we could not expect to make any huge time difference over that distance. Zac Bell once again rode well, posting fastest time for most of the day, until the big guns came out.
STAGE SEVEN is the final criterium around the gardens and we have Dominique Rollin level on points with Matt Wilson, the leader of the bike race. We HAVE to take some sprint points and get this jersey. The main objective is to get Dominique in a break which the leaders will let go, leaving Dominique to hopefully take the sprints. With the ''legend'' Eric Wolhberg in the same break as the big guy, we are in with a show. Dominique takes a second in the deciding sprint giving us the sprint jersey for the tour. Well done Dominique and team.
After seven days of racing two of the top pro teams in the world, and also the best teams that Australia has to offer, Bicycle Superstore - Canada comes home with the coveted Sprinters jersey, and finishes third to Unibet and Astana.
Great Result and great coverage on Channel 10! Congratulations to all the crew and riders in presenting a professional outfit and again some great results.
Kris Cerini
Product Manager