Kiwi News

Strong stage for Kiwis up Old Willunga Hill

Jack Bauer is Garmin Barracuda's top GC rider ©Ben Christian

Jan 21st, 12. The Kiwis racing the Tour Down Under each had different race tactics today - but all four were right amongst the action, as you see from these photos.

Jack Bauer (Garmin Barracuda) said at today's penultimate stage start line that he was going to give it a crack up Willunga Hill - and that is exactly what he did.

His primary goal was to support his two GC teammates but as it turned out, the former NZ Road Champion was the only one of his teammates to be in the front of the action up the final climb.

Bauer finished 9th on the stage. In his first ever World Tour race as a pro-rider, Bauer now sits 11th on GC +36sec, the next nearest Garmin Barracuda rider is Heinrich Haussler, 30th +3m05s.

With one stage remaining, the newby is now the team's top GC rider!

Earlier in the race it was Kiwis Jesse Sergent and Hayden Roulston who were up the front of the action setting the pace.

Along with RadioShack Nissan Trek superhero Jens Voigt, the Kiwi duo pulled the peloton back up to the small break on the first of two ascents of Old Willunga Hill, and then set a furious pace. They were impressive.

"This morning in the team meeting we made the plan to have as many guys in the front as possible on the first time to the top of Willunga," Roulston said on the RadioShack Nissan website.

"It's one thing to say it and quite another to make it happen, especially with the high level of racing that is here. The team is obviously very strong and at the top we had all seven so we went to work, made an echelon and dropped some 20 guys."

Thanks to their huge efforts the break was neutralised and the front of the field was much reduced. Their RadioShack Nissan Trek teammate Tiago Machado then set off on attack which ultimately netted him 3rd place on the stage and 3rd place on GC, just 8sec behind Simon Gerrans (Green Edge) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who share the same GC time.

The fourth Kiwi in the field is Greg Henderson (Lotto Belisol). With bruises from his early tour crashes all but healed, Henderson said he was looking forward to today's stage. For him the day was an interim stage - his focus was already on tomorrow's final stage when he hopes to raise his arms 200m from the finish line having launched Andre Greipel to another sprint win.

For today's final metres, however, Henderson was much further back - in fact he was amongst the spectator action.

Henderson's bunch had slowed right down as they passed a spectators' big screen showing the front of the race. The Kiwi went one step further - he stopped in the middle of the road and watched the finish - much to the amusement of the crowd!

Henderson eventually rolled over the finish line +14min, still almost 3min ahead of a 30 strong groupetto.

Tomorrow is the final stage of the Santos Tour Down Under, a street race in Central Adelaide. With all that is still on offer, it is set to be a fantastic finale!