Tour Down Under stage 5 & 6

OK, I'm back to the normal flow of things, and with stage 5 and 6 in the bag, I'll let the cat out.  The TDU was fun to watch and it was great to have some cycling back.  Heck yeah, the season is on.

Stage 5
Old Willunga Hill on the menu today with Garm-elo trying to keep Meyer in the leader's jersey.  The break went after 5k of racing and had a large group including Lance.  They were eventually brought back into the fold and then replaced by a small group of Porte, Hermans and Bobridge who were joined by Roulston and Goss.  More fled the peloton until the group in the lead had 20 riders.  This group managed a small gap that was able to stay away and the sprint by Matthews, Goss and Ventoso of Movistar who would take the win.  Goss would hang in for third and Michael Matthews (the winner of stage 3) taking 2nd.  Goss was able to take some time out of Meyer and was only 8sec down.

Stage 6
Hope you saw this one on TV or on the interweb.  Fireworks Down Under for real.  Garm-elo was going to keep their man in the leader's jersey, and they put everything on the table.  The break went and consisted of Stuart O'Grady and some other guys -when you have a break that has Stuy in it no one else matters -it's Stuart HTFU O'Grady.  There were two full laps left and they already awarded him the most agressive rider of the day.  The break if you can call it that never got more than 20sec.  Stuart was eventually joined by ex-teammate Nicki Sorensen, BMC rider Simon Zahner and the trio stayed at arms length in front of a massive peloton until the bell lap.  Team Sky who had been sitting in came to the front with full gas and lined out the peloton.  They were at the front for the full final lap.  Matt Goss made a move but was out-sprinted by Henderson and Ben Swift who took the top step.  Goss had a leadout from Mark (not sure if it was Renshaw or Cav?) but was cut-off by Saxo's Haedo and ended up in third.  Third place was only good enough for 2nd overall 2sec behind Meyer.  Tough day at the office for HTC.  Swift's win moved him ahead of Matthews who was looking solid for second or third, but had to settle for 4th.