I'm going to do this a little backward, after all the race is held on a continent at the bottom of the world. Things are backward there...It's Summer there, all nice and hot with green grass shorts and cold drinks. Stage 5 is already in the bag, but I have not seen the replay so I'm not going to recap until this thing is over.
Stage 4
So far this has been my favorite stage, five escapees fled the peloton and made a go. This being a flat sprinters stage the teams let the leash loose. Cameron Meyer and Matt Wilson of Garmin, Tomas De Gendt and Rob Rujigh of Vacansoleil, Laurens ten Dam representing Rabobank put in a full day at the office trying to stay out of reach of the sprinters teams. HTC and Lotto went to work to mitigate their losses and get their men to the finish line first. Rob Rujigh either was not feeling it or just didn't think the break was going to survive and he pulled the plug and went back to the peloton. Wilson, ten Dam, De Gendt and Meyer put in work to make it stick, and with 4k to go the peloton could see the rogue riders up the road. The catch was emanate -or was it? With the peloton breathing down their necks the quartet of riders went for the sprint, Wilson killing it for his teammate Meyer who out-kicked the other two and picked up his first ProTour win and Garmin's first for the year.
Stage 3
This stage was all about the sprinters, and an U23 World Champ that stold the show. Who is Michael Matthews you ask? He is a 20 year old neo-pro that is coming off a U23 World Champ win. His compatriot and team captain Graeme Brown (who is also a sprinter) was caught up in a crash and the team switched plans on the fly and tapped the young fastman for a go. The youngster took it to Andre Greipel and Matt Goss in a sprint that allowed him time for a little victory cha-cha across the line. Impressive, Rabobank is probably licking their chops.
Stage 2
A win is a win is a win. You've seen the Mayhem Allstate commercials with Dean Winters, well Mayhem was in full effect on stage two. Cav ended up on the tarmac and required stitches -to his face, he was a bloody mess -no really. That was the first of the two crashes in the final 3k. The second one took out several contenders and Ben Swift with some teammates of his Sky team took advantage of the situation and he jumped on a charging Robbie McEwen and took the win.
Stage 1
Classic by the book sprinter's stage: break, catch, bunch sprint. Matt Goss of HTC sprinted Robbie McEwen, and Andre Greipel for the win with a perfect timed lead-out from Renshaw who is used to having Cav on this wheel. The amount of horsepower in this race is insane, it is full gas bunch sprinting at it's best. We will not see this quality of sprinting again until July.
Everyone is hungry for wins and a good start to the ProTour. I am happy with the short but sweet VS coverage, there is just enough Lance Love to get the TV spots and advertisers and they do a good job showing how the race unfolds. They show the start, the breaks being formed, the intermediate sprints, the KOMs, the break going and going until they get caught and then the bunch sprint -all in a tidy 30min package with minimal commercial breaks. Good Job guys, thank you for the coverage.
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