THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Renshaw clings to TDU lead
The stage has been set for a showdown of epic proportions.
In searing heat, a highly animated fourth stage of the Tour Down Under had the potential to impose time gaps, but the finale in Strathalbyn saw the fourth bunch gallop in as many days.
High Road's Andre Greipel took a convincing win over race leader Mark Renshaw, who kept his ochre jersey, thus leaving the door to overall honors wide open for Saturday's stage in Willunga.
Just 3km long, averaging 7.5 percent and its summit placed just short of 20km from the finish, Old Willunga Hill would not be the scene of so much suffering if it were not the only climb of significance in the six-day race.
But it is. And for climbers and sprinters alike, suffering will be the only way past this beast that stands in the way of those vying for final glory Sunday in Adelaide. Renshaw, whose level of form has surprised even himself this week, knows this only too well, but if he's going to go down, he'll go down fighting.
"It's going to be hard, that's for sure ... I'm not looking forward to it!" he said, grinning nervously. "But I'm going to take it by the horns, and if I can stay within a minute over the top, my teammates will be able to drag me back up, and we'll just have to bank on that. Twenty kilometers is a fair distance, but I think tomorrow there's not going to be many riders that are going to be able to ride [hard after the climb]; it's really going to be a hard slog, that last 20k."
That he fended off a multitude of offensives Friday, and that he's been the only race leader so far to defend his jersey, has no doubt brought Renshaw added confidence, revealing there's also a “Plan B” if he fails to deliver.
"It was really on there for the first two hours. I mean, we were getting hit left, right and center with all the power of CSC and Caisse d'Epargne. We don't seem to have too many friends out there in the peloton but that's how racing goes, they all want a victory, just like I wanted a victory at the start of the week. But every day, [overall victory] becomes a little more possible.
"If I'm still in striking distance [after stage 5], there's no reason why I couldn't come back on Sunday and take a few seconds back but I'm going to need to be within three or five seconds of the lead, and that's going to come down tomorrow. With Crédit Agricole, we've got a two-pronged attack with Simon Gerrans and myself, and we'll be looking to put either Simon in the break or me [having to] defend the jersey."
Greipel, stage winner and second overall, appears less optimistic about his chances of maintaining his position on GC, but Team High Road may well have found another exemplary sprinter to complement the precocious Mark Cavendish.
"I'm really surprised that I'm in such good shape, but now I'll try to win everything possible," said Greipel, who won a cow named Fleurieu - named after the area they're racing in - for his efforts Thursday, but isn't so keen to deal with the excess baggage allowance of taking it home to Germany.
"I'm not the worst rider on the mountains," he added, "but I think there are some teams who are really good on the climbs like CSC and Caisse d'Epargne, and I think they will attack the whole time. Training here in the first week, we saw the climb and if it's a headwind, it won't be so difficult, but if it's like today, it's going to be really hard."
Red-hot start
The hottest day of the race began in Mannum to the east of Adelaide and a flurry of attacks began from the start. By the time the race hit the summit of the day's KOM sprint after 19.2km, a four-man group had slipped away, and even though they were captured shortly after, a mad chase saw the peloton split in two with a 60-strong crew up front.
Some quality riders were missing, however, which brought things back to status quo. Though it wasn't for long, with CSC - particularly Stuart O'Grady - and Caisse d'Epargne riders doing damage at the head of affairs, breaking the field to bits and causing another serious split. Meanwhile, UniSA's Allan Davis became the virtual race leader when he took out the first intermediate sprint in Mount Torrens (47.9km), but Renshaw was having none of it and got things straightened out 12km later when he placed second behind Jan Forster of Gerolsteiner at the next sprint in Woodside.
Just when the dust had settled and the contenders were back together, Euskaltel-Euskadi's Javier Aramendia took a solo flight around the 80km mark, and given his 4:20 deficit at the start of the day, the Basque was given some latitude, at one stage enjoying a lead that had nearly erased that deficit. It proved too much, and Aramendia was captured 6km from Strathalbyn.
With the GC situation so close, the finale was chaotic, and Rabobank's Matthew Hayman was taken out by Elia Rigotto of Milram, breaking his collarbone in the process. But the pileup didn't stop Greipel, who showed a fantastic turn of speed to earn his second stage ahead of Renshaw and Caisse d'Epargne's Jose Joaquin Rojas.
The road ahead
The significance of Saturday's 147km Willunga stage has never been so great. With 87 riders within 24 seconds of each other, the 3km climb of Old Willunga Hill will be the only chance the climbers have to wrestle the tour from the sprinters' hands. However, with its summit placed 20km from the finish, if the sprinters can climb well enough and then limit their losses, the overall winner may not be known till Sunday.
"I think it's going to be much the same as today," predicted Renshaw. "I think there's going to be a lot of teams that are going to try and launch a lot of attacks at the start; everyone's going to want someone in the break, and if they can get a better rider in there, it takes a lot of pressure off them later in the stage.
"Hopefully we won't let too many guys go away and we'll find an ally in either CSC, Caisse d'Epargne or someone that can ride towards the end with us and limit the time gap. So I'll just have to go with the right moves and not spend too much energy early, and save a bit till Willunga," he said.
Race notes
CSC's Stuart O'Grady was one of a number of riders who crashed on Friday along with Christophe Le Mevel of Crédit Agricole, though both were not seriously injured and finished the day's stage. However, as stated earlier, Hayman was not as fortunate and will have to undergo surgery to repair his fractured left collarbone, with race doctor Peter Barnes estimating he will be unable to ride for four or five days. Rigotto was disqualified from the race as a result.
