January
Plan: To have Aussie riders do as much as possible. Win Tour Down Under, win as many criterium races in Bay Cycling Classic as possible, win two national championship titles, and do well in the Down Under Classic. After that, Davis will begin his season with the Tour of Wellington, probably accompanied by one other CWLander (volunteers welcome.)
Keen observers will have noted we have nine Aussies - only eight of them can really race at any time. Thus, Nathan Hoy and Kingsley Clapham will skip most of the domestic races, though they may turn out for the national championships if their form + skills is judged good enough by our sports director.
First race:
Williamstown Port Bay Criterium, 36 km - 1st stage of 5 in Jayco Bay Cycling Classic.
Team - will race all next five stages:
Four Webheads caught on film waiting to strike.
After an early breakaway with Reddlapalli was caught, it was time for a new attempt with 12 km to go. Robert Gesink took off, and was chased by three adventurers, including Gustov and Guerini.
The three chasers had no chance, but Gesink had a huge lead, and despite the frantic work of the Casson Dairy team he held on to take the first stage of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic.
Comment from sports director: we shouldn't have tried to take advantage of the first break; it was doomed and we suddenly didn't have any men up front to chase a strong Gesink, since we didn't want to chase Manju down. All credit to Rabobank for a tactical race. Our leadout worked very well with the two best sprinters in the main bunch, well done.
Final result
1 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 44'09
2 Ryan Dunn TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
3 David Kearsley TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
4 Kirk O'Bee HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS s.t.
5 Henk Vogels TOYOTA UNITED PRO CYCLING TEAM s.t.
6 Josh Smith SAVINGS & LOANS CYCLING TEAM s.t.
7 Eric Baumann T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Robert McLachlan DRAPAC PORSCHE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM s.t.
9 Matthew Hayman RABOBANK s.t.
10 Mark Jamieson SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS s.t.
26 Bugs Malone TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
30 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
34 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
46 Chris Dwyer TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
57 riders in same time. Bileka (+1.43), N Sørensen (+2.23), Van Huffel (+2.23) among big shots who lost time.
GC:
1 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 43'49
2 Ryan Dunn TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 8
3 David Kearsley TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 12
all others (Malone, Forner, Reddlapalli, Dwyer) +20
Points:
1 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 25
2 Ryan Dunn TEAM CASSON DAIRY 20
3 David Kearsley TEAM CASSON DAIRY 16
Btw, won't be this detailed for all races. Probably the grand tours will have this much detail, the rest will just post results and a short race wrap-up.