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                                   Post race comments >>   Ina-Yoko Teutenberg   Tina Pic   Olivia Gollan   Oenone Wood

Geelong Tour

21st - 23rd February

Stage 4

Race Website

For the final stage of the tour the riders were faced with heat and the gruelling climb up Mt Wallace right in the middle of the 114.3km stage. The sun came out - for the first real time this week and the temperatures hit the mid-to-high twenties, centgrade.

Right from the start, the peleton took no time at all to split. At 5kms a small group of riders had managed to form a break of approximately 10 meters. It included some key riders Susie Wood (NZL), Magali Le Floch (T-Mobile), Meredith Miller (USA), Trixi Worrack (Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung), Monica Baccaille (Italy), Amanda Spratt (Australia), Alexis Rhodes (Australia).  

The break held just off the front of the peleton for 35kms however the Russian Svetlana Bubnenkova was driving hard to close the gap at the front of the chasing peleton. Susanne Ljungskog and the rest of the Diet Cheerwine / Bicisport were keen to close the gap too.

The first intermediate sprint was contested at 50kms and won by Sarah Duester (Univega Pro Cycling Team). 

At the base of the climb, the peleton were all together but the harshness of the climb soon dispersed it. As the riders made their way up, Oenone Wood (Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung) showed her true class and form as she led the race and powered to the top. The peleton was completely strung out for 200m as riders grinded out the pedal revs; some even took to walking as the gradient kicked up half way up the climb.

The second intermediate sprint was contested at 86kms and won by Melissa Holt (NZL)

In the final kilometers, a crash involving T-Mobile riders, Judith Arndt and Lynn Bassette ruined the plans for a T-Mobile lead-out for sprinter, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg. This forced Ina Teutenberg to use her skills and integrate into the 'train' being formed by the USA team as they prepared the lead out for the previous day’s winner Tina Pic. Arndt managed to get herself back into the peleton but Bessette required medical treatment for a suspected broken collar bone.

The accident is a serous blow to the T-Mobile team and also to the Canadian National Team, as Lynn is a serious contender for the Commonwealth Games road title.

At 5km to go Michelle Hyland (NZL) and Akemi Morimoto (Japan) attempted to get away and managed to get a 22 second lead before they were quickly closed down at the 4km to go sign by the USA team. As soon as the peleton made the catch, Larissa Kleinmann (German National Team) attempted to get away. This attack was quickly closed down too.

At the 500m mark, Tina Pic went, but it was slightly too early in the sprint, opening it up for Ina Teutenberg (T-Mobile), Melissa Holt (NZL) and Oenone Wood ((Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung). 

Race time was  2 hours 59 sec 44.

The overall tour win went to Oenone Wood for the third year in succession. Wood also took the Sprint Competition. The U21 competition was won by Tiffany Cromwell (Team SAFI)

Post Race Comments

Speaking to WCN after the win Ina Teutenberg was pleased to get the job done. “It was hard today, I am glad to get it done. The hill was steep and amazingly hard, everyone said I would need a 27, but I managed to get to the top without getting off and walking. If the climb had been much further I am sure I would have had to jump off and walk” Talking through the final sprint, “the US team did a perfect lead out for Tina but she seemed to get a little nervous and went to early, I was on her wheel, in the end she did a perfect lead out for me. I got to the front with 150m to go and I managed to hold it”

When asked about the T-Mobile team's performance at this early stage in the season, Ina added “It is always hard when you don’t have an Australian on the team. I have been here all summer but I haven’t really done anything with any real intensity. We have a couple of riders who have just arrived from Europe and they are adjusting to the climate change as they were training in really bad weather. There is really not much you can do this early in the season, we just don’t have the power yet, we may have lost Lynn in the crash and Judith is not quite there yet. It is hard to have a lead out and get organised if everyone is not feeling too hot”.

Talking about the World Cup event coming up and the potential risk that T-Mobile will be missing Lynn Bassette; Ina added “My team mates will get me in the right position on Sunday I’m sure. There is likely to be a few trains on Sunday apart from us, Univega, Nurnberg, USA and New Zealand. They all have a lot of sprinters, you know how it is in the sprint anything can happen. Yesterday Oenone and I were really fast but we went too late, Tina went early yesterday and it paid off. At this stage of the year there are five or six riders who can take the win on the day. Hopefully Lynn will be ok, it’s a shame because she is one of the riders in great form, we will just have to adjust our tactics if she can’t ride”  

Tina Pic (USA) chatted after the race and backed up Ina Teutenberg's impression of the race. “that hill is always hard, you are just glad to get over it” On the sprint Tina added “we went a bit too early, you just have to go with it when you start you have to commit, when Kristin blew, she had gone from so far out she started the lead out from before the corner and it was amazing how long she managed to hold the lead out, in the end I just had to go and I couldn’t get onto any other train, you just go” Compared to yesterday how did the sprint feel today? “It was hard; it felt like there were so many more riders going for the sprint today compared to yesterday. When we led out yesterday it felt like no one else was coming around, today it felt like there were riders coming at all sides” On the World Cup coming up and her team's readiness Pic commented “ the team are working really well together hopefully we can pull it off”

Olivia Gollan, alongside Oenone Wood, the only other rider to have won the Geelong Tour, took a few minutes to chat about her race in her first race with new team Nobili Rubinetterie. “I am really please with my ride today. I climbed really well and I was in the top four as we got towards the top, unfortunately my bike didn’t survive the climb and I lost touch with the lead group. I am pleased that I got up the climb in the first three or four; I have a lot of confidence out of today. It was a difficult day today in the bunch with the number of crashes and the course made it dangerous in the bunch at times. It is really exciting to be racing in Australia with 150 riders and most of whom are international”. Do your tactics change from the tour to the World Cup event? “No, we are just going to win”.  

Oenone Wood was overjoyed to take this, her third win in a row. “It was a bit of a late start for me, I missed the early break and my team mates had to work extra hard, probably too hard to get it back, but they did a fantastic job. I have to really thank them for the win today” Are you feeling confident about the World Cup, New Zealand tour and World Cup and of course the Commonwealth Games? “The legs feel pretty good, I don’t want to say too much, but hopefully we will get a great result this weekend”. How difficult is Mount Wallace? “it’s a pretty hard hill, for the Europeans its their first race into the season, I have had a little bit more background than them, but you really don’t want to get over the top of the hill on your own and work in the wind and waste yourself. I managed to get with a couple of riders and we just kept working together until the bunch caught up.” And what about the finish, the sprint? “In the sprint our team had worked really hard all day to chase everything. I had to work to get up in the sprint as I didn’t have a good position ."

How do you recover from a race with such a big climb? “We will get a massage, sleep, do a recovery ride tomorrow and pre-race ride before the race. I like the world cup course it had a little power climb that suits me. My form is pretty good. It [the Geelong Word Cup] is usually a bunch sprint but it will depend on the teams and their sprinters as to whether they will work to get a break or work for a bunch sprint. Hopefully the climb will work in my favour against the Europeans, they are just getting started in the season with 10 times over the climb, and I am hoping it will wear them down”