January 18/17 8:55 am - Tour Down Under: Stage 2

Posted by Editoress on 01/18/17
 

Richie Porte claimed the win on stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under with a solo attack at the base of the Paracombe climb.
 
Porte crossed the line 16 seconds in front of Gorka Izagirre (Movistar Team) and Esteban Chaves (ORICA-Scott) to claim the leader's ochre jersey with a 20 second advantage ahead of the final four stages.
Mike Woods finished ninth, in the chase group lead by Rohan Dennis (BMC) that finished nineteen seconds behind Porte.
 
Porte's victory is his fourth stage win at the Santos Tour Down Under and the first time he has worn the ochre jersey.  Woods sits sixteenth in the overall at twenty-nine seconds back.
 
The 148.5km stage started with five laps of a circuit around Stirling where Jasha Sutterlin (Movistar Team) launched a solo attack after the first lap and gained a five-minute advantage.
 
The peloton picked up the pace after exiting the circuit and caught Sutterlin in the final 40km, making way for the battle for position on the approach to the Paracombe climb.
 
Porte's BMC Racing Team teammates brought him to the front and as the peloton reached the base of the climb, Porte put the hammer down and made a solo move.
 
As he reached the halfway point of the climb, Porte had stretched out his advantage and upon crossing the line had a comfortable lead over his General Classification rivals.


How it developed
At the start of the stage it took a little time for the race to warm up. But ten kilometres into the first circuit Czech rider Ondrej Cink (Bahrain - Merida) and 2011 Tour champion Cameron Meyer (UniSA-Australia) launched the first attack of the day.

They rode out to a 35 second lead before the ORICA-SCOTT team upped the tempo on the front of the bunch to reel them in ahead of the first iiNet intermediate sprint at Heathfield (24km).

However it was Team SKY's Ben Swift who pounced for the points and the three second time bonus ahead of Australian Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Sean de Bie of Lotto-Soudal.

German Jasha Sutterlin broke clear soon after the sprint and the bunch was content to let the Movistar rider go. By the 50 kilometre mark he was 4:30 ahead but as he approached the 65 kilometre mark for the second iiNet sprint of the day, again at Heathfield, his lead was diminishing. Sutterlin nabbed the points with Michael Kolar second across the line with his Bora-Hansgrohe team mate Rudiger Selig behind him in third.

The bunch settled down after the sprint allowing Sutterlin’s lead to stretch out past four minutes again as he raced over the last of the five laps. But any hopes of him staying clear were dashed as the peloton hit top speed and 20 minutes later reeled him in.

“It wasn't exactly part of a team plan that I'd go away solo but nobody went and nobody came across so I ended up alone,” said Sutterlin who, for his efforts, was named the Most Competitive Rider of the day. “I kept going until about 30km before the finish and then I just did my best to hold the wheels in the peloton and help my team-mates.”

That set the race up for a thrilling finale as the peloton swept down the long, twisting descent of Norton Summit Road.

Mads Pedersen came unstuck on the way down but the Trek-Segefredo rider was soon back on his bike. As the race headed into the final 20 kilometres Rohan Dennis needed a new wheel which put a spoke in his hopes of repeating his 2015 win in Paracombe but with support from Miles Scotson he rejoined the race soon after and recovered to place fourth on the stage 19 seconds behind BMC Racing team mate Porte.

The Subaru King of the Mountain contest of the day was a short, steep 1.6 kilometre Category 2 climb that crested 400 metres from the stage finish line and it was Porte who collected the points on his way through ahead of Chaves. That means Porte also leads the Subaru KOM classification.



 
Interview with Richie Porte
 
Richie, you've taken your first win for 2017. How does it feel?
 
"The BMC Racing Team boys were just incredible this morning. They really looked after me the whole day and it's nice to win on Paracombe. It's good to get a win already this season and now we'll try and defend this jersey."
 
Talk us through the lead up to the final climb.
 
"We started with the five laps around Stirling. We didn't really race it that hard which is a bit of a shame but at the end of the day I think I have a good gap on the General Classification. I know it's not over with a few quite hard stages remaining. The team are fantastic and strong so I'm quite confident."
 
How confident were you on that climb?
 
"I know I've got good climbing legs and I didn't really want to wait around so to be able to ride away like that gives me good confidence. I knew I had to back myself and I knew I had the form to do it. But to take the time I did, it's a good position to be in. I might have to sacrifice the Willunga stage on Saturday to defend my lead if I still have the jersey. There's some stressful days coming up so we won't be counting our chickens until they hatch. We'll take it as it comes."
 
How does this win compare to others in your career?
 
"It's incredible to wear the ochre jersey at the biggest race in Australia. I'd love to win it. I enjoyed today and the work that the BMC Racing Team guys did for me today was just absolutely incredible. I did a lot of training in the off season for this climb. I made a mess of it two years ago so to come back and make amends like this is just a dream."
 
Fabio Baldato, Sports Director:
 
"It was a perfect day. It wasn't an easy day though and the approach of the climb was really hard, especially to keep Richie in front. It was a big fight like in a sprint to do this. Our plan was to have the guys keep Richie in front and then Richie didn't wait too long and he went immediately on the climb, which is what he wanted to do."
 
"We are confident. Richie has showed his strength on the climbs. But we can't relax, we need to stay focused and race well like today. The team is strong, motivated and we need to keep going like this until Sunday."
Reports by BMC and TDU (edited)

Results from the second stage in Australia