CYCLING

Daily Diary: Ambrose talks Turkey - Stage 8

By Aaron S Lee

Hard work pays off for Team Novo Nordisk domestique Scott Ambrose, the New Zealand neo-pro helps pilot teammate Javier Mejías to top 10.

ISTANBUL, Turkey— Spaniard Lluis Mas (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) spoiled Mark Cavendish’s (Etixx-QuickStep) attempt to duplicate last year’s four stage wins by clipping the 2011 UCI world road race champion at the finish of the eighth and final stage of the 51st Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey on Sunday.

While the Isle of Man native was unable to repeat last year’s stage results, the 29-year-old Brit was able to successfully defend his points classification crown after lifting the green jersey off Italian Daniele Ratto (UnitedHealthcare) in the 124-kilometre finale in old-town Istanbul.

The turquoise leaders jersey remained on the back of Croatian Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), while former race leader Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polowice) crashed during the stage and was forced to abandon the race.

The Italian’s withdrawal allowed Argentine Eduardo Sepúlveda (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Australian Jay McCarthy (TInkoff-Saxo) to climb in to second and third respectively on the final podium.

For New Zealand neo-pro Scott Ambrose (Team Novo Nordisk), it was a critical day of guiding team general classification (GC) contender Javier Mejías, who started the day in 11th, up the ladder and in to the top 10.

Ambrose, who recovered from a nasty crash on stage 4, sat down with NZ Bike after the race for his final installment of his daily diary to discuss his experience in Turkey, the team’s success and what’s on deck.

Scott’s diary entry: Stage 8 – Istanbul - Istanbul, 124km
From the beginning it was a big goal of the team to get Javier Mejías in the top 10 and to achieve that by the end of the race, especially on the last day, is pretty special for the team. It’s the team’s first top 10 in an HC (hors catégorie) race, so it’s a big milestone the team has reached after many times trying.

Javier was pretty happy, but I don’t think it’s fully sunk in at the moment, but he thanked us for all our hard work and it gives us a lot of confidence going into the Tour of California. It also shows we can compete with the best riders in the world and the riders on our team do have the ability to produce results. We will go to California with a lot more confidence than what we came here with to Turkey, which can only mean good things when we go the US.

The final day was another blistering stage as we averaged about 45km/h. We started off super fast with the break trying to get away again. When it got away, the sprint- and GC teams controlled the race the whole way. The final was kind of hectic with the cobbled road leading up to the finish line, but we got there in the end.

I’m starting to get used to the speed of the pro peloton. I am still growing in confidence within the last 10km with all the close contact at super high speed, but I think it will take a few extra races to get used to that. I am getting more confident in the bunch stage by stage.

After a race like this, you do grow a lot. I’ve become a better rider even if the results don’t show it. My goal at the moment is to learn and grow as a rider every race you do.

Competing against quality riders like Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal), and other riders that have won Grand Tour riders, does help a lot.

Cycling is unique in that you cannot always quantify your performance and success by your result in general classification. I don’t think some people on the outside see that the hard work that goes on the bike doesn’t show in results all the time.

It makes us all very happy when we see the articles about our riders doing well, and to know that we are a part of it is really pretty special.

One thing I’ve learned is that the tours are mentally challenging in that you wake up some days not feeling 100 percent, but you have to motivate yourself to get out of bed and get on the bike and put in that 100 percent effort day in and day out no matter how you feel.

At the moment I’m feeling good going in to California. Obviously, I’m pretty tired now, but I think with a few relaxing days I’ll be ready for it and go in there with the confidence that I can race with these guys.

Until then, stay tuned.
-Scott Ambrose







Stage results (top 5)
1. Lluis Mas (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA)
2. Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step)
3. Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA)
4. Alessandro Petacchi (Southeast)
5. Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini)

General classification (top 5)
1. Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida)                                  00”
2. Eduardo Sepúlveda (Bretagne-Séché Environnement)   32”
3. Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo)                                           56”
4. Alex Cano (Colombia)                                                     1’30”
5. Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka)                                     1’32”

Aaron S. Lee is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to NZ Bike Magazine. Image credit: Kei Tsuji | Tim De Waele.