CYCLING

Joe Cooper talks Tour de Korea – Stage 1

By Aaron S Lee

Reigning New Zealand road race champion and Australian National Road Series winner Joe Cooper shares his story with NZ Bike.

GUMI, South Korea—Tour de Korea kicked off on Sunday NZ Bike caught up with reigning New Zealand road race champion Joe Cooper (Avanti Racing Team) to get his thoughts on the 189.1-kilometre opening stage won by Wouter Wippert (Drapac Pro Cycling).

The 24-year-old Dutchman crossed the line first after a crash-marred finish that brought down Australian sprinting sensation Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) as well as three other Avanti riders, including sprinters Anthony Giacoppo (AUS), Neil van der Ploeg (AUS) and Patrick Bevin (NZL).



Each day, the reigning Australian National Road Series winner and Avanti road captain will sit down exclusively with NZ Bike to share his insights on how the day unfolded and look ahead toward the following stage.



Joe Cooper’s diary entry: Stage 1 – Busan - Gumi, 189.1km
Today we had an early break of three riders that got away at the start and we all sort of just went through a lull, before traffic was inadvertently allowed on the course and made things a bit messy trying to race through the cars. The race was then neutralised at around 50km which is when we caught the breakaway who were stopped to clear the road.

After the traffic was controlled, we were forced to wait six and a half minutes to give the original margin back to the lead riders. From there, Orica-GreenEdge and Drapac set the pace to bring them to the finale.

I didn’t really see what happened in the sprint, but there was a bit of a crash at about 200m out. This is exactly why I do not like to dabble in the bunch kicks and like to peel away with 2km remaining.

Again, was not sure what happened, but I do know that we had riders go down after Paddy Bevin got clipped from behind while slamming on the brakes to avoid the downed riders, which included GreenEdge’s Caleb Ewan and a teammate or two.

Paddy is a bit banged up with a sore knee, but says he’s okay to go. Our staff will check him out but I’d be surprised if he’s not on the start on stage 2.

For me, my plan was to try and help the sprinters do a bit of a sprint today but the crash changed all that. We’ll reload and come out tomorrow and give it another nudge.
In the meantime, stay tuned...
-Joe Cooper

Tomorrow’s entry: Stage 2 – Gumi - Muji, 174.4km
Stage 1 results (top 5)
1.    Wouter Wippert (Drapac Pro Cycling)
2.    Joon Yong Seo (KSPO)
3.    Sung Baek Park (KSPO)
4.    Siu Wai Ko (HKSI Pro Cycling)
5.    Burr Ho (HKSI Pro Cycling)

General classification (top 5)
1.    Wouter Wippert (Drapac Pro Cycling)                    4’37”
2.    Joon Yong Seo (KSPO)                                          =
3.    Sung Baek Park (KSPO)                                         =
4.    Siu Wai Ko (HKSI Pro Cycling)                                =
5.    Burr Ho (HKSI Pro Cycling)                                     =

Aaron S. Lee is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to NZ Bike Magazine