CYCLING

Daily Diary: Joe Cooper talks Tour de Korea – Stage 3

By Aaron S Lee

Avanti Racing’s Patrick Bevin claims consecutive second-place stage finish in Korea, and teammate Joe Cooper gives NZ Bike the scoop.

MUJU, South Korea—It was another solid outing for the boys in blue and orange, as the Avanti Racing Team has taken the top spot on the teams classification at Tour de Korea on Tuesday.

The jump to number one is thanks in large part to the continuing efforts of the team’s riders, including Aussie sprinters Neil van der Ploeg and Anthony Giacoppo, as well as Kiwi Patrick Bevin, who claimed his second straight second-place finish behind back-to-back stage winner Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge). With the win, Ewan lifted the leaders jersey off stage 1 winner Wouter Wippert (Drapac Pro Cycling).

“I think today was a pretty good effort,” Bevin told NZ Bike after the race. “The three of us are going to become a handful, and if we get enough tries we’ll start to get it right.”

Along with Ewan (AUS), the Avanti trio was caught up in the crash-marred opening stage finish with Bevin coming out worse of the lot with a bruised knee. However the pain has not held the 24-year-old North Island native back.

The stage finish moves Bevin into second on general classification (GC) just 8 seconds behind Ewan. His teammate Giacoppo jumps to fourth overall, just 20 seconds back, while van der Ploeg is eighth (+0.21).

NZ Bike caught up with reigning New Zealand road race champion and the 2014 Australian National Road Series winner Joe Cooper to talk about his teammates’ success and what, if any, chances he may have to ride for a result in the final five days.









Joe Cooper’s diary entry: Stage 3 – Muju - Muju, 99km
The breakaway established about 2 kilometres in to the race, and then the race was sort of neutralised, as everyone was more than happy to get the legs working for the first couple of laps – especially after the hard day yesterday.

After a few cruisy circuits, it was full on and the last two laps were probably the hardest of the whole race. Everyone was just chuffing it down on the king of the mountain (KOM) climb. Even though it wasn’t that steep, it was just the gradient versus the tired legs, because as soon as you can’t push the big gear you are sort of going backwards, so to speak.

Our team sports director Andrew Christie-Johnston had recced the course the night before and gave us a warning about the difficulty of the circuit. To be honest, the profile in the race book was quite deceiving. There weren’t those massively steep pinches; it was more like long, fast grinds that wear people down. A couple more laps like that and it could have been a bit more interesting.

When it comes to fan support along the roadside, circuit racing is pretty exciting for the crowd and it was really nice to wear the national team jersey in front of the Korean fans.
Things are rolling along nicely for us at the moment with Paddy and Anthony sitting at two and four on GC behind Caleb Ewan. If the opportunity arises for me in the next five days, I’m not one to let it slip through my grasp. But that said, until that time comes, I’m more than happy to help the guys out and every podium they get it’s a truly team effort.

In the meantime, stay tuned...
-Joe Cooper

Tomorrow’s entry: Stage 4 – Muju - Yeosu, 207km
Stage 2 results (top 5)
1.    Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge)
2.    Patrick Bevin (Avanti Racing Team)
3.    Bernard Sulzberger (Drapac Pro Cycling)
4.    Adam Blythe (Orica-GreenEdge)
5.    Hossein Askari (Pishgaman-Giant)

General classification (top 5)
1.    Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge)                                             11:14:31
2.    Patrick Bevin (Avanti Racing Team)                                        +00.08
3.    Adam Blythe (Orica-GreenEdge)                                             +00.20
4.    Anthony Giacoppo (Avanti Racing Team)                                    -
5.    Ok Cheol Kim (Seoul Cycling Team)                                            -

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