CYCLING

Bevin talks Tour Down Under - Stage 2

By Aaron S. Lee

A day after excessive temperatures shortened stage 1, pre-race favourite Richie Porte (BMC Racing) proved he was too strong on what was considered the Tour Down Under’s toughest stage.

The 31-year-old Tasmanian took stage 2 and lifted the ochre leaders jersey off fellow Australian Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) who won the opener for the second year in a row.

Porte broke clear in the final 1,500 metres to win the 148.5km stage into Paracombe by an impressive 16-second margin from Spaniard Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar), who overtook third placed Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) in the final 400 metres.

Porte goes into tomorrow’s Hansgrohe Stage 3 with a 20-second lead over Izaguirre with Chaves, a further two seconds back. 

Meanwhile, NZ Bike caught up with Kiwi Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac) to get his latest daily diary entry from the second stage of his second WorldTour opener.
 

Bevin’s diary entry: Stage 2 – Stirling – Paracombe, 148.5km
I had a mechanical on the descent of Norton’s Summit, so I ended up on a chase all the way to the crux of Gorge Road with 8km to go, which made my day exponentially harder.

To be honest, I was lucky that Sky had dropped back as Sebastián Henao had punctured; otherwise it would have been day over for me.

It was a big chase back on with 8km to go, it was crunch time by then and it made a hard day harder. Not only did it zap my legs, but it also takes my role out of the team’s plans. So it was not a great day all around.

That said it’s not over by any stretch. I got back into the race and we were at the bottom of the climb ready to go, it’s bike racing and you have to make the most of those things when they happen. We look forward to the days ahead when we go at it again.

Like I said in yesterday’s entry, there are no easy days in the WorldTour, and today was not easy by any stretch. It was a tough day all around. I think when you look at the result sheet; you will see that when GC climbers are putting time on a 2km climb it’s quite amazing.

That said, the race is not over by any stretch of the imagination, so we just look ahead to the next day like it’s a bike race to be won. It’s not over. It’s just back to the drawing board.

With yesterday being shorter, and today being so hard, we kind of start the bike race tomorrow. Now we’ve seen it’s time to race our bike and there are plenty of teams that want to win this.
We’ve seen the shakeout and I think it will get quite interesting in the stages ahead.
Until next time, stay tuned…-Patrick Bevin

Tomorrow’s entry: Stage 3: Glenelg – Victor Harbour, 144km

Stage 2 results (top 5)
1.    Richie Porte, AUS, BMC Racing, 3:46:06
2.    Gorka Izagirre, ESP, Movistar, +0:16
3.    Esteban Chaves, COL, Orica-Scott, +0:16
4.    Rohan Dennis, AUS, BMC Racing, +0:19
5.    Nathan Haas, AUS, Dimension Data, +0:19
 
General classification (top 5)
1.    Richie Porte, AUS, BMC Racing, 7:10:14
2.    Gorka Izagirre, ESP, Movistar, +0:20
3.    Esteban Chaves, COL, Orica-Scott, +0:22
4.    Jay McCarthy, AUS, Bora-Hansgrohe, +0:24
5.    Nathan Haas, AUS, Dimension Data, +0:27