Images From The Jayco Herald Sun Tour

January 07, 2013

The 2013 summer of cycling well underway and we've just witnessed Calvin Watson make history as the youngest rider to ever win the Jayco Herald Sun Tour at 20 years old. Here are some highlights from the past four days with images from Mark Gunter, Jarrod Partridge, and Veeral Patel...

FULL RESULTS

PROLOGUE :: STAGE 1 :: STAGE 2 :: STAGE 3

: Jordan Kerby on his way to winning the prologue in Williamstown. The 20-year-old former junior track champion upstaged his more famous competitors to take the opening prologue of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Riding for Suzuki-Bontrager the Queenslander upset the likes of Tour de France stage winners Stuart O’Grady and Simon Gerrans to win the Subaru prologue in 5mins 25.01secs to have the honour of wearing the leader’s yellow jersey in tomorrow’s opening road stage. New Zealander Joe Cooper (Huon Salmon–Genesys Wealth Advisors) was second with 5mins 26.48secs and David Kelly (Total Rush- Hyster Racing) the first man down the ramp, finished third with 5mins 28.69secs.

: Simon Gerrans did a lot of work on the front on stage 1 in the 148km stage from Sunbury to Bendigo.

: The peloton riding through a very dry country with temperatures reaching 41C on Stage 1 from Sunbury to Bendigo.

: Aaron Donnelly, Calvin Watson and Josh Atkins sprint on the Tom Flood Arena in Bendigo. Donnelly took the win and the leaders jersey after stage 1, but this is what set up Calvin Watson for the overall win.

: GreenEDGE owner Gerry Ryan’s Mitchelltown Winery played host to the start of stage 2. Aaron Donnelly starts the stage in yellow.

: Aaron Buggle, Rapha Condor JLT , suffered a nasty fall on stage 2 ending his race.

: Peloton being dwarfed by the giant trees near Healesville.

: The peloton strung out in the crosswinds during stage 2.

: Typical country roads through the Australian landscape

: Jayco AIS worked hard on stage 3 to help the peloton bridge back to the break of 13 riders who had a maximum of gap 1:45

: The SRAM neutral service vehicles helped with feeding, spare wheels and bikes.

: Pat Lane (VIS) working hard to close the gap

: (top left clockwise): Rob Eva, former pro mountain biker and now heads SRAM Australia, Herald Sun photographer Michael Klein, and freelance photographers who contributed to this post Mark Gunter and Jarrod Partridge

: Stuart O’Grady starts the climb of Arthurs Seat after playing super domestique for his teammates all day.

: Aaron Donnelly didn’t appear to be in a comfortable position with the lead in the final stage

: Damien Howson, Degani Bakery Café World Tour Academy Team, attempting a solo run during the first lap of Arthur’s Seat.

: The grupetto making their way to the summit of Arthur’s Seat through a massive crowd

: (bottom left) The Jayco Herald Sun Tour is not a World Tour race, therefore race radios for the riders are not allowed. However, radios are fitted into all team and support vehicles with information from the commissaire such as time gaps, race situation, telling cars to come up and feed their riders, etc.

: Simon Gerrans behind Nathan Haas approaching Arthurs Seat

: Mark O’Brien (SASI Cycling / Feelgood Fitness), winner Nathan Earle(Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers), and Dan McConnell (Suzuki – Bontrager) (behind, not shown) away from the chasers smashing it up Arthurs Seat on the final kilometers

: Graham Briggs (GB National Team) makes his way up Arthurs Seat behind most of the field

: Pat Lane and Calvin Watson salute their overall win as they cross the finish line on stage 3

: Calvin Watson now holds his place in Sun Tour history. Congratulations Calvin!

: Calvin Watson becoming the youngest winner to win the Herald Sun Tour at the age of 20 on his birthday.

jules

the healesville-kinglake road through toolangi – one of my favorite ride routes – so beautiful. the melba hwy, not so much.
ed

amazing that these ‘kids’ can fight it out with seasonsed pros.
Anonymous

The ‘golden hour’ vibe on those Stage 3 shots is brilliant. They might be on a winner if they can keep Arthur’s Seat evening as the finale and lengthen the race by one or two stages again – three plus a prologue does seem too short to me, but I’m sure everybody has said that already.
- jules
  
  my gripe is that the late hour makes it hard to ride down there and back on the day. i’d prefer an early arvo finish. of course, it’s not all about me i suppose.
  - Pete
    
    +1 – I was going to go down if not for the late start. Watched it on tv later.
    - http://www.facebook.com/pmark1bike pmark1bike
      
      +2
      - Abdu
        
        Opportunity for an entrepreneurial type to sell tickets on his van & trailer coming home next year…? Personally I’ll remember the old milk crates to watch the race from at ‘Rapha corner’.
        
        Notso Swift
        
        You can ride back to Frankston and Train it, which is a lot easier… mind you Franga with a $10k bike at night may not be wise
echidna_sg

no photos on Mt Macedon? bit of a shame…

Looking forward to seeing how some of these kids go in the nationals!
Interesting tactically to see how greenedge were racing for training…
GT

Love the “typical country road” shot. Where else in the world could it possibly be??
Jon Thornton

I’m so glad that O’Grady, Gerrans and other pros completed in the HST. They helped legitimise the massive achievements of our huge pool of up-and-coming youngsters. It is great that pros are making time to attend races like the HST and it is fantastic that the next generation are kicking the pro’s arses. Kudos to the old guard and kudos to the new breed.
Jon Thornton

I’m so glad that O’Grady, Gerrans and other pros completed in the HST. They helped legitimise the massive achievements of our huge pool of up-and-coming youngsters. It is great that pros are making time to attend races like the HST and it is fantastic that the next generation are kicking the pro’s arses. Kudos to the old guard and kudos to the new breed.
Arfy

Love the pictures, this is the only website that provides such excellent photo stories!

I’m curious why so many of the riders aren’t wearing gloves, especially after we saw a few crashes on Stage 2. Is there a reason behind this or just an overconfidence in their own ability?
- Todd!
  
  Dont want tan lines?
Koogz

Check out the lucky rider on the extreme right of this pic, I wonder if his nickname is BJ?
- nic_3
  
  i don’t get it
Abdu

That poor guy from GB Briggs was so deep in the hurt locker it was horrible. Got a good 100m from Mr Yellow Telly Tubby though. Wasn’t the only cooked rider either. Credit to those guys, they raced hard. Goss was invisible, which showed how hard the kids went.
BC

8:19 for Nathan Earle, he beat Mark O’brien by 9 secs who did 8:28 on strava. The Katusha rider Silin did 7.54 last year I think.
NY’er

Thanks CT and photographers for the brilliant images – absolutely stunning. I agree with the others… there’s no other blog that has these quality images. Great stuff!
Julia Emblin

Stunning shots of riders and our beautiful Oz countryside, well done.

Images From The Jayco Herald Sun Tour

January 07, 2013

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