Ryder Hesjedal 2016 Tour Down Under diary – Stage 6, Adelaide City Circuit

Four was the magic number for Orica-GreenEdge as the first and only Australian-registered WorldTour team claimed four stage wins en route to Simon Gerrans winning the Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) on Sunday for the fourth time in his illustrious career.

Canadian Cycling Magazine January 24, 2016

by Aaron S. Lee

ADELAIDE—Four was the magic number for Orica-GreenEdge as the first and only Australian-registered WorldTour team claimed four stage wins en route to Simon Gerrans winning the Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) on Sunday for the fourth time in his illustrious career.

Ewan sprinted to victory over compatriot Mark Renshaw (Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka) and Italian Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) at the end of the 20-lap, 90-km city circuit to claim his seventh win of 2016, and his second at this year’s six-day stage race – not including the People’s Choice Classic criterium that he won seven days ago to kick off the festival of cycling in Adelaide, South Australia.

“It was always going to be hard to come to this race and chase both stages (wins) and overall victory,” said the 21-year-old sprinting sensation and Australian criterium champion.

“I’m so happy that we came away with four stages and the overall.”

Ewan’s teammate and fellow Aussie Gerrans (AUS), who also took two stages this week, had little chance of losing the ochre leaders jersey on the sixth and final day. But he was thrilled with the result.

“It’s certainly a dream result and we couldn’t have asked for more,” said Gerrans. “We are so lucky to have this race here in Australia.

“The boys did a sensational job today, they kept me at the front, out of trouble and delivered Caleb (Ewan) as close to the line as possible,” he added. “What a fantastic week it’s been for us.”

Canadian Cycling Magazine caught up with Nizzolo’s teammate Ryder Hesjedal to pen the final diary entry with the three-time Olympian and 2012 Giro d’Italia before he prepares for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race next week and a return trip to Europe in preparations for both the Giro and Rio in 2016

Hesjedal’s diary entry: Stage 6 , Adelaide City Circuit, 90km

First, I think we were all in a bit of shock for our colleagues at Giant-Alpecin, who were involved with a collision with a car while training in Spain. We’re all in it together. We’re all pros out there riding our bikes most of our lives and we’re out there every day and for something like that to happen is just horrific.

It just goes to show you it’s not just a game, we go out there everyday and basically risk our lives out on the road and it’s just fortunately no one lost a life. Hopefully everyone will recover and this will make everyone – both cyclists and drivers – be a little more aware of each other out there on the road.

As far as today was concerned, it was a solid day of racing and I felt really good out there on the road. The legs were turning and the intensity was up, but I was enjoying it as it has a nice flow with a little kicker on the backside. Don’t know if the other guys were suffering but for me it was kind of easy today.

Plus it was great to get Giacomo on the podium again this week. Orica-GreenEdge has been on fire all week and it was going to be tough to beat Ewan on a sprint stage and next to impossible to unseat Simon Gerrans for the leader’s jersey – barring a mishap.

Yesterday’s 151.5-km stage 5 up Willunga Hill was the biggest day of the week. Plus I did an extra 50km to bring my total to more than 200 on the day. When I jumped on the scales afterwards, I realized I had lost 4kgs of fluids which is a lot so I had to get it back in me or I was going to be in a bad way for today.

To be honest, the way the race is going, I would probably have liked to have had another stage tomorrow, but that’s not the case so I’ll get back to training and hopefully be even better for the Cadel’s Race next week.

With a block of training before the race and then another week of racing, we’ve already got two weeks down and it’s just good to get the season going and kick off the WorldTour.

It’s always a good feeling to get out there and break in the new bikes, shoes and clothes and put into practice all the training and nutrition. When you get that first race out of the way, you see what you need to build on. As I’ve said, my season will focus around the Giro in May, and obviously the Rio Olympics in August.

In the meantime, I’ve had a great time again in Australia. This is the first time I’ve raced in back to back years here, and while I don’t know what my plans are beyond this season, I can honestly say if I am racing in ’17, I’ll definitely keep the Tour Down Under in mind.

Until then, stay tuned…

-Ryder Hesjedal

Stage 6 top-five results

Place	Rider	Country	Team	Time
1	Caleb Ewan	AUS	Orica-GreenEdge	1:55:02
2	Mark Renshaw	AUS	Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka	s.t.
3	Giacomo Nizzolo	ITA	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
4	Adam Blythe	GBR	Tinkoff-Saxo	s.t.
5	Alexey Tsatevich	RUS	Team Katusha	s.t.

Final general classification, top-five results

Place	Rider	Country	Team	Time
1	Simon Gerrans	AUS	Orica-GreenEdge	19:11:33
2	Richie Porte	AUS	BMC Racing	00:00:09
3	Sergio Henao	COL	Team Sky	00:00:11
4	Jay McCarthy	AUS	Tinkoff-Saxo	00:00:20
5	Michael Woods	CAN	Cannondale Pro	s.t.

Aaron S. Lee (@aaronshanelee) is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to Canadian Cycling Magazine.