Ryder Hesjedal 2016 Tour Down Under diary – Stage 3, Glenelg to Campbelltown

by Aaron S. Lee

ADELAIDE—Thursday’s stage win at the 2016 Santos Tour Down Under in South Australia may have belonged to three-time race winner Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), but the biggest smile of the day perhaps belonged to Cannondale Pro Cycling neo-pro Michael Woods.

The 29-year-old Ottawa native displayed spectacular form over the infamous Corkscrew Road climb and bravely fought for a third-place finish closely behind Gerrans and last year’s TDU winner Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing), and just ahead of stage 2 winner and previous race leader Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff), who surrendered the ochre leaders jersey to Gerrans on the day.

“I watched so many of these guys on YouTube and on the TV while suffering on the trainer and to actually be racing with them and be ahead of them at some points on the bike was just a fantasy come true,” Woods told Canadian Cycling Magazine after the race. “A surreal moment for sure.”

At only 2.5 kilometres in length with an average gradient of 9.4 percent, the Corkscrew Road climb has built itself quite a reputation over the years, and it certainly lived up to the hype on stage 3.

Belgian Laurens De Vreese (Astana) attacked from the very start and continued uncontested for the majority of the race building a 3-minute lead in the process.

After catching De Vreese, a small group of riders, including Gerrans, Dennis, McCarthy, Richie Porte (BMC Racing) and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale), grinded up the hill behind Sergio Henao (Team Sky) and Woods (Cannondale Pro), who were first to reach the summit.

The chase group ultimately caught the brief break on the descent at speeds of over 105km/h toward the 5.7-kilometre finish of the 139km race from Glenelg to Campbelltown.

The win lifts Gerrans, who crashed in the finale a day earlier, into the overall lead over McCarthy, who is now four seconds behind after picking up a bonus time on the intermediate sprints.

Woods was half a wheel from riding into the blue polka dot king of the mountain jersey and showed tremendous descending skills to not only finish third on the day, but also move up to fourth on general classification just 11 seconds behind the new leader. Woods’ teammate Patrick Bevin, who was sixth on GC after a sixth-place finish the day before, falls to 14th overall at 37 seconds back behind Cannondale road captain Simon Clarke in 11th (+28s).

“There are three days left in the race and I think I have some opportunities to move up in the GC,” said Woods, who took second overall at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah last August. “I have to be smart and really rely on my team, which has been fantastic.”

One guy that has taken notice of Woods, is fellow Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo). The three-time Olympian and 2012 Giro d’Italia winner shared some kind words for Woods following the first year pro’s gutsy performance.

“I’ve been following Woods’ career,” said Hesjedal in a post race interview conducted by Rupert Guinness exclusively for Canadian Cycling Magazine. “He’s come in to a high level and had a good opportunity with Optum to race in Europe last year, so clearly he can get in shape for the early season.

“I rode home with him after the stage today and congratulated him, and he was excited for sure.

“He was targeting this race and I know what that feels like to work toward something, and for it to come good is the best feeling to have,” he continued. “He has a big opportunity in the WorldTour this year and he’s already making good on it and that’s great for Canadian cycling for sure and for him.”

Hesjedal had more to say regarding stage 3 and the upcoming stage 4 in his daily diary below:

Hesjedal’s diary entry: Stage 3, Glenelg-Campbelltown, 139km

It was a pretty easy day in general from the start with only Astana’s Laurens De Vreese (BEL) going up the road. It didn’t really seem like anyone wanted to get a serious break going so it ended up being a pretty regular pace up until that final run down the gorge to Corkscrew, which was really the big fight and even more so today when everybody is relatively fresh.

Unfortunately for us, our Trek-Segafredo teammate Julián Arredondo was good for the stage but got caught up in a crash at the start of the gorge and that complicated things to say the least. The group was split all over the place and it made for a hard run in to the final. We did our best to take care of our other guys, Peter Stetina (USA) and Jack Bobridge (AUS), who were left to ride up the Corkscrew. In the end, they hung tough but we were definitely hoping for more and didn’t want to lose a guy like Julián in a final that suited him well, but that’s bike racing.

There were some high speeds in excess of 100km/h on the descent, but I took it pretty cautiously. One thing about it, a climb like that thins a group out so it’s not like it’s 100 guys trying to come down the Corkscrew together, and I don’t think there were any crashes.

We are at the halfway mark, and Friday’s stage 4 is calling for rain and features a good climb at the start up Norton Hill toward Victor Harbor.

Last week we reconned the last 40km, including the climb before the run in to the finish. You kind of get up on a plateau there and if the winds are blowing, that’s going to make the race hard and that climb is already pretty difficult, so we will see how it unfolds. In the beginning I would assume there will be a lot more guys trying to move in to the break tomorrow as there has not been much activity as far as big breaks go, so that will make the stage hard all day.

If you add rain to the mix, it could complicate the race all the way from the top of the climb right in to the sprint, so it’s going to be a tall order for pure sprinters to even get to the final. We will do our best to get our guy, Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA), who finished second in the People’s Choice Classic criterium on Sunday, in to position as we have singled that stage out because he likes complicated finishes.

Until then, stay tuned…

-Ryder Hesjedal

Stage 3 top-five results

Place	Rider	Country	Team	Time
1	Simon Gerrans	AUS	Orica-GreenEdge	3:37:34
2	Rohan Dennis	AUS	BMC Racing	s.t.
3	Michael Woods	CAN	Cannondale Pro	s.t.
4	Jay McCarthy	AUS	Tinkoff-Saxo	s.t.
4	Steve Morabito	SUI	FDJ	s.t.

General classification, Stage 3 top-five results

Place	Rider	Country	Team	Time
1	Simon Gerrans	AUS	Orica-GreenEdge	10:28:12
2	Jay McCarthy	AUS	Tinkoff-Saxo	00:00:03
3	Rohan Dennis	AUS	Orica-GreenEdge	00:00:05
4	Michael Woods	CAN	Cannondale Pro	00:00:11
5	Sergio Henao	COL	Team Sky	00:00:15

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