Bay Crits | Stage 2

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January 2, 2012

Photography:

Veeral Patel

The temperature said 46C as I rolled into Geelong this afternoon. Fortunately the hour long race was called 10min short as the asphalt was basically melting. If you've ever experienced this type of heat you'll know how difficult it would be to race in these conditions. It's one of those rare times I was happy to be a spectator in the shade!

Caleb Ewan was the highlight of the day. We saw him animate yesterday’s race early on by going on the attack from the gun. The 17 year old high school student from Sydney outclassed some of the best cyclists in the world today in a small bunch kick in a race of attrition. He comes from a track endurance background (the 2011 Junior Omnium World Champion) and I know we’ll be seeing more of this kid.

Greg Henderson found himself caught behind the split and chasing was futile. The race was blown apart due to the tough conditions and unfortunately Hendo conceded the overall leaders jersey to Allan Davis. Don’t think he’ll sit back and let him take it though. Tomorrow at Portarlington will be a ripper!

Results

1 Caleb EWAN NSWIS
2 Allan DAVIS Mitchelton Wines/Lowe Farms
3 Bernie SULZBERGER Urban Hotels
4 Nathan HAAS Bike Bug
5 Zak DEMPSTER Degani Bakery Cafe
6 James MOWATT Rapido Cycles/Four Points Geelong)
7 Dean WINDSOR Degani Bakery Cafe
8 Mitch DOCKER GreenEDGE
9 Trent DERECOURT John West Cycling
10 Johnnie WALKER Degani Bakery Café

See full results and race report here.

Stage 3 – Portarlington

12:00 pm – Support Individual presented by Total Rush
12.50 pm – Support Teams presented by Urban Hotels – John Cornish Memorial
1:40 pm – Elite Women presented by Bike Exchange
2:30 pm – Elite Men sponsored and presented by Jayco

John "Iffy" Trevorrow (Bay Crits organiser, local legend, and many other fine things) | Caleb Ewan. Remember this name folks.

Daniel Teklehaimanot, neo pro on GreenEDGE from Eritrea (who I'll be interviewing tomorrow) and Bernard Sulzberger




SIMILAR ENTRIES

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  • Sven Nijs

    Great shots Veeral.
    Interesting one of Robbie sitting in the GreenEdge string and switching on his onboard video camera (Contour).

  • Sean Parr

    Caleb is actually from Bowral. Riding with him on the Sunday “Cheesecake” ride from Bowral 5 years ago with him 12 riding full gas with 50 or 60 blokes I knew he was going to be something very special. He is 90% heart that kid. Watch out Cav, Caleb is coming !!!

    Well done Caleb. Mark and Casey (Mum and Dad) will be very proud !!!!

    Sean

  • Anonymous

    Caleb…..OH YEAH! 
    Yes Sean we can reminisce of those “early days” riding with a future great. He is a dynamo with a huge heart and such a nice guy too. 
    “Watch out Cav” – you got that right buddy – must make you want to move back to Aus surely – you can’t play it both ways mate!

  • Anonymous

    Caleb…..OH YEAH! 
    Yes Sean we can reminisce of those “early days” riding with a future great. He is a dynamo with a huge heart and such a nice guy too. 
    “Watch out Cav” – you got that right buddy – must make you want to move back to Aus surely – you can’t play it both ways mate!

  • Trent

    Good luck interviewing Daniel, i’ve seen him a few times in the last couple of weeks, hell of a story, hell of a nice guy, hell of a tough interview though I imagine.

  • hillier

    why is haas listed as part of the bike bug team? I thought he signed with Garmin-Cervelo for 2012?

  • http://provelopassion.wordpress.com/ M Topping

    Thanks for the great report. How is Heinrich Haussler doing after that crash? I see he is listed as finishing stage 2.

  • Steve Price

    Haasy is riding for Garmin but they didn’t enter a team so it’s a hybrid of Garmin and Genesys riding under the Bike Bug banner who sponsored the collaboration for Bay Crits

  • Notso Swift

    46 is tough work, I presume that was in the sun, not shade, anything over about 38 is a killer, although it was an un seasonable warm 14 in Paris today as well ;-P

  • Khalid

    Good to see some non-white riders in cycling. We’re still living in the past, we need to give more opportunities to ethnics. Daniel is a great example, would love to see the interview!

  • Troy van Trienen

    Great job Caleb. Young guys have the best victory salute’s as it reminded me of Michael Mathews win at Geelong 18months ago.
    If you like the heat you have beaten most of the field before you even start.
     I like the heat.

  • https://twitter.com/#!/BPriestie Priestie

    Congrats to Caleb, on the front of Stage 1 also.
    Big calves for a small bloke.

  • http://the-domestic.blogspot.com/ TheDomestic

    Man it was hot down there! Great day of racing. The womens race was also a cracker with Amanda Spratt and Loren Rowney absolutely blowing the race apart, finishing miles ahead of the bunch (Loren just took the win). Great moment for Caleb – taking the win racing against classy riders like Allan Davis and Bernie Sulzberger. 

  • http://profiles.google.com/aglogan Andy Logan

    He did, he is riding for Bikebug.com for the Jayco Bay Series.

  • http://www.chromaticdramatic.com/ Chromatic Dramatic

    Yeah… you’ve got to think, if he keeps this form up, he’ll be the next sprint king for sure!

  • Scho

    That’s a racist attitude, Khalid. Merit is what matters, not a person’s colour. 

  • Scho

    If Ewan is going to dope he’d be better off keeping his forearms covered! That’s a big puncture wound there.

  • http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips

    If you’re talking about Caleb, he actually enjoys the climbs and doesn’t reckon he’s much of  a sprinter. But Albi and Bernie said that he came around them like they were standing still in that sprint!

  • Tim

    I clocked 40 deg up here the other day. 90% humidity Northern Rivers. I targeted 100km and gave up after 63km nearly vomiting. Blew up.

    Anyway, I digress.

    Wade, awesome photos and report. Makes me feel connected up here in the Ballina hinterland with not much cycling. Missing Melburn cycling.

    Thanks :)

    Tim

  • lekoshe

    Unfortunately Scho, yours is the problematic attitude. In any grouping that exhibits a lack of diversity, there is always an inherent bias that causes cultural “fit” to be confused with merit. For example, women struggle to shine in Australian mining companies because they have such a blokish, masculine internal culture – yet their executives will tell you (have told me), with a straight face, that they hire purely on “merit” and the pitiful gender imbalance is because women aren’t interested in mining.

    Which is, of course, horseshit – the fact is they’ve failed to create an internal culture that is gender-neutral and appealing to women, and they lose out on a huge untapped skills pool as a result.Generalised, this is the business case for affirmative action.In this case, Khalid expressed the point using terminology that some people see as trigger words but the fact is, yes, cycling has been historically a white man’s sport and encouraging more Asian and African riders will only grow the talent pool.

  • Scho

    lekoshe, we’re talking about race, not gender. They’re two different things.
    I stand by my argument that it’s racist to treat people differently on account of their race.
    I congratulate Caleb Ewan not for being someone who isn’t ‘white’, but for being an awesome rider.

  • http://www.chromaticdramatic.com/ Chromatic Dramatic

    Fabian should look out then!

  • lekoshe

    I stand corre… wait, no! Absence of diversity is a common theme. Don’t like my example? Substitute “Aboriginals” for “women” in the above.

    I don’t seen you making any kind of cogent argument. You have, however, made something else: a fool of yourself.

  • justanotheropinion

    How has the girls racing been? Is there still a big gap between the pro girls and the rest? Have their races been interesting to watch?

  • Scho

    By calling me a fool because you disagree with what I’m saying, but without addressing my argument, you have employed an ad hominem logical fallacy.

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