October 12, 2006 – G’day from “down under”. We’ve had two hard 180-km stages here in Australia with temperatures soaring over 35C. Every day without fail, the pack is strung out for the first 30-50 km as there are countless attacks and splits as a break tries to form. We have had good luck placing at least one rider in the break and today we had Eric Wohlberg pull a strongman effort to put two Canadians in the final move.

Stage 4 was a pancake flat 180km route along the Australian countryside. Eric worked hard covering the early moves but as nothing developed early. The pace stayed high until a major move of over 15 guys went up the road with Brandon Crichton representing Canada. The pack was fairly comfortable to sit in, with the team working to protect Dominique, but with several changes in direction and substantial winds, there were some hard gutter sections. Despite numerous trips to the car and a few mechanicals, the pack made it in safely and together.

According to Brandon there was a firestorm of attacks with 25km to go until the finish. Brandon was forced to chase as a split happened with two riders, but with other riders choosing to sit on, it made for a hard day to get on the podium. He finished off a difficult stage in 10th.

Today’s Stage 5 was another 180 km route except it featured a 20km climb at the end. A break developed consisting of 14 riders, with Dustin McBurnie being the lone Canadian, but Eric was itching to get up there and made a daring late break with one other rider to close a 4-min gap in a cross headwind. Today was also very warm and staying hydrated was hard but we managed to get to the base of the climb reasonably hydrated and fresh. The climb was around 10% for the first 5km with rolling bits, but was very long when you had tired legs.

Eric rode really well up the climb only losing touch with some of his breakaway companions who ended up winning the stage. The top GC contenders roared pass the shattered pack and dueled it out, but with a windy last 10km section of the climb and subtle gradients, 4-5%, no major gaps developed between the top five contenders in the end. Tomorrow’s time trial stage will be important as the top five riders are within 15 seconds of each other and the technical TT course could decide the race.

The ride of the day was by Canada’s Dominique Rollin. He hit the base of the climb with the pack and rode to 12th place on the stage and is in 6th overall. Considering the length of the climb and quality of riders, he rode amazing and is definitely within striking distance of Trent Lowe (5th place) heading into tomorrow’s time trial.

The whole team worked very well today, with Bruno Langlois, Ryan McKenzie, Brandon Crichton, Eric, and Dustin marking moves, getting in breaks, and helping Dominique save energy for the climb.

Race Notes
– While our hunt for kangaroos has been uneventful, there seem to be
a lot of snakes on the road. According to our Australian support
staff, all of them are posionious as well.

– The Stage 4 breakaway resulted in an altercation between a Dutch
and a Portugese rider which resulted in punches being thrown…that’s
what happens when you sit in.