October 16, 2007 – Brothers Wes and Bernie Sulzberger from Flowery Gully, a tiny hamlet just outside Beaconsfield, in Tasmania made it a family affair on day two of the 2007 Jayco Herald Sun Tour.

Bernie, riding for the DFL-Cyclingnews team started the ball rolling with sterling efforts on the day’s two hill climbs to wrest the blue Savings and Loans King of the Mountains jersey from British rider Tom Southam (Drapac Porsche).

But it was young brother Wes, fresh from his silver medal winning success at last month’s U23 World Road Championships who really stole the show, taking today’s stage from Nagambie to Mansfield in emphatic fashion, moving to twelfth on general classification and second in the KOM category.

Both were part of an eight man pack which broke clear at around 72km, the half way point of the stage, and then stayed away for almost the duration, until the brothers and Wiesenhof-Felt’s Jorg Ludewig left the others behind with just 10km to ride

In the run to the line, Wes (South Australia.com) was a fraction too strong holding Ludewig at bay by two seconds, with Bernie a further second adrift in third spot.

The younger Sulzberger, who turns 21 on Saturday (the second last day of the Tour), was happy with the outcome, which he said involved no special arrangements,

“It was good to get away with 10km to go – we went with the German rider when he attacked, I was on his wheel and my brother was on mine.

“We slipped away and it worked out perfect. No deals went down. It was just brotherly help I think. We were just puffing and panting at each other.”

But despite their efforts, Unibet.com’s Matt Wilson retains a solid lead in the Tour, increasing his advantage over most of the ten men who broke away with him on yesterday’s first stage from Bendigo to Nagambie.

One rider who did turn the tables on him slightly was his own team mate, Baden Cooke, who clawed black two seconds on overall classification.

South Australia.com’s Simon Clarke who retains a clear lead for the white jersey contested for the best under 23 rider, did even better making up five seconds on Wilson courtesy of both a stronger finish and some sprint bonus seconds.

For most of the others leaders it was a day of retreat in terms of time, despite all of them managing to stay with the main chase group until the last few kilometres.

The biggest losers were pre-race favourite, Trent Lowe (Jayco Australia), overnight second placegetter, David Pell (Savings and Loans), former Olympic rower Cameron Wurf (Bissel SRAM), Julien Mazet (Astana) and Eric Wohlberg (Bicycle Superstore-Canada) who each conceded 26 seconds and another Astana man Steve Morabito who despite finishing with Wilson, fell behind by 23, most of which (20 seconds) was due to a penalty for moto pacing during the stage.

Wilson who retains both the yellow and red jerseys for the tour and sprint king leads, predicted that tomorrow’s 139.5km stage from Mansfield to Beechworth would bring more of what was witnessed today,

“I hear the wind will be blowing again, so it will probably be more of the same. Originally we had others plans for the stage but we might have to let them go.”

But he will be disappointed to learn that his Unibet outfit has lost its team lead to the Canadian National Team, riding with the support of Bicycle Superstore, by nearly two and a half minutes. Swiss based team, Astana has also over taken the first day leaders and sits 1 minutes 50 seconds behind the new team pacesetters.

Not so unhappy will be a couple of the Canadian riders, the two Dominiques – Perras, who moved up to fifth I the overall standings and Rollin, who not only picked up the Volvo orange jersey for the day’s most aggressive rider, but now finds himself in second spot, just two points behind Wilson in the race for the Portfolio Partners sprint crown.

Wednesday’s stage sets out from Mansfield at 10.30am, with a single KOM climb up the Tolmie Road 25 kilometres in and sprints at Whitfield and Milawa. The riders should reach the finish line in Beechworth around 2.00pm.


Results (brief)

1. Wesley Sulzberger (Aus) South Australia.com – AIS 3.24.55
2. Jörg Ludewig (Ger) Wiesenhof-Felt 0.02
3. Bernard Sulzberger (Aus) DFL Cyclingnews Litespeed 0.03
4. Dominique Rollin (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 0.08
5. Darren Lapthorne (Aus) Drapac Porsche
6. Cameron Jennings (Aus) DFL Cyclingnews Litespeed
7. Maint Berkenbosch (Ned) Netherlands National Team
8. Koen De Kort (Ned) Astana 2.26
9. Baden Cooke (Aus) Unibet.com 3.03
10. Aaron Kemps (Aus) Astana

15. Dominique Perras (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 3.06
23. Eric Wohlberg (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 3.31
66. Zachary Bell (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 24.43
67. Ryan Anderson (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team
68. Andrew Randall (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team
82. Jefferey Sherstobitoff (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team


GC after Stage 2

1. Matthew Wilson (Aus) Unibet.com 7.05.15
2. Baden Cooke (Aus) Unibet.com 0.21
3. Simon Clarke (Aus) South Australia.com – AIS 0.25
4. Joost Van Leijen (Ned) Netherlands National Team 0.29
5. Dominique Perras (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 0.31
6. David Pell (Aus) Savings & Loans 0.42
7. Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana 0.51
8. Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 0.54
9. Cameron Wurf (Aus) Bissell-Priority Health 0.55
10. Trent Lowe (Aus) Jayco Australian National Team 0.56

11. Eric Wohlberg (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team
15. Dominique Rollin (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 9.13
65. Zachary Bell (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 38.38
73. Ryan Anderson (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 41.46
74. Andrew Randall (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team
83. Jefferey Sherstobitoff (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team