October 18, 2007 – Dutchman Joost Van Leijen riding for his National Team has swept to the lead in the 2007 Jayco Herald Sun Tour after finishing a close second to Swiss cyclist Steve Morabito (Astana) in today’s gruelling 116.5 kilometres stage from Beechworth to Falls Creek. But it could have been Morabito wearing the yellow jersey had he not incurred a twenty second time penalty from the commissaires on day two for sheltering behind a vehicle, since his actual time on the road being a second less than the new Tour leader.

It is just another of the dramas that makes the Tour, now in its 56th year, one of the most enthralling annual events in Australian sport.

Today had everything that would be expected from a stage, which was to draw to a climax with a mostly uphill last 50 kilometres, testing the endurance capacity of each of the 79 riders remaining in the race.

But most of all it was about the war of attrition which was the feature of its concluding stanza.

After the peleton inevitably broke up as it began to climb around 800 metres in elevation over just 15 kilometres, it was initially left to twelve men to chase down gallant pacesetter, Dominique Rollin (Bicycle Superstore Canada), who eventually surrendered his lead around the 105km mark.

Morabito’s Astana team mate, Julien Mazet, was the next aggressor, making a series of attacks and ensuring that within another 4km, it was a race in just seven – with those two and Van Leijen in the company of former world junior mountain bike champion Trent Lowe (Jayco Australia), Tour leader Matt Wilson (Unibet.com), Australian road champion Darren Lapthorne (Drapac Porsche) and another Netherlands rider, Maint Berkenbosch.

The group had moments earlier seen off Baden Cooke (Unibet.com) and the leader in the best young rider category, Simon Clarke (South Australia.com) who now trailled by 50 and 200m respectively.

Berkenbosch was next to drop and with 5km to ride Lowe led the remaining group of six along, each looking capable of taking the win, and remaining in contention to keep the coveted yellow jersey at race end on Sunday.

But the valiant efforts of Wilson and Lapthorne proved insufficient as they too succumbed to the persistence of the others, who powered on as a quartet to the finish line, with Morabito prevailing by a tiny margin over Van Leijin and Lowe, with Mazet dropping off slightly to finish fourth, three seconds further back.

Wilson did well to lose only 34 seconds on the stage, and confine his overall loss on general classification to just eight seconds. Lowe is now only 26 seconds from the lead, in fourth place seven seconds behind Morabito.

Of the eleven genuine GC contenders at the start of the day, David Pell Savings and Loans) suffered most, dropping more than five minutes, whilst Rollin’s team mate Dominque Perras who had been one of those favoured to win the stage, fell back by three minutes 21 seconds.

Cooke worked hard for Wilson but still managed to remain within range himself, whilst Clarke again showed his undoubted talent. The real surprise was again Tasmania’s Olympic rower turned international cyclist, Cameron Wurf (Bissell SRAM) who remains perched in ninth place just over four minutes from the lead despite being in the sport for only a year.

The new Tour Leader, Van Leijin, was humble about his achievements, “The team did a tremendous job and two of us managed to get away. For me second place today and the yellow is great. It’s terrific just to ride only one day in yellow. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

As was Morabito, who does not have any complaint about that penalty he received two days earlier, “It has been a great Tour for our team – we’ve had three wins. For me today it was very important to have a team mate in the break – it made it much easier for me.”

But today’s stage was not all about the climb, with much of the race dominated by the sheer determination of the Canadian, Rollin, who broke away with Scott Zwizanski (Bissell SRAM) and Trent Wilson (Jayco Australia) after just 5km, and managed to remain in the lead for another 100km.

In the process, Rollin won both sprints, officially taking over the Portfolio Partners red jersey for the leading sprinter on Tour from Matt Wilson, having had it on loan during today’s stage whilst the former race and sprint leader wore yellow.

And now it is the Canadian who will have the dilemma of which jersey to wear tomorrow as he was rightly also awarded the Volvo orange jersey for today’s most aggressive rider.

“My aim today was mostly to secure the points for the sprint jersey but also to make sure I was up the front to help my team mates up the climb. Unfortunately for the last bit I was too tired to do much,” a mostly satisfied Rollin said during the traditional post stage jersey presentations.

Part of the reward for Morabito in winning today’s mountain top finish was a whopping 30 points towards the Savings and Loans King of the Mountains blue jersey, which he now wears despite having earned no other points in the category, such was the extra value allocated to today’s big climb.

But with former leader, Bernie Sulzberger (DFL-Cyclingnews) also on 30 points (Morabito gets the jersey by finishing in the higher place today) and having no need, unlike the Swiss rider, to concentrate on anything but the Tour’s remaining climb, Morabito could well surrender it by around 11.15am on Friday morning.

The Tour’s ‘Go for your life’ teams’ classification continues to be the mighty tussle it has been all week with Swiss based Astana taking over by 4 minutes 39 seconds from Unibet.com, with the frontrunners at the beginning of the day, Bicycle Superstore Canada dropping back to just over 11 minutes behind the leaders in third spot.

In the final classification, the Provincial Victoria white jersey for the best under 23 rider, Clarke, who has led the category from day one, has his biggest margin to date – of more than 14 minutes to Mark O’Brien of Drapac Porsche, following the elimination from the race by race officials of Tuesday’s stage winner and Clarke team mate, Wes Sulzberger.

Friday’s stage sets out from Mount Beauty at 10.30am, the Tour convoy have relocated there after Thursday’s mountain top finish at Falls Creek. Stage Five has a single easier KOM climb (the last of the Tour) after 36 kilometres and sprints 30km later and then at Everton. The riders should reach the finish line in Wangaratta around 1.00pm.

Results (brief)

1. Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana 3.10.06
2. Joost Van Leijen (Ned) Netherlands National Team
3. Trent Lowe (Aus) Jayco Australian National Team
4. Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 0.03
5. Matthew Wilson (Aus) Unibet.com 0.34
6. Darren Lapthorne (Aus) Drapac Porsche 0.47
7. Maint Berkenbosch (Ned) Netherlands National Team 1.45
8. Baden Cooke (Aus) Unibet.com 2.02
9. Simon Clarke (Aus) South Australia.com – AIS 2.08
10. Christian Leben (Ger) Wiesenhof-Felt 2.28

20. Dominique Perras (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 3.47
21. Eric Wohlberg (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 3.54
25. Dominique Rollin (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 7.58
44. Zachary Bell (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 16.38
61. Ryan Anderson (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 25.51

GC after Stage 4

1. Joost Van Leijen (Ned) Netherlands National Team 13.35.51
2. Matthew Wilson (Aus) Unibet.com 0.08
3. Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana 0.19
4. Trent Lowe (Aus) Jayco Australian National Team 0.26
5. Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 0.31
6. Baden Cooke (Aus) Unibet.com 1.53
7. Simon Clarke (Aus) South Australia.com – AIS 2.04
8. Dominique Perras (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 3.55
9. Cameron Wurf (Aus) Bissell-Priority Health 4.07
10. Eric Wohlberg (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 4.27

22. Dominique Rollin (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 17.08
56. Zachary Bell (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 54.57
73. Ryan Anderson (Can) Bicycle Superstore-Canadian National Team 1.07.18