AUSTRALIA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The team starts its season in Australia with the National Champs. The favourites for the 160km race are Gerrans, Goss and O'Grady.
The Team:
Michael Matthews
Graeme Brown
Goal: Top 5

The Race:
As always there were many attacks at the beginning. Because of past experience I managed to get Matthews into the breakaway. The only other good sprinters being Howard (HTC) and Hayman (SKY). The break wasn't chased down until it was obviously too late, the break was going to win.

In the sprint Matthews sat in 4th wheel behind the 4th best sprinter in the group, Tanner. With 2km to go Matthews launched his own sprint. He pulled ahead but was getting gained on by Howard.


On the line, who has taken it?


Photofinish.....


Matthews wins it, what a great start for the young Aussie and for the team.

1	Michael Matthews	Rabobank	4h29'32
2	Leigh Howard	HTC - Highroad	s.t.
3	David Tanner	Saxo Bank - Sungard	s.t.
4	Rhys Pollock	Drapac	s.t.
5	Mathew Hayman	Sky Professional Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Timothy Roe	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
7	Matthew Wilson	Team Garmin - Cervélo	s.t.
8	Joseph Lewis	Trek - Livestrong u23	s.t.
9	Fabio Calabria	Team Type 1 - Sanofi Aventis	s.t.
10	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	+ 5'15

After the race our manager was asked how he felt after the race, he said "We are very proud of Matthews after his win here. He is definitely a young talent with many great years of cycling in front of him, we hope that he can take this form into the coming season."

Santos Tour Down Under 2011

My Team:
Luis Leon Sanchez (GC)
Oscar Freire (Sprinter)
Matti Breschel (Sprinter)
Michael Matthews (Home Nation Hero)
Laurens Ten Dam
Stef Clement
Tom Leezer
Goals:
2 stage wins
GC podium

Stage 1
139km stage for the sprinters. Favourites: Cavendish (HTC), Boasson Hagen (SKY), Freire (RAB).


The Tour is underway, and for many, the season has begun.


Matthews decides that he looks good in his new Jersey, followed here by Freire.


The early breakaways as usual.


At 98kms to go the break was unable to get ahead by more than 2 minutes ahead of the Peloton due to the work of Team Sky.

The break was later caught with 77kms to go.
There was no attacks for a while until a break consisting of Hayman (SKY) and Boucher (Omega-Pharma) proved to be the other break of the day, they were later joined by Hoste. They were comfortably caught by the Peloton.

I stuffed up my sprint and...

Cavendish (HTC) won the stage ahead of McEwen (RSH) and Davis (AST).

Stage

1	Mark Cavendish	HTC - Highroad	3h17'50
2	Robbie McEwen	Team RadioShack	s.t.
3	Allan Davis	Astana	s.t.
4	Christopher Sutton	Sky Professional Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Denis Galimzyanov	Katusha Team	s.t.
6	Assan Bazayev	Astana	s.t.
7	José Joaquin Rojas Gil	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Gert Steegmans	QuickStep Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Giovanni Visconti	Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli	s.t.
10	Peter Sagan	Liquigas - Cannondale	s.t.

Santos Tour Down Under 2011

Stage 2

Another sprinters stage, this time 146kms long, same favourites.


Early breakaway attempts, I tried to get involved with Leezer but the Peloton did not like what i was trying to do.


With 35kms to go we give Ten Dam a try, this too proves unsuccessful.


With 17kms to go Sanchez puts all his effort into an attack and is later caught with 6kms left.

The Stage is won by Steegmans (QST) ahead of Cavendish (HTC) and Sutton (SKY). And the train fails once again, this time because Breschel lost his mans wheel. (Sorry no screenshot of that due to my frustration)
In the General Classification it's Cav ahead of Steegmans with Leezer in 6th thanks to a 3 second bonus he gained at a sprint point earlier in the stage.

Stage

1	Gert Steegmans	QuickStep Cycling Team	3h23'15
2	Mark Cavendish	HTC - Highroad	s.t.
3	Christopher Sutton	Sky Professional Cycling Team	s.t.
4	John Degenkolb	HTC - Highroad	s.t.
5	Robbie McEwen	Team RadioShack	s.t.
6	Allan Davis	Astana	s.t.
7	Denis Galimzyanov	Katusha Team	s.t.
8	Andrea Guardini	Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli	s.t.
9	Matteo Pelucchi	Geox - TMC	s.t.
10	Mark Renshaw	HTC - Highroad	s.t.

Manager: Another disappointing stage, well, it can't get any worse...