So many good pursuiters/TT’ers in this country. They should form a team and time trial together.
ayyyyyyyyyy
Baby faced assassins
On the back of that I dunno what the TDU will end up like. I guess the OGE guys fucked it tactically and were maybe cooked after a pretty solid effort at bay crits etc but I don’t think they’ve really got a contender. Maybe Porte/Dennis cut their losses, there is a fair bit of chat about Porte not targeting anything this early which is why he’s a bit “chunky”.
Anyway, excited to see what the TDU offers, and which international riders show up. Already excited for the season ahead.
Genuine lols
OGE had a go but to little to late, They were sitting pretty with two up the road but no one wanted to work with them.
The bunch became disorganized and bobrige/brown took advantage and went for it. To be fair it was bloody hot and hard work and no one wanted to work.
Matt White:
“A couple of teams did some pretty interesting rides,” he said. "The BMC guys were doing intervals on the climb today to try to disturb the pace of the peloton - what it did was implode the race.
"Richie was doing some five-minute efforts up the climb today and you saw after a couple of times, there was no-one left. “Then we had to take responsibility from there.”
All excuses aside it just sounds like OGE cocked it up/weren’t strong enough and the best man one. I dunno about Richie doing 5 minute efforts, I didn’t see enough of the coverage to refute that claim but what would be the point of that? Maybe there are some tactics I don’t get but this seems like a someone grasping at straws. I think they just cooked it. I think Cam Meyer’s interview at the end was the most telling, in that OGE played it wrong and bobridge rode a bloody good race. I think given the shit that was thrown after the hour attempt he deserves it. Hopefully he does some decent races on his programme before the olympics and can display the jersey. Will be keen to see what Trek does with the kit, their pinstripe kit is pretty nice so hopefully it’s not an abomination like the OGE one that Gerro wore.
^ I repeated myself a lot…I’ve had some Jameson
It may have taken two or three seasons but OGE are looking like the embodiment of Australian sportsmanship alright.
Next they will be getting sleeve tattoos, injecting goats blood and having gang bangs with Warnie.
Word from the bunch was that Matt White was yelling at OGE from the feed zone to ‘sit up, he will blow’ through the middle of the race.
TBH that was a 50/50 call based on his last few Nats. He does either blast to the win or explode. But… it’s quite a bet to get wrong 
Highlight for me was watching NvdP wheelie past a very cracked Caleb (there is no love lost between them).
Oh and the dude who stayed in the chasing break for a number of laps wearing an at least 3 seasons old garmin jersey.
The update to Jack’s jersey with the Segafredo labeling is amusing, trying to cash in when they weren’t part of it.
i.e. no team support car and so on.
Lollin’.
Love all the excuses when a “yeah, we got our tactics wrong and paid for it…” was all he needed to say. Dunno if it’s the tall poppy syndrome kicking in, but there’s a big hit of schadenfreude about hearing nothing but which OGE rider was going to win, then see them not even make the podium.
Just catching up with this. 35 finishers out of 130+ starters. That’s pretty crazy.
By all means be arrogant but if you can’t back it up I’m going to laugh. Maybe they can’t get a huge GC rider for a good reason.
Unclear when OGE became Australian cricket team.
Actually only 15 finishers, Seb. But there is always a big pullout level in a one-day multi-lap race - moreso if it’s hot and more races to come this month. Even the one-day classics in Europe have a low level of finishers, once riders are dropped they pull out to save energy for next race.
Porte doing 5 min training intervals at threshold up the hill in preparation for TDU and Paris-Nice I agree is not showing much respect for National Champs - but I think the karma bus will take care of him later in year. But that is not disruption FFS - you can’t disrupt a peleton by riding off the front up a hill!.
Whitey had a very bad day - he had the numbers but he didn’t use them wisely, and making cheap shots at others makes it worse. Even if he didn’t respect Bobridge, White had to keep an OGE rider with the leader and not work if needs be - even if just to make others lead the chase from the peleton.
Hepburn had to sit on Jack’s tail when he went and then not work with him. Bobridge would have got annoyed and used up a lot more energy trying to get rid of Hepburn, that he would have imploded before the end. But left solo with a huge time gap Bobridge is one of few riders in world who can manage his effort for a ride like that. Well deserved winner!
^ Paced himself better over 3hrs on the road than 1hr on the track
You’re right Nix, saw 15 and somehow wrote 35. Agreed that the heat must be something really hard to deal with, and that it’s a really well deserved win.