Bauer Wins Herald Sun Tour Prologue
In front of a large and enthusiastic downtown twilight crowd, New Zealand's Jack Bauer surprised local hopes in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour prologue, with Bauer claiming the yellow jersey by winning the 2.5 kilometer individual prologue along the banks of the Yarra River.
The penultimate rider to leave the starting gates, 28-year-old Bauer edged out compatriot Tom Scully by only 0.91 seconds for his maiden prologue victory.
Stopping the clock at 03:00.90, Bauer’s win scores an early advantage for his Garmin-Sharp-POC team over rival WorldTour teams GreenEdge and Cannondale Pro Cycling.
Four of today's seven fastest riders in the prologue were from Garmin-Sharp-POC, including 2011 Jayco Herald Sun Tour winner Nathan Haas (03:03.18) in fifth place overall.
With such numbers in the top ten, Garmin-Sharp-POC is hoping to provide solid protection for Bauer while also providing the platform for a final day assault up Arthur’s Seat for Haas.
Pre-race favourite and Australian Champion Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge, 03:06.29) finished five seconds behind Bauer in eleventh overall, while defending champion Calvin Watson (KordaMentha Real Estate – Team Australia, 03:16.25) finished a further 11 seconds back in 78th overall.
Bauer appeared to have surprised even himself with the result.
“We’ve just come off a strong Tour Down Under, and I’m enjoying my time in Australia. I’ve been training pretty well and staying healthy. The whole team is here with pretty decent legs,” he said.
“I didn’t really think we’d have anyone to challenge for today’s stage, but maybe it’s me.”
After watching 94 riders go before him, Bauer said he was well aware of the performance required for victory.
“It’s not your standard prologue course, it’s like a city center criterium, a final lap of a city center criterium. I like that kind of riding and I think it showed today.”
“I knew I had 3:01 to beat with Scully and just had my eye on the clock approaching the finishing line.”
Scully had a nervous wait while watching the final 45 riders complete the inner-city course, but it was his countryman that surpassed the three minute 1.81 standard he’d set with the second last ride of the day.
“Tom is a pretty awesome bike rider. He’s just come off the track and off the boards, so I knew he’d be one of the men to beat today,” Bauer explained.
“It’s a bit of a pity knock a fellow Kiwi off the top perch, but it’s my job. It may as well be another Kiwi doing it.”
While Bauer will wear the Jayco Herald Sun Tour Leaders Yellow Jersey into Thursday’s first-stage from Geelong to Ballarat, he admits that it might be others within the Garmin-Sharp outfit that will have the legs to carry the jersey to the top of Arthur’s Seat on Sunday including 2011 champion Haas.
“It’s pretty clear who we have got on the team who can climb. Obviously the stages are fairly lumpy, especially that final on Arthurs Seat near the end of the week,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of talent in the team and some good climbers. I’ll see what I can do to hold onto the jersey early on before we hit the hills.”
Despite sitting outside the top-10 after the prologue, Bauer says reigning Australian road race and Tour Down Under champion Gerrans is still the man to beat.
“Like everybody says, he’s in the form of his life. There’s no better bike rider from this side of the world at the moment, obviously he’s the man to beat and has got a strong team around him. But we definitely have a few cards to play.”
