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Australians Fall Short

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So Close!
As the World Championships kicked off in Limburg last night, Australian squads Orica-GreenEdge and Orica-AIS fell agonisingly short of claiming gold in their respective Team Time-Trial (TTT) events.Women’s elite team Orica-AIS entered the competition as favourites to challenge well-drilled German outfit Team Specialized-Lululemon in the opening event of the Championships. The Australians matched their main competitors at the early checkpoints, but it was apparent the Germans technicality and understanding of the course was going to be the defining factor. The TSL team ate away significant amounts of time in the difficult portions of the course and by the time they hit the final climb the remaining riders knew they had approximately 20 seconds to spare. The team controlled the pace knowing they had this time gap, and eventually came out clear winners 24 seconds ahead of the Australians.
Despite knowing the race was slipping from their grasp, the Orica-AIS riders must be praised for their ability to continue to power forward on the rises leading up to the Cauberg. Despite falling short, the Australians can take great pride in their time, finishing a whopping 1:35 ahead of third place getter Aa Drin- Leontlen.
“The girls turned themselves inside out riding at the speed required to win, and we were still beaten,” said Orica-AIS sports director Martin Barras. “We were initially and remain a bit deflated but are also very proud of the effort we left on the road. Silver is a mixed bag. We knew what we wanted and what we had to do to get it.” (SBS Cycling Central)​
Later in the day it was men’s team Orica-GreenEdge’s turn to see if they could take the gold. Unfortunately, the squad was caught in a whirlwind battle between Omega Pharma Quick-Step and BMC Racing, and were left somewhat forgotten throughout the race. Omega Pharma asserted their dominance on the race by finishing with all of their star-studded line-up, and in-turn smashing the previous best time set by Italians Liquigas-Cannondale. Early the Liquigas squad, lead by Vicenzo Nibali, surprised a majority of the crowd by finishing ahead of the likes of Rabobank, Movistar and seasoned favourites Garmin Sharp.
But this was soon forgotten once the Belgian Omega Pharma team entered the first two check points almost two minutes ahead of their competitors. The team was powered ahead by seasoned TT specialists Sylvain Chavannel and Tony Martin as they charged to the top of the Cauberg an entire minute ahead of their competitors.
Third last team on the course, BMC, kept within seconds of Omega Pharma at several time checks, but after shedding their fifth rider on the climb to the top of the Cauberg, disaster struck for the Americans.
Noted flat stage man Taylor Phinney was dropping fast from the rest of his team, and at one point the four riders were all separated along the climb. Fortunately they managed to regain their composure to finish strong. But it wasn’t enough, as they finished three seconds behind the leaders, begging the question as to what may have transpired had Phinney not struggled as badly as he did on the vital climb.
With Omega Pharma already celebrating, one could have been forgiven for forgetting Orica-GreenEdge was still racing. For a majority of the race the Australians were caught in no man’s land at the several check points. They were too far off the two leaders to make any real challenge, but were comfortably in front of the rest of the field. As they made their way over the final kilometres it was painfully clear that the riders were struggling. Despite this they managed to sneak in front of Liquigas-Cannondale into third place overall.
Despite falling just short, big congratulations must be given to the two Australian teams, who really stamped their authority on their races, and in-turn finished well above many of their much more fancied competitors.
Congratulations Orica-GreenEdge and Orica-AIS for doing Australia proud.
Elite men’s TTT 53.2km, Valkenburg
  1. Omega Pharma-QuickStep (BEL) 1hr 03min 17sec
  2. BMC (USA) 0:00:03
  3. Orica GreenEDGE (AUS) 0:00:47
  4. Liquigas-Cannondale (ITA) 0:01:05
  5. Rabobank (NED) 0:01:08
  6. Movistar (ESP) 0:01:18
  7. Katusha (RUS) 0:01:19
  8. Radioshack-Nissan (LUX) 0:01:21
  9. Sky Pro (GBR) 0:01:32
  10. Garmin Sharp (USA) 0:01:35


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