By Jamie Finch-Penninger – @FishysCP
Stage 2 of the 2015 Tour of Bright was a really chaotic one, as the Kiln Gaps course played host to some exciting racing, with early escapee Sam Hill just holding off a charging Lucas Hamilton to win by 4 seconds. With Sean Lake (African Wildlife Safaris) in the leader’s jersey going into the stage, and the climb of Tawonga Gap at the end for a summit finish, the race was expected to be a relatively controlled affair. The real fireworks were expected to occur on that final ascent, but the way the race panned out the action began well before. Sam Hill (GPM Stulz) spoke to Peloton Café about how he saw the race.
“Everyone was keen to get in the breakaway, which always makes it hard to get in it. Eventually 18 of us formed the move, we all worked together really well, distancing the peloton quickly. The AWS boys, Jeremy Cameron and Cyrus Monk, they’re always so strong and they were doing a lot of work up the hills, along with my teammate Jesse Ewart, he was killing it up the hills today.” The gap was driven by these efforts, and reached a maximum of 5 minutes 10 seconds, and it looked like the break would be fighting it out amongst themselves for the win. Lucas Hamilton (Jayco/John West/VIS) spoke about how he saw the race from his position in the peloton. “It was really hot, and there was no breeze so it was like an oven. The peloton wasn’t keen on chasing at all, there were even small groups of two and three going across the gap to the break. A few of the Avanti boys really gave it a push up the climb, we pulled back the group of five (the second group on the road) but we didn’t actually catch them, because the peloton sat up again after the climb.”
That prompted a number of riders to try and jump across the widening gap, with prominent riders like Ben O’Connor (Satalyst Verve), Matt Clark, Ben Dyball (both Avanti) and Lucas Hamilton clearly unhappy with the pace the peloton was riding at. Hamilton said, “On the valley road, I thought it was race over with the break up the road, but I put in an attack to try and get over. A group of seven went over to the group of five that had been out there and we rode really well together, riding consistently to the base of Tawonga.”
As this was happening behind, the break up front were fighting their own internal battles. Sam Hill elaborates, “Guys fell off the pace up Rosewhite and Falls, at that point there were only 8 of us left. I was reasonably fatigued by then, but I held on and on the descent I managed to go off the front with Jeremy Cameron (African Wildlife Safaris) and we had a minute (to the original break) at the base of Tawonga Gap. He (Cameron) was on the front, I was just holding his wheel, he was going so quick. He ended up hitting the wall and I came around him, and from there it was about getting to the top as quickly as I could.”
Hill would need all of that gap as the chasing group was coming from behind very quickly as Hamilton describes, “We gassed it from the bottom of Tawonga, the break had 3 minutes on us at the bottom, we caught them with two kilometres to go. Ben Dyball went right from the bottom which can work sometimes, but Tawonga only gets harder, gradient-wise, as you go up so I knew that you really want to wait for the last two kilometres before you go. I whacked it at 1.5 to go, just after Michael Storer had done a really hard turn, maybe a bit conservative, but I’ve seen a lot of good climbers blow up by going too soon.”
The finish was a great spectacle as Hill came into view, slowly being reeled in by Hamilton, and it appeared that the GPM Stulz rider was going to be caught by the youngster from the VIS, but Hill managed to find that extra bit of strength to kick away and take the win by four seconds in the end. Hamilton again, “I didn’t think I was racing for 1st place, I was told there were two up the road, so I thought that Sam was 2nd and I was 3rd. It wouldn’t have mattered, I was going full gas for 2nd anyway. I was catching him and catching him, but then he turned around when I was 20 metres off him and put in a little sprint and that was it. Would have looked great if it had been filmed!” Sam Hill described the moment from his perspective, “When I saw Lucas coming, I thought that I should make sure that I didn’t go into the red. He got close, but I had just enough energy to kick away at the end.”
This win is a just reward for Hill, one of the most exciting racers in the NRS, who regularly goes on long range attacks that enliven events for spectators, fans and neutrals. With so many teams focused on just producing results, it is great to see a rider of his verve and aggressive instinct take a win like this one. Other riders and DS’s have at times written Hill’s attacks as silly, or without any hope of succeeding, but a day like today proves the doubters wrong. Hill reflected on this, “This does happen a lot, I’ll do a bold move early and you get the feeling it’s like ‘There goes Sam, we’ll see him before the end of the race.’ So it’s really nice to finish the job and get this win under the belt. It’s been a great finish to the season, I missed a big chunk of the season with illness, but I’ve been feeling really good recently. Nationals is a big goal, a lot of pathways open up if you do well there so I’m happy to be in good form going in.”
In all the excitement of the race being all over the road and riders coming into the finish in ones and twos the General Classification saw a major shake-up, with young climber Ben O’Connor taking the overall lead, with Ben Dyball in 2nd, 17 seconds adrift. 18 year-old Michael Storer is doing a top job to be sitting equal third with Lucas Hamilton at 27 seconds down, and both are still well within striking distance of the lead if they are on good form up the 30 kilometre ascent of Mt Hotham tomorrow.
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