Absolutely abysmal weather woke the Veneziano Blefari team early this morning to pack the cars and move on to the start line for the third stage of the Caterpillar Tour of Tasmania. The morning was cold but as we reached the start line the rain had disappeared and road had started to dry. As the gun blew the peloton started the 103km journey from Hamilton to Lake St Clair. With a strange course profile tossing up some challenges as each KOM was not followed by a descent but an undulating terrain until it dropped into the start of the second KOM then levelled out to the finish.
No early break was allowed to go and coming in to the first intermediate sprint of the day I found myself near the front of the bunch and just had some good luck. Luke Parker jumped up the road at 800m to go then I got myself onto the wheel of Alex Ray as he started his sprint, my legs already under pressure I could only hold onto his wheel to take 2nd place by the time I crossed the line. From then I pushed on holding on to the peloton until halfway up the first KOM where a small groupetto formed which kept a good pace until we reached the bottom of the second KOM. As we climbed out of the valley we caught a group of around 30 riders, from there on we rode to the finish just quick enough to make the time cut.
Veneziano pocket rocket, Justin Gassner continues his good form to finish top 20 in today’s stage. Here’s a few words from the front of the race:
“The freezing conditions took a toll on most of the field leaving only a small front bunch to race for the win. As we passed through the 25km to go marker I put in a small attack that lasted around 2min off the front before the Budget Forklifts train rocketed past me. The remaining 25k saw a mixture of teams take turns on the front over undulating terrain as the 4 leaders built an advantage of around 3 minutes after their bold attack part way up the second KOM. The paced picked up with about 5km to go and I decided to just look after myself and make it to the finish upright. Across the line and it was straight to the car to eat, drink and warm up to get ready for the next day.”
Great work by Justin today as consolidated his position in GC as well as holding equal third in the Young Rider Classification.
Another thanks to Veneziano Coffee Roasters, Blefari Cafe & Cucina, Sam Bushaway for his awesome work with a crash course in convoy driving and Michael Slater for his ongoing support as team manager. After three stages we’ve sprinted and climbed, sweated and frozen, surely there’s not much more the apple island can throw at us.
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