McFarlane rides with the world’s best

Race day: Tom McFarlane gets his bike ready for the race start in Wonthaggi.

LEONGATHA’S Tom McFarlane rode alongside some of the world’s best competing in last week’s Jayco Herald Sun Tour, a huge experience for the 20 year old.
Competing with some of the World’s Tour teams and Tour De France riders will certainly be a boost to future competition for McFarlane.
On day one last Wednesday, January 30, McFarlane was out of the blocks well and his sprinting ability was on full show with riders racing around the Grand Prix circuit at Phillip Island. McFarlane would finish just four seconds from the leaders.
McFarlane said he was happy with his performance in the first stage of the tour; despite a tricky cross wind, McFarlane came in 20th.
“I was pretty happy with that. It was good to be up there,” he said.
Crowds gathered at Wonthaggi to watch the start of the second leg of the Tour on Thursday, January 31.The action kicked off from McBride Avenue.
Competing with the Korda Mentha team, McFarlane told The Star he anticipated a challenge on the way to Churchill from Wonthaggi. McFarlane was still with the peloton on the familiar Farmers Road climb near Mirboo North.
There was some debris on the roads from a large storm the previous night but it didn’t cause any crashes.
It was a tough day for McFarlane, finishing with a lot of riders 10 minutes, 34 seconds down on the race leader Michael Woods.
Riders were in for a fast pace on day three with the tail wind running for the trip from Sale to Warragul, McFarlane racing at over 43 km/h for the entire 161.6 km.
McFarlane would finish with the peloton on this day alongside Richie Porte and losing just over a minute on GC (General Classification).
Day four was a tough day at the office for McFarlane with the Arthurs Seat climbs to be done, finishing more than 22 minutes from the winners.
Day five was the criterium around the Royal Botanical Gardens in very hot conditions, testing all riders, McFarlane finishing just over five minutes down on the winner. He went 88km around the gardens at an average speed of 43.4km/h.
Dylan Van Baarle of the Netherlands was the winner of the tour from Aussie Nicholas Schultz of the Mitchelton Scott team 24 seconds behind. Richie Porte finished fifth, two minutes, 13 seconds down on the winner.

Short URL: /?p=27422

Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Feb 5 2019. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry