Even though stage 6 was reasonably flat and short at 134km, we still were considering it to be a potentially dangerous stage. The usual attacks were going in the first 30km but it was obvious the GC riders were trying to slip into the moves and gain some time before the hill-top finish tomorrow.

At the 40km point it happened and a 12 man move got away with Joel in it. As the gap got to 60 seconds we began to get worried as there were 4 GC riders in the move including Hossain Askari from the Tabriz Petrochemical Team.

Immediately Will, Pelly and Steve went to the front as the gap got to 1min 30sec and began to drive the bunch. It took 20km of hard work but as the gap came down to 20sec, Tim took the opportunity to jump across and we had one of our overall contenders in the break.

As Tim is only young at 19 years old we were a little unsure of his chances against riders like Askari on Genting so the 3 domestiques kept working along with the Doha Team and Team Le Tua, allowing Joel and Tim to sit in as much as possible.

Tim did a great lead out for Joel at the finish who hit the front but it was a Japanese rider from the Aisan Racing Team who was a bit quicker and went past in the last 10 meters.

Hard riding meant that the bunch only lost 20 seconds to the break. It was almost a bad day for the team but we remained calm, got 2^nd on the stage, moved Tim up on GC and Jai only lost time to 4 of his main rivals.

Its been a few days but we have a quick run-down of the last 2 stages.

Stage 4 was dead flat, very hot and the mood in the bunch was to let a group go. 4 guys got away 15km in and when some more tried to jump across 10km later, David Pell joined them.

This left the 2 Iranian teams to control the bunch as they have the yellow jersey and the sprint jersey.  The Iranian guys kept the gap pretty close as there was one rider in the break who was close on GC. As attacks started to go towards the finish, Pelly got away with a group of 4 and things were looking good. However, two riders with him refused to work for the last 10km and they got caught with 250m to go. Pell kept sprinting for 16th place and we all got through unscathed despite a big crash inside the last kilometer.

Stage 5 was the longest of the tour at 199.5km and was again dead flat and hot. It was a really fast start and took 85km of attacks before something finally got away. It ended up being a solo rider from the Trek-Marco Polo team, so he was in for a long and lonely day. We spent the day looking out for the GC guys in some crosswinds and constantly collecting bottles and food from the car.

The solo break was brought back with 10km  to go and along with Jelly Belly and Team Ride Sport tried to make an organised sprint. Things still got pretty messy as there was a lot of fresh legs in the bunch and a hairpin turn with 500m to go. Joel had a big sprint to run 5th and again everyone else made it in with only 3 stages to go.

Today was a 173km stage with 3 climbs in the first 80km, one of them being a category 1 climb rising 1100m in altitude.

The race started aggressively as everyone knew the climbing started within 10km. Pelly was able to get himself in the early break which got out to a gap of 1.50mins. That came back on the 2^nd climb, as soon as it was together attacks went again. Pelly was able to get off the front again with a small group and jai was able to jump across with a few other go guys. Once Jai got across, Pelly worked hard to try and keep the break away. The hard work soon took its toll, as he dropped back to the chasing bunch.

The break got out to 1.10min but with some of the other main men missing the move, their teams worked hard to bring the group back. Whilst Jai was up the road, he was able to get 2^nd in two sprints which gave him a 4 second bonus - which could be important later on.

After a big chase, the lead group got reeled in and there were 40 riders in the main bunch including Jai, Steve, Pelly and myself.

It was a sketchy sprint finish and most of the guys were trying to stay safe and follow wheels in. In the finish David Pell was 10^th and the other guys all ran in the top 20. So a good day and all went to plan, another stage ticked off to the lead up to Genting. Jai is now 4^th overall @ 21secs and I am 12^th @25secs.

- Tim Roe

Stage 2 was a nearly a dead flat 192k race. with the way yesterday’s race went we all set ourselves for a long hard day.

It was a really hot day again and the racing started the same, many attacks and was on from the get go, smalls breaks went but most were brought back until 5 guys went up the rode 20km in and got a gap of around 1.30mins.  That was brought back by the main peleton. Then a group of 24 guys went up the rode with our main man jai crawford, there were several other gc riders in the break. With only jai from s and l there we knew it would be good if we could try and get one more of us in the move. The break was out to about 1min and looked like it was going to stick so i tried to get  across,  4 other riders came with and we were able to get acoss. once we were in the front group we could settle down and try to save ourselves as much as possible.

Jai and I did as little work as possible as there were a lot of teams represented and in the end, the bunch rolled into the finish with roughly a 10 minute lead.

Jai did a great job in the finish to run 5th, sprinting against some fast guys and I was pretty happy to get to the end.

Tomorrow we hit a couple of decent climbs on a 175km stage so it will be intersting to see how the legs feel

- Will Dickeson

Today was the first stage of the Tour of Jelajah and our 1st international hit-out since some great results at the Tour of Wellington in January.

Our hotel was about 20km from the centre of Kuala Lumpur and we did a pretty cruisy 1.5 hour ride doing laps of a 10km block nearby. We were able to get in a bit of intensity by jumping onto the back of the many motorbikes cruising past and all of the locals seem pretty pumped to see all the riders cruising around.

This morning we had a bit of an early start with a 60km bus transfer to the stage start which was at 10am. It was pretty warm - in the mid 30’s and high humidity which, along with a headwind, made for a tough day. It wasn’t helped by Pat Jonker picking number 21 in the ‘random’ draw for team car order. Yep - dead last in the convoy means a long wait when you are waiting for the car to come up with some more bottles!

In typical Asian racing style, it was on from the gun and never really let up. It seems like every team in the race wants to have someone in a break-away and as soon as they get one person there, they decide they want two!

The plan was for Steve, Pelly and myself to keep an eye on the moves at the front of the race and let the other guys stay fresh for a sprint in Joel’s case, and later on in the tour for Tim and Jai.

Everything went to plan and we were never caught without a rider in a serious move, and had our top guys in position on a few occasions where the bunch split in half. In the end, it was two guys who held off the peleton to take the win. With 15km to go, we learned that the Iranian rider in the break could climb a bit, so with the GC in mind for later in the week, Pelly, Steve and myself hit the front to bring a 2.30min gap back to 34sec at the finish.

Everyone got through well although Joel had a scare when a plastic bad got caught in his rear wheel and ripped off his rear derailleur. The scary part was probably hanging onto the car at 90kph on a neutral spares bike in order to get back to the bunch. He then followed some wheels in the sprint to run 16th on the stage and get in the prize money. Good stuff mate!

Tomorrow is 190 odd km’s and dead flat so we’ll be expecting another 45km/h average!

The plan today was to watch for any early breaks and if we could get Craig, Joel, Chris or Will in that break, then we would go for it. Then when it came to the Mt Buller climb, we would have someone out there to support Tim and Pelly up the mountain.The stage went to plan early with Craig getting in an early break, from about the 1km stage. Craig has had a great tour to date and has been in a lot of the action, trying for the breaks every day. He was joined by about eight other riders who survived to the Mt Buller climb, where the group started to whittle down as the climb started. Chris Jongewaard made a move early on the climb, leaving Craig and a few others battling the climb. Eventually Craig was by himself, the only rider left chasing Jongewaard to the top, but and was caught about 4km from the summit.Tim Roe had another good day, finishing in the first 20 up the climb and only 1 minute behind Lars Bak from CSC. Again, it shows that he is a rider for the future and if he hadn’t lost time early in the tour, he would be in contention for overall GC. Just a great learning experience for Tim and watch out for him in next year’s tour with an extra year of racing under his belt.Pelly had a bit of a bad day today and didn’t feel good from the start. He didn’t feel well on the climb and lost some time. Some days are just like that in cycling, you just can’t seem to find the legs. He’d be disappointed with his day today, but he’s had a brilliant year and will now be focussing on a good time trial, then Melbourne to Warrnambool, an event he has longed to win for years.Another great day for Chris Luxton, climbing really well again and now our best placed rider.The tour for us is very much about stage wins and we will be trying hard in the time trial tomorrow and the big finale in Melbourne on Saturday.Steve

The plan today was to look for an attack early in the stage through Joel or Craig and see if one of them could get away from the main group. We were then hoping for Tim to attack at the top of the climb and see if he could get away for a stage win. Obviously, it’s a pretty tough ask when you’re racing against seasoned European professionals on some very tough climbs. It was also a test for Tim to see how good a climber he really is against some first class competition. And it was a very tough climb today. The category one climb on the way through to the stage finish at Marysville was always going to break up the group and was going to be the first test of the tour, and identify the major contenders for overall victory.The day started as we planned, with Craig able to get an early break on the peloton, however, they never really let him go, just letting him hang out the front by about 100 metres. There were a few other breakaways during the stage, with the most successful being a group of eight making it to the climb away from the main group. However, they were swallowed up on the climb as the group started to splinter, and the major contenders began to step forward.Both Pelly and Tim were right in contention on the climb – both were going up the mountain really well. By the finish, Tim managed to stay with the first group of about 20 riders across the line, but wasn’t able to take the stage – which is no disappointment considering the likes of Baden Cooke and Stuart O’Grady were in this group.Pelly came in about a minute later, and now is our best rider sitting at about 2 minutes from the lead. Pelly isn’t a natural climber so he’s going to find it hard to get the win from here, especially going up Mt Buller tomorrow. But you never know what can happen.Cycling is an unforgiving sport, and today I’m sure Tim has realised a couple of things. One, he can mix with some of the best cyclists in the world, but also, how much a small mistake can damage your chances of overall victory. In Monday’s first stage, he was caught out of position in strong winds and found himself off the back and eventually lost more than 15 minutes. Riding well in cross winds is a real skill, a test of aggression and relentless concentration, and Tim will be working hard to refine his skills in 2009. If he had of got the right positioning, he might find himself in with a real chance of a high placing in general classification. But that’s racing for you, and he will learn from it.Chris also performed really strongly today, coming home only a couple of minutes behind the leaders. A great performance considering he is not a natural climber. A really impressive day for the team and they worked well together, tried to make the breaks, and our climbers were there at the end where they needed to be.Tomorrow is likely to decide the tour. It all comes down to how much today’s climb took out of the guys. Obviously, the guys who race in Europe have the racing in the legs so you would think they will be right up there. As for us, well, as I said, anything can happen. It would be good to see Tim up there challenging for the stage again, and will be a test of whether he can back up day after day. Just more experience for a really exciting prospect in Australian cycling. And let’s hope Pelly can pull something out and be a challenger for general classification.This is the stage of the tour where the riders really start to feel it after three tough road stages and a criterium. It really comes down to how much each rider has spent and how much they have left for the big climb tomorrow up Mt Buller.Steve (full results from the tour are available here, and the team’s website is here)

There was a mixed mood among the team this morning. On one hand we were stoked with being presented the teams’ leader jersey, but this was soured with the fact that Russell had missed the time cut and wouldn’t be starting the stage. Russell was pretty disappointed to be out so early in the race, and was really putting on a brave face this morning. We were greeted with nicer weather and were looking forward to seeing how the day worked out. We had our first mechanical problem in the first few kilometres with Chris puncturing. Luckily, it happened in the neutral zone so we didn’t lose any time. Early on in the stage, Tim tested the group pushing out the front of the peloton a few times. Chris also got away a few times with a small group that was brought back to the peloton. It was a day where there were a lot of short attacks, but the group wasn’t letting anything go. There was also plenty of support out on the road for local boy, Joel Pearson, who gave us plenty of local knowledge in the team meeting last night, letting the boys know what to expect today.A decisive attack came with about 40 kilometres to go in the stage, with most of the favourites for the tour in this group. Unfortunately for us, Pelly missed out on making the break. On a positive note, Craig managed to get into this group of 20 so we had someone to keep an eye on the work of this group, and if anything, try and slow it down a bit. Pelly tried to make the gap to this group by himself, but it was just too much effort to get across so had to go back to the chasing group.In the last few kilometres, the chasing group managed to bridge the gap to the breakaway, but then more attacks came. Stuart O’Grady pushed away with another Bicycle Superstore rider and was too strong, getting away by himself for the win. Craig McCartney rode a strong race, coming in about 15 seconds behind O’Grady and then the rest of the team was about 36 seconds back. Luckily, Pelly didn’t lose too much time in the general classification is still within a minute of the leader. It could have been a lot worse at one stage in the day. Still, this race is often won by just a few seconds, so we will really have to look at our strategy for the next two stages to work out how we can pull back some time.O’Grady has been strong all race, and rode solo for a lot of yesterday’s stage, and then was out on his own again today. He is super strong at the moment, which is what you would expect from such a seasoned professional.The next two stages will be the decisive ones of the tour. In the last few years the big climb of the tour decided the winner, and this year that will be Mount Buller on Thursday. Tomorrow will also be a tough one, with a category 1 climb at the end of the stage to really test the riders.Steve

It was a tough but rewarding day for the team…and tonight when we look at the teams classification and see our name ahead of teams such as CSC Saxobank, it’s a pretty good feeling. What makes it even better is that it was such a tough day of racing, in some pretty terrible conditions. When I woke up this morning and looked outside and saw how hard the wind was blowing, I knew we were in for a tough day. By the time we reached the start line, a few drops of rain started to fall and the wind had picked up even further - anything could happen in these conditions. Strong cross winds are the conditions most riders fear the most, because if you get stuck in the wrong in the group, you can all of a sudden find yourself off the back and out of the bike race.Most of the boys pulled up well after yesterday’s criterium. Russell (Gill) went into yesterdays race with a cold, and he was feeling pretty bad last night, and not much better this morning. I think out of all the riders he would have been dreading the conditions the most. It was going to be a tough day in the saddle, and our boys were going to have to work and concentrate all day just to stay in the main group.The stage unfolded much the way we thought it would. The pace was hot and there were a few attempted breakaways early in the race. Pelly was able to get himself in to one and even picked up a few king of the mountain points. The peleton stayed together for the first 50-70 kilometres and then a break was made. Stuart O’Grady managed to get out alone and power away to about three minutes lead. The winds also caused a split in the peleton, with a small group of about 30 riders getting dropped off the back of the group. Unfortunately for us, three of our guys were in this group, including Tim Roe who we held some general classification hopes for. He was just in the wrong position at the wrong time. It’s a different type of racing at this level, and at just 18 years old it was simply a bit of inexperience which landed him in that situation. He’ll learn from this experience and that’s what’s it’s all about for him. He was pretty disappointed at the end of today, but he’ll bounce back and who knows what can happen later in the week.Four of our guys – Luxton, Pelly, Pearson and McCartney – rode a strong race and finished in the main group. Pelly and Joel weren’t too far off the win getting 5^th and 9^th but the other guys just read the run up to the line a bit better. Pelly rode strongly today and we are really happy with the way he is looking. And there was some good support around him.It was a disappointing day for Russell as well. As I said before, it’s no fun going into conditions like that when you’re not feeling 100% and he was hurting all day. He dropped off the back of the second group and with a couple of other riders had to battle hard out the back by themselves. To his credit he finished the stage when it would have been easy to pull out with the way he was feeling. Now we just have to wait and see whether he made the time cut, otherwise his tour will be over.All in all, it was a good day for the team. Not everything went the way we wanted – we would have loved Tim to finish with the main bunch, and for Russell to pull through as well. But it’s a long week and you never know what is going to happen just around the corner.We’re just feeling pretty good about sitting on top of the teams classification, and getting up on the podium tomorrow and pulling on those jerseys.

The boys are all feeling strong, which is a good sign given how tough today was. Tomorrow we travel along the coast and then head through some tough climbs in the Strezlecki Ranges, finishing in Warragul – Joel’s home town. I’m sure that will give him a bit of extra incentive to push for the win.

Until next time, Steve (visit the team’s website)