Will Dickeson provides a blow by blow snapshot of the teams recent success at the Tour of Bendigo!

 Stage 1
Stage 1 on Saturday afternoon was a 90 km race that consisted of 3 laps of a flat course. It was reasonably windy day and attacks started right from the start. Mark O’Brian (Drapac Porsche) made the first meaningful move with a solo attack that lasted for about 10km. He was caught by the bunch just as we turned right into the 1st major cross-wind section but no one was ready to really lay it down so early into the tour, and so the majority of the riders were together at the end of lap 1. On lap 2, one rider was ready to ride hard and that was Pelly. As soon as we hit an exposed section of road, he ‘jammed it’ and blew the bunch apart. After about 2 km of this, the bunch was down to 8 riders, with Tim joining up also as we looked around to see who was left. All of the riders with intentions to win the tour were in this move - Mark O’Brian, Pip Grinter (Drapac Porsche) Sean McCarthey, Jamie Crass (Decked Out Coaching) and Pelly, Chris Luxton, Brad Edmunds, Tim Roe and Will Dickeson from Savings and Loans. The pace was pretty even until about 15 km to go when riders began looking to get an advantage over the rest of the break and attacks started going off the front. It was not until 1 km to go that Brad Edmunds was able to make the winning move and soloed to the line with 10 seconds to spare while Luxton was fastest in the sprint for 2nd.
 
Stage 2
Early Sunday morning had the riders rolling out from Woodstock - about 30 km out of Bendigo and consisting of 1 hall and a couple of farm houses. Tim was not able to start due to a bad cold - disappointing for him, but necessary with a long tour in Asia only two weeks away. It was a pretty straight forward 48 km stage through some rolling hills but with a 2 km hilltop finish so make things interesting. Everyone knew this would be one of the defining points of the tour and seemed to be pretty happy to leave it to the hill to sort things out. The main point of interest was Brad, who was leading the tour, crashing into a barrier about 5 km from the base of the climb. Fortunately there was no damage except for a broken Specialized helmet, but losing 3 minutes by the end of the stage meant that hopes for the overall win were gone.
Once we hit the hill (average gradient of 11%) it all came down to who was best on the day. An elite group formed of O’Brian, Grinter, Pell and Luxton, but when the two Drapac riders attacked with 300 m to go, it was Luxton who was able to react. He was able to hold the wheel before launching a hard attack and gapping the other two by a few seconds. Not bad for a sprinter!
 
Stage 3
The afternoon stage was basically the reverse of the morning’s course, with an extra 10km loop thrown in. Once again it seemed that the riders knew the tour could not be decided on this stage, and were content to roll along in one big pace line in order to just get to the finish. Everything stayed together until Will launched a hard attack with 1.5km to go. He was joined by Pip Grinter briefly, but went again with 500m to go and was able to ride solo to the line. Pelly also launched out of the bunch to claim 2nd, while Luxton won the kick for 3rd.
 
Stage 4
The Queens Birthday holiday also brought some wind and rain to Bendigo, but there was still a race to be won. After yesterday’s racing, the top 5 riders were within 25 seconds, with Chris Luxton leading the tour by 10 seconds. The morning brought a 14km time trial on a course that hardly had a section of flat road. With the time gaps so close, the pressure was on and it was Mark O’brian who came through with a big ride. His win, with Pelly 2nd and Will 3rd, was enough to secure the yellow jersey, however Chris rode beyond himself to limit his losses and was only 5 seconds down going into the final 70km stage.
 
Stage 5
With pouring rain, everyone seemed to fire up for the final stage of the tour and the first attack went about 50m after the start line. With everyone so keen, it took about 20km for something to stick - Will Dickeson and Jamie Crass getting away while the Drapac boys started the chase. With Will only 26 seconds off the lead, the S&L guys weren’t too keen to bring the move back, and the leading gap went out to around 1min 30sec. With 35km to go, Crass punctured, leaving Will with no option but to push on solo and hope for the best. A tough weekend of racing proved too much though, and with 5km to go, the bunch was finally back together. Luxton had won some bonus seconds in two preme sprints and was now only 3 seconds off the lead and had a sniff of claiming the 10 second bonus for winning the stage. With everything coming down to the last sprint of the tour, Luxton was able to jump off of Pelly’s wheel and just hold on to win the stage from O’Brian who gave everything to reel him in and claim the 6 second bonus for 2nd. This left lots of head scratching and tension as we got changed and waited to hear the official results, but it was Luxton who was given the overall win - by a mere 1 second.
 
All in all it was a great weekend with S&L claiming 4 stage wins plus the overall victory. The racing also gave the riders a chance to fine tune fitness and tactics before heading over to The Tour of Japan and Korea. Plenty more fun to be had! 

From Joels girlfriend, Tara….

Hey guys,

Hope everyones well!

Thought i’d let you all know that Joel has made huge improvement in the past week!! He’s now sitting up in bed, talking normally, feeding himself, joking around etc.. All machines are off, all tubes are out, all morphine is gone and now they are just working on getting his strength back and getting him walking!! He will be out of hospital in a few days and then once he’s able to flyback comfortably we’ll be back in Oz which should prob be in a few weeks!!

Such a relief hey guys… Its crazy to actually look back at whats just gone on in the last 5 weeks. Seriously seems like something that happens in the movies, especially his miraculous fast recovery!! Im so glad we’ve been here with him though to help him through it all. Now we just cant wait to get him back home nice and safe!!

Joel knows you have all been thinking of him and of all your messages and it means heaps to all of us! He’s got so many great mates out there.

 Once we get back to Melbourne and settle back in we will all let you all know. Hope you all have a great week. Love to all,  Tarz xx 

Joel Pearson continues to make a recovery in France. It is anticipated he will return to Australia in 3 to 4 weeks depending on progress. We’re all really looking forward to getting him back to Australia and firing him up for a full recovery.

After making some progress in his recovery, Joel has slipped back and remains in a very serious condition in France with doctors continuing to run tests and scans to assess why he’s not able to breath independantly of the machinery.

Everyone’s thoughts are with Joel and his family through this period.

Joel Pearson is making  slow recovery following a car accident in France. Joel is in France as a guest rider for an amateur team.Joel suffered severe chest injuries and required head scans. He also sustained multiple broken bones. Joel’s family and girlfriend flew to France last week.He does remain in a serious condition, being such a fighter, he will get through this.If you would like to post any best wishes we’ll be sure to send them through.  

Moving into our 3rd year as a pro cycling team, it was high time a dedicated web-site was developed for our growing supporter base.We hope you like the features of the site, from merchandise and latest news through to rider profiles,  equipment and sponsor links.We’d love your feedback on how the site operates. The site will be regularly updated with our results throughout the year as well as other events and activities that come up.Feel free to also register for our e-newsletter on the home page.Thanks again everyone for your support of the team and here’s to fantastic season of racing ahead.Steve       

The Tour of Southland 2007 came to a solid conclusion today. Today we contested two stages, the morning stage being 77km and the afternoon stage 64km. Although the weather conditions this week have been INDIFFERENT, today was no exception. The morning stage was run under overcast skies but with slight winds which was perfect for racing and the afternoon stage light rain and huge winds.

Stage 8 was slightly uphill with a tailwind for the first half and then the second half was slightly downhill with a tailwind. The race started off very very fast with attacks thick and fast from the gun. After about 10km Will managed to get himself in the move of the day. 10 riders went clear and the zookeepers led peleton kept them steady throughout the entire distance at approximately 45sec. The only counter attack came after about 40k from Jeremy Vennel from the Priority Health Team. That was nullified by the Zookeepers as Jeremy is a bit of a threat to the yellow. The break went out a bit but by the end it was bought back on the line. Will kept his sprint going and ran a credible 9th place, a great ride by him. Will also took the only KOM  of the day and that put him in third overall for that jersey behind Jeremy Yates. Nic and myself kept Graham in pretty good position for the sprint but in the end he got boxed in a touch and didn’t have the greatest of runs.

The afternoon stage started off in drizzle and a major crosswind. At the start we rode exceptionally well attacking off the front but they were all bought back. I was blown off the group after about thirty k’s in the crosswinds but the other boys were all going ok. It was only a short stage and Nic was the only one to finish in the lead group. Overall Nic was the best place and Will ran a credible 3rd in the KOM jersey.

Nathan Jones

Hey all!! The sun has been shining today so the mood in the Savings & Loans/Gen-i team is considerably upbeat from previous days. The weather today started off cold and windy but by the time we had cycled our way to Te Anaui it was a whooooooooooooooooooooooooping 18 degrees and the arm warmers were off for the first time.

Today’s stage was a 163km journey from Winton to Te Anaui. The winds were gale force over night in Invercargill so we were a bit sceptical of what we had to fight today but when the flag dropped it was not that windy. However, the race started fast and it was a slight crosswind for the first 12km before we took a right hander into a block headwind. A few guys  went  up and over some hedges at the start but  apart from that  it was  not too bad.  When we turned into the headwind  the whole team was  in amongst it and Will was in a good group of four but that was bought back. I went across to the next move and seven of us were away, it was a great move and it was gone until the guy second in the sprint jersey came across and then the leader of the sprints did a 2km turn and bought the group back, NOT HAPPY JAN. Will launched again from his wheel but he was covered and then graham was in the move of the day. He was away with four others but found the going  really tough and succumbed to the pressure and came back to the peleton. That left four up front and when the yellow jersey of Hayden Roulston called a toilet stop we knew that they were happy to let four guys ride up the road.

When the break was away the Zookeepers led peleton, kept them steady at roughly four minutes. The wind today was mostly headwind with some sections of crosswinds. The speed was a constant 38km/hr. With about 50km to go i attacked with fourth on GC, Gordon Macauley and Tim Guddsell and a Bissel rider. I thought that they would be happy with that. We stayed upfront for about 4 or 5km but it was nullified in due time. Next up was a 3km climb. Nic rode super to cross the top with the front group, Will was a bit back from that, Graham in the next group and i was struggling at the back. However, that all came back together and with roughly 15km to go the peleton split into two with Graham running 11th and Wil, Nic and myself in the next group and couple of minutes behind.

The Tour of Southland is nearly over!!! We have survived the mental and physical battle against the external elements that felt like the antarctica, well now i can call it the south of New Zealand as we have had two sunny days…. Will is extremely motivated for tomorrow as are the rest of us so with any luck i will be reporting on a Savings & Loan/Gen-i led quinella tomorrow. Tomorrow, by the way sees us tackling a 77km morning stage which is notorious for a massive tailwind and has previously seen the peleton travel at speeds in excess of 90km/hr… should be fun, bit of motor pace training. The 9th and final stage sees us tackle 65km and a finish around queens gardens in Invercargill. Hang on, WAIT there is one last stage. The saturday night recuperation party on the town!!! i think if you can make it through that then YOU HAVE SURVIVED THE TOUR OF SOUTHLAND 2007.

Nathan Jones

Today we tackled two gruelling stages of the tour of the antarctic as we like to call it. the first was a 101km stage and the second an 88km stage. we are down to four men now as Stephen Robb has a broken collarbone.

Today’s morning stage again started from the Invercargill velodrome in blustery cold wet conditions. It was fast from the start as there were two or three hot spot sprints on offer in the first couple of km. It was a cross headwind for the first ten or so km and then we took a right hander and again it was 60km/hr crosswinds that split the peleton into about a million groups. For once i made the front group as did graham and Nic but i only lasted well, about 30sec and went BACKWARDS through the groups as did Nic. Nic managed to hide in amongst the second group whilst i was in the third group. Graham was riding superbly to be in the front group. Will caught up to me and we gradually made our way up to the second group which Nic was in. It’s difficult following the wheel in mad crosswinds and i again found myself out the back when the guy in front of me had his head down and bum up following the wheel and he forgot to look up and he went head first into a truck. DAY over as i stopped to a standstill, group gone. the guy on the ground, well i think he is alright but i thought he had died. BIZARRE… In what was to be some of the strongest winds ever myself and Will finished 20min down, Nic 15min and Graham did a super ride to finish in the main group four min in arrears of the front 8.

The next stage was to start one hour and 15min later. The wind is sooooo hard here and reaches gusts of over 80km/hr all the time. One min it will be a tad sunny the next it will be hailing, it is tough mentally and physically but a challenge that is doing us the world of good.

Stage 5 had a few more hill climbs in it and i personally was going to try make something of a tour that has been very very tough, to say the least. From the gun it was on like donkey kong and i give it everything to make the break, finally we got a group away of roughly 12. Michael Fitzgerald and Adam Semple also made the move which was great. From there it was to be a very very tough day at the office. The KOM jersey and Jeremy Yates were there too  and it was a very very strong group. i was really struggling to pull a turn in the first 15km but was hanging in there as others were dropping like flies. We were down to eight solid riders and i had come round so we had all eight of us plugging away into terrible terrible winds to say the least. we were rolling well and the peleton held us steady at roughly 1.30min. With 18km to go a very very strong group with all the major contenders smashed the peleton to pieces and when they caught us they caught us in some massive crosswind section and smashed all of us 8 from the break out the back, they were going. the chase group of about 15 behind caught us which included Nic who again rode superbly and it wasn’t until the last three km that i got dropped from them and rode in solo. Nic finished with that group and Wil and Graham finished a few groups after that..

IT’S TOUGH, REAL TOUGH but we are sticking it out. Tomorrow sees us going over the crown range so it is much hillier and we are all looking forward to that. We are in good spirits and enjoying the ANTARTIC as much as possible..

Nathan Jones

Today’s 165km stage started off at the Invercargill velodrome and headed to Gaul!!! The stage was again continuously blown into groups because of the harsh weather and winds that the south island of New Zealand has to offer.

In the first four km of the stage there were 4 hot spot sprints which led to a very fast and interesting start. After 30km there was a rather large crash that occurred in the peleton with both Stephen and Nic coming to grips. Nic was able to get back on soon after but Stephen fell awkwardly and broke his collarbone. While this was happening Will had attacked along with five others. There gap blew out rather quickly as none of them are in contention for GC honours at this stage. Will was riding superbly and the bunch was blown into pieces every time a crosswind section occurred. I was continuously in the back group as it is very hard fighting for wheels at the front of the peleton as that is where every man and his dog wants to be. Nic was also finding it difficult today but each time after a hard fought battle in the winds we managed to get back to the front group. Graham was riding superbly and managed to stay in the front after every split.

With roughly 30km remaining of the bike race Will had found it tough going in the lead and succumbed to the constant pressure up front. He rode a superb race in front for 100km and did a sterling job for the team.

In the end we had Nic, Graham and I in the front group behind the four leaders. We finished 4.22min down on the four up front. Will came in a bit later but once again he had a super ride. Nic is 15th on general and we are 6th in team’s classification.

Tomorrow sees us riding 190km all up. 101km in the morning and 90km in the afternoon. if the winds the first two days are anything to go by we are in for another gruelling mentally and physically challenging day, a day that the four of us are 100 per cent ready for and ready to show what we can do…

Nathan Jones