Stage one: The peloton was welcomed to the Tour by wet roads, crosswinds and rolling hills. With a little over 80km ahead of them, the field rolled out. They  stayed as one, until the 30km mark where an attack was launched, consisting of some strong legs – eventual Tour winner Dylan Newell was a key member of the break.  Two riders then rode clear of the lead break to go on for stage honours – the remaining riders were soon swallowed up by a small group of riders who had attacked the peloton with 9km remaining. Joey Esterhuyzen was part of this bridging group, which subsequently finished 30 seconds behind the stage winner. Esterhuyzen snuck in for 6^th overall, while Andy Dorman and Danny Cohen finished with the main field, a few seconds behind.

Stage two: An Individual Time Trial of 9km, over rolling hills and ‘dead roads’ – no matter the power input, riders were in a constant struggle to maintain speed in the race against the clock. Newell set the time to beat, which is how it stayed as rider after rider failed to better him. Andy Dorman, fresh from a training accident, put in a solid performance and showed the potential for some consistent results in the coming months. Esterhuyzen on the other hand, rode a TT bike for the very first time, and it certainly showed as he struggled to ride smoothly. But given the circumstances, he managed to get through the 9km stage with minimal time lost. 

Stage four: 109km of hell  - wind, hills and mere seconds separating the top riders. Young local, Nathan Elliot was proud to be the owner of the leaders jersey – and was sure to keep it for the remaining kilometers. But when the peloton reached the 5km mark, ‘Search to Retain’ launched a move which caught the field by surprise. Joey Esterhuyzen was quick to jump across the gap and join the solo rider. The two rode 30 seconds into the field, before Andy Naylor and his 02 Racing team mate responded, jumping across. Then 3 more riders made a move to join the lead group, as did Dylan Newell. Once together, the groupetto started rolling turns to take advantage of the pelotons hesitation. Within 20km the group was completely out of sight of the main field, and constantly increasing their lead, getting it up to almost 7 minutes at one point.Esterhuyzen worked well in the break, feeling the positive effects of some recent alterations to his training. With 15km to go, there was a major attack on the final climb of the day, with 2 riders being dropped. Joey managed to hang on by a hair, and recover over the crest of the climb. There was yet another acceleration at the 7km to go mark, of which he was unable to match. The leaders rode a full minute into the TFM Avanti rider, as he soloed to 6^th place and over 4 minutes ahead of the field. The yellow jersey went from Nathan Elliot, to Dylan Newell and all it took was one split second to miss ‘that move’ – but as they say, that’s racing!

After 3 days of hard racing, Cohen and Dorman gave it their all to help their team mate win the U23 classification overall. Danny is recovering from his big crash, and will presumably be off the bike for quite some time. With regards to Andy Dormans’ recovery process, he feels things are headed in the right direction – as he showed on the weekend! Well done TFM Avanti, top effort and a great result to reward the hard work. 

Ride details for the 100km breakaway stage can be seen here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37133405

Also a BIG thank you to Georgie for coming down and volunteering - without her, I wouldn't have gotten an entry, or laugh as much as I did. Antlers!!