The Saxo Bank team headed into the Tour Down Under fully focussed on chasing a stage win or high overall placing with new signing Baden Cooke. With one day remaining, neither goal has been achieved, yet directeur sportif Bradley McGee said that the riders can be proud of how they have been working together.
“The boys gave themselves every possible opportunity,” said McGee after stage five.
The riders on the team worked hard to try to bring things back together for Cooke, but the peloton fell just short of hauling the break back before the line. However the workload impressed the Australian. “With that sort of attitude success will follow.
“I think what is more important in January is the attitude rather than the results. You have to get the mechanism working in the right manner first.”
Jens Voigt is also quite satisfied, but rues a possible missed chance today. “We worked well. It is just a bit of a shame we couldn’t get Cooke up for the win in the very end.
“We were hanging on strong, we were riding well, but just missing a little bit.”
Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) won the stage, jumping clear of his breakaway companions close to the finish.
Cooke’s best stage placings thus far have been sixth and ninth. He is twelfth overall going into tomorrow’s final stage of the ProTour event, a street race in Adelaide.
That presents one last opportunity, although few would bet against Greipel defending his ochre jersey in style and galloping to his fourth stage victory of the event.
The Saxo Bank riders are aware that this is just the first event in what is a very long season. McGee will take some of them to the Tours of Qatar and Oman, where the search for victories will continue.