Young Australian grabs early advantage over WorldTour rivals, including defending champ Haas
Just as Caleb Ewan did in the Mitcheltown Bay Cycling Classics, Jordan Kerby surprised WorldTour riders with a victory in today’s opening prologue of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.
The 20 year old Suzuki Bontrager rider tore around the 4.7 kilometre prologue in Williamstown, beating Joseph Cooper (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisors) by 1.47 seconds and David Kelly (Total Rush) by 3.68 seconds.
Adam Phelan (DEG) and Luke Davison took fourth and fifth, while the Orica GreenEdge duo of Simon Gerrans and Simon Clarke were eighth and ninth.
Like defending champion Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp), they were riding with the Australian national team due to a UCI rule preventing WorldTour riders competing in non-UCI races.
Haas got the defence of his title off to a solid start, netting tenth. He conceded 7.34 seconds to Kerby, and will do what he can to try to get that time back.
Kerby admitted afterwards that he was surprised to take the prologue. Getting into the race was a big priority for him, but he didn’t expect that success. “I really wanted to do this tour, it’s a great tour,” he said. “I rang John Forest from Suzuki-Bontrager and said, ‘hey mate have you got any spots.’ He said, ‘yeah, sure’ and gave me a gig. I’m really grateful and happy to be able to repay him with that.”
Kerby took the lead very early on, being the fortieth rider off, and had a long wait. He said that he was very nervous, but things worked out fine. “I just tried to chill out. I think there was like seventy guys still to go and big names, so I kind of expected someone to do a better time. But rider by rider went and they weren’t beating me so it was getting a bit more excited by the last ten guys.”
He now holds the overall lead going into tomorrow’s 147.7km stage from Rupertswood Mansion in Sunbury to the Tom Flood Sports Oval velodrome. There the riders will have what is being referred to as a Paris-Roubaix style finish. Kerby will have to be wary of the WorldTour riders, who will do what they can to get back into contention.
“It’s a big tour with all these big names,” he admitted. “It’s on my shoulders too so it’s going to be a big task to try and keep the jersey. We’ll do what we can.”
With the times all quite close, he will have to watch the riders who are just outside the top ten, too. Orica GreenEdge duo Stuart O’Grady and Matt Goss – who are also racing with the Australian national team – are both less than six seconds back, and are also dangerous.
The stage includes climbs at Mount Macedon and One Tree Hill. The difficulty rating for the riders is increased by the fact that scorching weather is expected.
Jayco Herald Sun Tour:
Prologue: Williamstown Individual Time Trial presented by Subaru
1, Jordan Kerby (Suzuki Bontrager) 4.7 kilometres in 5 mins 5 secs
2, Joseph Cooper (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisors) at 1.47 sec
3, David Kelly (Total Rush) at 3.68 secs
4, Adam Phelan (DEG) at 5.08 secs
5, Luke Davison (SAS) at 5.1 secs
6, Anthony Giacoppo (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisors) at 5.57 secs
7, Aaron Donnelly (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisors) at 6.01 secs
8, Simon Gerrans (Australian National Team) at 6.53 secs
9, Simon Clarke (Australian National Team) at 6.68 secs
10, Nathan Haas (Australian National Team) at 7.34 secs