Although the HTC-Highroad team lost the leader’s ochre jersey on stage four of the Santos Tour Down Under and has a fight on its hands to get it back from Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervélo), directeur sportif Alan Peiper believes that things are by no means lost.
“In the end the break stayed away. It's unfortunate but at the same time we're still in the running,” he said in his personal blog. “It's still possible to win, not just for Gossy [deposed leader Matt Goss] but for two or three other guys.”
Peiper appears to be a little off in his talk of the amount of riders from the team left in contention; Hayden Roulston is 35 seconds back, but the other riders are all at least nine minutes behind. However the intention is clearly there to fight all the way.
“There's some time bonuses up for grabs if we win stages the next couple of days. It's not the best situation because we had the jerseys and now we have to chase back. But we are motivated and we'll do our best.”
Goss had gone into the stage with a two second advantage over defending champion André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and four over the trio of Robbie McEwen (Team Radio Shack), Michael Matthews (Rabobank) and Ben Swift (Team Sky). Meyer had started the stage 21 seconds back in 46th place, but surged into the lead when he gained time in a six man break, then won the stage.
Peiper said they knew it would be tough because of a climb through Gorge at the start, as well as the later ascent of Checker Hill.
“We were all stretched out but the boys kept their cool and kept it together. After Checker eight riders went away with Greipel in it, so it was all hands on deck to bring it back in time for the sprint bonuses. Believe it or not, we got it back and Gossy was able to get a few seconds in the sprint bonuses. Then another break went away with six guys. It shouldn't have been a problem but we miscalculated a bit.”
He said that McEwen’s RadioShack team helped out a little, but the other teams didn’t get involved. That plus a strong tailwind made things very difficult and four out of the break managed to stay clear to the finish. Meyer was the fastest of those and now has two stages to go before winning the race. Goss is twelve seconds back in third but, if Peiper’s words are a reflection of the team mentality, there will be a huge scrap before the race ends on Sunday.
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