Written by Garbo28 at 15:37 4/12-2014
Edition 11 of Fast on Wheels was Garbo28’s first tour and there was stiff opposition. The pre-race review was positive giving the team a good review against Eric Jonkers run of good results in Season 30 adding 5 wins to Palmares; Plus support of ‘an interesting squad’ which had me smiling.
The team was ready but unfortunately outclassed where it mattered. It was obvious from the Prologue that Time Trialling would be a weakness and in hindsight it should have sent some warning signals to back off from the overall and just focus on Stage wins. Especially when Tony Lashley fell off on the 5km course.
The initial sprint result was disappointing and a choice not to focus on Eric and allow two of the team to go for a breakaway in the 3rd stage may have been ill judged as in the tough Arhus - Vejle King Stage with full team support Eric finished 5th in an uphill battle which was not previously thought to be suited to his main abilities. This left Eric in 5th place overall.
The temptation to attempt to keep the overall position backfired in the final TT, where Eric lost over 2 minutes, finished 30th and slipped to 10th overall (where he remained) in the process. This probably blunted his speed for the final stage where the team scored their best result of the tour with Eric coming in 3rd behind two of the top sprinters of the race. Though this may have also had something to do with Tony Lashley (who only had to stay in the race during the final TT) falling off and getting an injury that left the team a man down in the final stage.
All in all it was an enjoyable tour which certainly highlighted the teams main weaknesses: Time Trialling and Tactics (and that Tony needs a padded jersey the next time he goes into a Time Trial!); but also showed they have abilities in the hillier stages which to date the team has avoided in the past.
Congratulations to Edoardo Giofriola of BC Team for their overall, Sikesdi Akos of Shirks Racing in the youth Jersey and the Zack Traylor of Uber for their success in the Sprinting jersey (in which Eric finished in 7th place). Lets hope we can be more prepared for the next opportunity for a tour entry.
Gary B (Gar)
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