Durbridge Avoids Injury Toll in Olympia Tour
Team Jayco Skins had a day they’d rather forget on stage two of the Olympia’s Tour in the Netherlands.
The team began the 156km stage from Heerenveen to Meppel with three riders in the top ten overall but rotten luck saw two riders taken to hospital with broken bones and another two nursing bruises.
“The boys lined up early near the front of the bunch, determined to keep near the head of the race, because we expected unpredictable racing today,” said Team Director James Victor.
Five kilometres into the stage a crash brought down around 30 riders including Sydney’s Alex Carver and Brisbane pair Malcolm Rudolph and Michael Hepburn.
“Alex went off to hospital and we’ve confirmed he’s got a broken right wrist,” said Victor. “Malcolm battled on at the back of the group, hardly able to hold his handlebars with his left arm, but managed to finish a few minutes down. After the stage we had him checked over and he’s broken two bones in his left elbow.”
18 year old Hepburn, the reigning team pursuit World Champion who started the day in seventh overall, rejoined the race to finish the stage mid-field at 1:34 but is nursing a sore knee and bruises.
American Taylor Phinney stayed out of trouble and picked up his second straight stage win and maintained his overall lead with his Trek-Livestrong team mates Jesse Sergent and Alex Dowsett sitting second and third overall respectively.
Jayco Skins Luke Durbridge, 19, who went into the stage ranked third, also had a spill.
“Luke had a rough time on the narrow roads and fell onto his hip and knee but with good help from Aaron and an injured Malcolm he got back into the race,” said Victor.
“Rohan (Dennis) who was fifth in yesterday’s opening prologue rode strongly and in good position all day but unfortunately both Luke and Rohan missed a split in the bunch about 30km from the finish.
“Rabobank Continental ratcheted up the pace in the crosswinds and the peloton was in pieces,” explained Victor.
The pair chased hard with support from Aaron Donnelly and managed to claw back time to finish with the second group, 22 seconds after Phinney. Durbridge is still in the top ten but has dropped to ninth at 59 seconds while Dennis is now 12th at 1:07 and Hepburn is 67th at 2:24.
Tomorrow’s third stage will cover 159.4km from Meppel to Gendringen.
Carver, 18, and Rudolph, with matching blue casts, will fly back to Australia tomorrow to begin their mid-season break ahead of schedule but expect to be back racing in time for the Tour of Gippsland in Victoria in late July.