3/27/10 - Fly V Australia’s Ben Day narrowly avoided a pile- up on Stage 2 on the way to maintaining his overall lead heading into the final day of the 26th annual Redlands Bicycle Classic.
Day, who has led the four-day National Racing Calendar event since winning Thursday’s prologue, remains sixth-tenths of a second ahead of Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Pro Cycling) and one second ahead of Will Routley (Jelly Belly Cycling presented by Kenda) in third place. Overall, 11 riders are within 30 seconds of the lead with only the 94.1-mile (151 km) Beaver Medical Group Sunset Loop Road Race remaining.
“It's going to be a pretty interesting day,” Day said. “Sunset Loop is such an iconic and difficult stage to race anyways and there’s a lot at play with the time bonuses. I expect there are going to be plenty of fireworks.”
The ninth-year Australian professional said the crash that took down more than 40 riders in the last half of Saturday’s 90-minute race through the streets of Downtown Redlands was a close call.
Ben Day (Fly V Australia) survived the major crash and stayed in yellow.
photo © Mitchell Clinton/ www.clintonphoto.com
“Fortunately, I stayed out of trouble today,” Day said. “That was a fairly sketchy criterium toward the end. The last 20 or 30 minutes were quite intense. I was just trying to stay upright.”
Bernie Sulzberger was the only Fly V Australia rider to go down, but he suffered only minor scrapes to his leg and will start Sunday’s final stage.
As the 170-rider field wound its way around the nine-corner course Saturday, Fly V Australia did its best to maintain control. Only a handful of times did riders escape the grips of the peloton and the mid-race time bonus sprint was not contested by any riders who were a threat to Day’s overall lead.
The Fly V Australia has ridden on the front tirelessly for their leader since San Dimas Stage Race.
photo © Mitchell Clinton/ www.clintonphoto.com
“The boys did a great job on the front today,” Day said. “The guys are sacrificing their own chances to win. Now it's up to me to finish the race off for them.”
Hilton Clarke (Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling) won the stage in a field sprint while Fly V Australia’s Jonathan Cantwell finished seventh. Somewhat surprisingly, Fly V Australia’s Jay Thomson overtook Rob Britton (Bissell Pro Cycling) for the lead in the sprint competition simply by riding on the front in Day’s defense. The Republic of South Africa rider will wear the green jersey on the final stage.
Hilton Clarke (Bahati Foundation) won the Redlands Crit in front of a huge crowd.
photo © Mitchell Clinton/ www.clintonphoto.com
“It’s not the jersey we’re going to defend,” Thomson said, “but it is nice to have.”
Fly V Australia Director Sportif Henk Vogels said the team will have to ride extra attentively since there are three opportunities for time bonuses on the final stage. Two are intermediate time bonus sprints with values of 3, 2 and 1 second while bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds are up for grabs at the finish.
“The Sunset Loop is one of the hardest days on the American race calendar,” Vogels said. “The Fly V Australia boys have worked very hard the past couple of days, but I have no apprehensions that they won't be able to do it.”
Fly V australia's Ben Day leads Redlands heading into the final stage by a mere 6 tenths of a second, be sure to follow the final stage to see if he can make history and lead the race from start to finish.
