Tinkoff’s young Australian rider wraps up Tour Down Under in fourth place overall and pulls on the green jersey after having scored his first ever stage victory in a WorldTour race.
Favorable weather conditions and a huge crowd were the ideal setting for the closing stage of the 2016 Tour Down Under. A 4.5 km long circuit set along the streets of Adelaide was covered 20 times for a total of 90 kilometres.
The group remained compact throughout the race and the short breakaways didn’t have any major impact, except for the two intermediate sprints. In the final lap, the teams took the plunge and began an impressive high pressure head-to-head fight ahead of the final sprint.
“From this first race of the year”, commented sports director Lars Michaelsen, “I think there are positive notes that can be drawn for Tinkoff, as well as the spirit the team showed these days. We leave this Tour Down Under with a stage victory, a fourth place in the overall standings and a victory in the young riders classification with Jay McCarthy, and none of this would have been possible without the proper dedication that each single team member showed, from the riders to the whole staff. It’s always nice to start a season this way.”
“Obviously, I’m very pleased with the outcome at Tour Down Under”, says Jay McCarthy, “the guys were awesome all week. I finished just off the podium in the overall classification but I can be satisfied with my performance and I have to thank the team for this opportunity and the support they gave me.”
“We raced a very good Tour Down Under”, says sports director Sean Yates, “only in yesterday’s stage to Willunga Hill we didn’t have any rider in the top 5, so, from a team point of view, we had quite a good performance with a young and always motivated team, especially after the victory at Stirling, which raised everyone’s spirits. The guys proved to be strong also as a team, and when you have all this you can do many good things, which is what they did this week.”
“Today our plan was to try and win the intermediate sprints with Jay, but after all this week’s efforts, especially yesterday, he didn’t succeed. Whereas for the final sprint Adam Blythe had to do everything by himself starting from behind and catching up to take fourth place. So once again, the whole team did a good job and as far as Jay McCarthy is concerned I think that after this performance, he will perform at another level in the rest of the year”, concluded Yates.
Racing for Tinkoff concludes in Argentina on Sunday as well and then the season heads over to the UAE for the Dubai Tour, taking place from the 3rd to the 6th of February.
