Rico Rogers takes two stages in Tour of Gippsland
Team Budget Forklifts should consider themselves lucky for their newly acquired asset, Rico Rogers. The 32-year-old took his second stage on Thursday, the second of five days in the eight-stage Australia national race, the Tour of Gippsland. Rogers’ performance in the 134km stage in Warragul has put Ben Grenda’s overall Tour lead at risk. Grenda now has only a one second lead ahead of Rogers,who is tied for the second place in the general classification with his teammate Cameron Jennings and the climber Patrick Lane, riding for Jayco Skins.
Rogers took the stage at the head of a bunch sprint, closely followed by Daniel McConnell and Kane Walker, the trio finishing at the head of 86-rider group, with more than half of the participating cyclists finishing the Tour’s longest stage with the same time of 3:20:07.
The eight-stage, five-day Tour began on Wednesday in Wonthaggi, Australia, which hosted the first two stages, a 33km criterium followed by a 68.2km circuit road race. Rogers, a New Zealander, would have won three out of three stages if he hadn’t crashed 200 metres from the finish line of the criterium, while he was at the head of the race.
Alex Carver, for Jayco Skins, won the opening criterium ahead of Rogers, followed in the final sprint by Patrick Shaw and Joel Pearson. Rogers’ wasn’t the only crash, and two riders had be taken to the hospital and weren’t able to start the second stage.
The New Zealander entered stage two bruised and bleeding that afternoon to take the stage and stop Team Jayco Skins’ bid for domination, finished ahead of their rider Richard Lang, with Shaw finishing third. The peloton grew thin over the two difficult climbs of the stage, and Rogers crossed the finish line at the head of a 60-man group.
Grenda took the overall lead with a fifth-place finish in the criterium, behind his Genesys teammate Thomas Robinson, and a fourth-place finish in the second stage.
“I’ve got the yellow and somebody else has got to take it off me but I would certainly like to hang on to it,” said Grenda. “I’ve been working very hard on improving my sprinting over the past few months and it seems to be working for me. It’s also comforting to have such a supportive team around me.”
The third stage was led by a five-man breakaway, which thinned to three by the first climb and caught at the summit. Rogers’ teammate Jennings took the top points for that climb, but Lane won the king-of-the-mountain jersey for Jayco Skins when he summitted the second climb.
Rogers’ struggled in the third stage, which took the riders over the more difficult climbs of Mt. Baw Baw. He managed to remain in the 86-man leading group and position himself for his successful final sprint.
The Palmerston North native represented New Zealand in the world mountain bike championships four times, crashing out every one of them. He switched to road racing in 2007 and took on Europe with admirable success. Now living in Fitzroy, he is competing in his first Tour of Gippsland after pressure from his coach William Walker, once called the future of Australian cycling.
Commentators pegged Rogers as a criterium specialist before the Tour, but Rogers has proved he is more than that, with the criterium being the only one of the first three stages he failed to win. Grenda, the Tour leader, fell to his one second lead after puncturing 40km into the third stage, only holding the lead because of his skilled and loyal team.
Alexander Smyth crashed out with a broken collarbone in stage three, the third casualty to injury so far.
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