Armidale’s Sam Jenner and Inverell’s Dylan Sunderland substantiated their standing as two of the best young riders in the country with a strong showing in Australia's oldest stage cycling race – the Herald Sun Tour.
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The pair again acquitted themselves well in elite company with Sunderland finishing ninth overall, four minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Dylan Van Baarle, and Jenner only two places back in 11th.
Suiting up for the KordaMentha Real Estate Australian Team, Jenner was also second in the young rider competition. On the back of his two bronze medals at the national road championships earlier in the summer it has instilled him with confidence for the season ahead.
“I’m pretty happy. I’m not in my peak form yet because most of my races are not until May,” Jenner said.
Consequently he didn’t go into the tour with any grand goals. He was just looking to “get a good week of racing to build up a bit more volume before I head overseas”.
“I was hoping for a stage win but the more the tour went on the more of a GC (general classification) role I ended up falling into,” he said.
Very much a development team, he took on bit of a mentoring role with the Aussie side, which he enjoyed but was also a bit surreal. Only two years ago that was him.
“It was a bit weird. I’m still young myself,” he said.
“Some of these boys are only kids just out of school. That’s what I was two years ago.”
He will spend a couple of weeks home in Armidale before heading to Europe where he will link up with his new team – Wiggins Le Col.
He said he has still got a lot of improving to do but is a bit ahead of where he hoped to be at this stage.
“Where I am now there are pretty good signs,” he said.
His first race will be the Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal in March.
After finishing back in 36th the first stage, Jenner was in the top 20 the remaining four stages crossing in 12th, 18th, 13th and 15th.
“Obviously I am more of a climber so I was hoping to go pretty well in the climbing stages,” Jenner said.
“I was just off the mark of the world tour guys.”
He thought the penultimate 112.9km journey from Cape Schanck Lighthouse to Chapman’s Lookout was his best performance. Judged to be the hardest and most demanding, it was known as the Queen stage and saw riders tackle the arduous 3km Arthurs Seat climb four times.
“I wasn’t sure where my climbing form was,” Jenner said.
“(But) It was only on the final lap where I kind of lost the guys. Mainly because I don’t have the legs at the moment and I wasn’t able to follow the move. I had to time trial myself up.”
He’s not sure yet was is next after Portugal.
“I’m still waiting for the race calendar,” he said.
“It will be a similar program to last year, just a different team.”
For Sunderland the tour wrapped up what he described on his Instagram page as “a cracking summer of racing”.
Reacquainting with his Team Bridgelane team after riding for the UniSA-Australia team in the Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, he placed 21st, 11th, 29th, ninth and 14th.
