5 BURNING QUESTIONS
1 How do you beat BMC? With great difficulty, but it can be done. The biggest threats are likely to come from the likes of Nathan Haas, Jay McCarthy, Rui Costa, Lachlan Morton or the Izaguirre brothers. For someone like Haas who can also sprint, he will need to pick up bonus seconds early in the week, then try to get away from Porte on the descent from Norton Summit to Uraidla on Friday. Then it’s simply a matter of hanging on on Old Willunga Hill and limiting the damage.
2 Is this Ewan’s biggest test? Caleb Ewan dominated last year’s Tour with four stage wins and the People’s Choice Classic, even with Peter Sagan here. Sagan returns, but so do Andre Greipel and Elia Viviani who are proven winners. Mitchelton-Scott plans on taking Ewan to the Tour de France for the first time this year. Having won a stage at the Giro and Vuelta, the Tour is his next frontier and this is exactly what he’ll be up against in July.
3 Who is MitcheltonScott’s wildcard? The Aussie WorldTour team says the ochre jersey is not a priority but that won’t stop them from letting their climbers loose over Norton Summit on Friday and Old Willunga Hill on Saturday. Cameron Meyer can climb, but has had a mainly track preparation, Damien Howson is a mountain goat and Daryl Impey can get over a hill. Howson is the one. He won the Herald Sun Tour last year, held the Norton Summit TT record for a while and knows the roads, being an Adelaide boy.
4 What form is Peter Sagan in? Sagan returns to the TDU for the second year in a row even better credentialed as the three-time reigning world champion. Last year he was competitive in Adelaide but, with three second-placings behind Caleb Ewan, just missed the top step of the podium. Sagan, of course, has nothing to prove to anyone at the TDU but his team and sponsors would love to see a stage win. We’ll see it this week, even with Greipel and Viviani in the field. Sam Bennett is also more than capable in a sprint finish. 5 Can Nathan Haas finally crack the podium? Haas has all the attributes to challenge for the podium and even the ochre jersey - he just needs a bit of luck early in the week. He finished fourth overall last year and fifth in 2014, and has joined a new team, Katusha-Alpecin, for 2018 which will give him plenty of motivation. Is in good form with fifth in the time trial and road race at nationals last week, but must make his move early in the week Simon Gerrans-style and pinch bonus seconds before Porte goes berserk up Willunga.