By Melissa Meehan
THE Jayco Herald Sun Tour hit the streets of the Yarra Valley last week, providing picturesque scenery for the riders, during their gruelling rides through the hills.
On Wednesday, Upper Yarra Schools along the route including Upper Yarra Secondary College, Wesburn and Warburton Primary cheered the riders on.
The students were treated to only fleeting exposure to the pack of 147 riders who took just over an hour to streak from Powelltown to Reefton – no shortcuts.
Melbourne rider Baden Cooke led the sprint into Marysville where crowds of school kids, residents and visitors lined the town’s leafy main street.
Stuart O’Grady kept his hold on the yellow jersey while Matt Wilson was crowned King of the Mountain after a series of gruelling climbs on the 137 kilometre route from Warragul to Marysville.
On Friday, in a remarkable against the odds performance Stuart O’Grady won the stage five individual time trial of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour at TarraWarra Museum in Healesville and took back the race leader’s yellow jersey.
O’Grady started the day four seconds down on his team mate Lars Bak, but after charging around the undulating 16km time trial course in the Yarra Valley he held a 17 second gap over Bak with Ben Day in third place overall at 19 seconds behind. “To be honest I would have put all my money on Lars Bak,” O’Grady said.
“I can pull a good prologue out every now and then, mainly in the Tour de France when I’m in peak condition, but that is probably the first time trial I’ve actually ever won and it’s a nice time to pull it off.”
