'Sufferfest' for Jayco Herald Sun Tour Stage 1 riders

SOME like it hot - but there's a limit when you're looking at riding a bike at racing speed for four hours.

Stuart O'Grady

SOME like it hot - but there's a limit when you're looking at riding a bike at racing speed for four hours.

So today's heatwave forced Tour organisers to start the first road stage two hours early to try to prevent the 176 starters from being fried alive in the saddle as temperatures climb towards the mid-40s.

"It's going to be brutal," says experienced coach Dave Sanders.

Sanders is in charge of the national team, which includes international stars Matt Goss, Stuart O'Grady, Simon Gerrans and Simon Clarke as well as last year's Tour winner Nathan Haas.

O'Grady, Australia's most-experienced rider, said: "It will be really, really nasty. When it's 35-plus it's hard; over 40 is downright ugly and there's no way to acclimatise for it. It's going to be a sufferfest."

Goss, who has just returned from a month training in single-digit temperatures in Europe, said: "It's going to be a big shock to the system." 

Exclusive: Simon Gerrans writes for the Herald Sun

He recalled racing in extreme temperatures at the Tour Down Under in Adelaide six years ago when a teammate, Melbourne rider Matt Lloyd, almost suffered brain damage from dehydration and heatstroke.

Race director John Trevorrow said regulations demanded the race be stopped if the mercury hits 41C. 

"We want to avoid that risk. Safety is our biggest priority," he said.

Riders will wear ice vests and other cooling aids such as pantyhose filled with ice around their necks for the 147.7km journey from Rupertswood mansion in Sunbury to Bendigo.

The stage will start at 9.30am instead of the scheduled 11.30am.

With the temperature in the mid-30s, the 60th edition of the tour began with a 4.7km time-trial prologue in Williamstown late yesterday, with emerging Queenslander Jordan Kerby, riding for the Suzuki-Bontrager team, a surprise winner in 5min 25sec, which puts him in the race leader's yellow jersey today.

Kerby, winner of the Tour of Gippsland last year and the points race and team pursuit at the 2010 junior world championships, pipped Kiwi Joseph Cooper, 27, and Victorian David Kelly, 27.

Prologue: Kerby claims early honours

"I didn't expect to win, but I'll take it. It's an honour to beat these big names," he said.

This is the first year the event has been held at the height of summer, having moved from its traditional October date, when the weather is never an issue - unless it is cold and wet.

Goss also raised the fear of riding into a bushfire, especially with northerly winds forecast. 

"We know the history of bushfires in Australia - if we got caught when one sparked up, it wouldn't be easy to evacuate nearly 200 bike riders and all the cars and staff. We can't take risks out there," he said.

Sanders said Australian riders who had trained at home since the end of the European season - Gerrans was a prime example - would have a definite advantage.

"It dampens the enthusiasm of anybody who comes out from Europe for it," he said. "It just smashes them. They just can't cope.

"Guys who have prepared in Australia won't be too bad."

There are 14 European riders and 11 from cooler New Zealand in the peloton.

"Bendigo is one of the hottest towns in Victoria and the roads will be melting," Sanders said.

"It won't be easy for anyone and we have to manage that.

"It's hard - but it's a hard sport. They'll survive."

[e-mail] / Twitter: @Reedrw

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