Californian CCC Team sports director Jackson Stewart hopes the air quality won’t affect riders during the Tour Down Under
CCC Team are the first competitors to arrive for this month’s Tour Down Under, and one of its riders said they were looking for signs of bushfires as their flight was nearing Adelaide Airport.
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Californian CCC sports director Jackson Stewart knows the devastation a wildfire can cause saying daily bushfire updates from South Australia kept him well informed, but he was really worried.
Jackson and most of his team, except for New Zealand’s 2019 Santos Tour Down Under revelation Patrick Bevin and Joey Rosskopf, landed in Adelaide late on Sunday night.
On Tuesday, they're doing a reconnaissance of the bushfire -affected hills towns.
“I was looking every day online particularly about the air quality, I’m from California and we had really bad wildfires for the last couple of years especially close to where I was,’’ Stewart said.
“The air was just toxic, first I was figuring out whether the event (Tour Down Under) would go ahead and secondly whether we can ride the bike healthy, but the race organisation was really good in communicating and they sent out a couple of emails about what’s happening and what they expect.”
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More than 6.3 million hectares of land had been affected by the national fires by last Saturday compared to 766,000 hectares in California in 2019 where 97 civilians and six firefighters were killed.
CCC’s German Tour de France 2015 stage winner Simon Geschke, 33, was also concerned by the fires.
He claimed he was peering out of windows during the flight looking for signs of smoke and fire as the flight was nearing the end of its journey at Adelaide Airport.
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“I wasn’t sure if it was clouds or smoke when I looked out the window of the plane,’’ Geschke said before starting his fifth Tour Down Under.
“I didn’t see anything but I remember a couple of years ago when we trained here the (Sampson Flat 2015) bushfires came through, the trees were black and it looked pretty bad.”
The team will also ride to Woodside and stop at about 10.30am to meet the locals affected by the fire also keeping an eye on whether Mitchelton-Scott’s gun rider Simon Yates is in the vicinity.
The Englishman has been spotted by a number of cyclists in the hills, riding incognito in a black kit.
The 2018 Vuelta a Espana winner is about to make his debut alongside teammate and reigning consecutive Tour Down Under champion Daryl Impey.
Yates’ presence before most of his teammates arrive is a good sign, says Geschke.
It takes the heat off Bevin, 28, the German added.
“It’s a WorldTour race and everyone is strong and it doesn’t really change our tactics,’’ Geschke said.
“If anything (Yates) takes the attention off Paddy a little bit, now there’s Impey too and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) that eases that pressure.”
Bevin unluckily handed in the leader’s ochre jersey about 9km from the stage five finish line in 2019 after a heavy crash, but managed to get to Strathalbyn after winning his first WorldTour stage three days earlier.
He was taken to hospital with multiple contusions and bruised ribs and hip, but finished the race at McLaren Vale in 41st place overall.
Originally published as Californian CCC Team sports director Jackson Stewart hopes the air quality won’t affect riders during the Tour Down Under