Tour Tablelands 2010 Pro Bike Fit riders

Representing Team Budget Forklifts at the 2010 Tour De Tablelands were John Freiberg and Joshua Prete.  Joshua is a local to the Tablelands and being his home tour, the aim was to see him take victory.  With sprint and KOM primes carrying time bonuses, the tour was set to be tactical.  The small field was dominated by eventual winner Bevan Mason's Townsville team.  Fielding 6 riders out of the 20 in total, the Townsville boys had the advantage.

Stage 1 saw Josh gain some good time bonuses long the way before finishing 5th across the line.  John spent the day on the front before succumbing to cramps in the final kilometres of the stage.  Josh was sitting in 3rd on GC after day 1.

The plan for Stage 2 was to have Josh in the break to gap the field.  Early on in the stage, a break formed which included Josh, Bevan Mason, Chris Klem and David Edwards.  The bunch shut down and the break were allowed over 6 minutes by the stage end. Josh took 3rd on the stage which had an uphill finish.  John rolled home with the bunch after puncturing two brand new tubulars!

Stage 3 was a 5km ITT.  John rode the course in a time of 7min 29sec on a standard road bike and training wheels (no time to replace those punctured tubs after the morning stage!)  He finished in 5th place.  Josh rode very well to finish in 7th.  The winner was David Edwards who smoked the course in 7min 02sec.  David is off to Italy later this year for the U19 World Championships.  Well done David!

The final stage was to be the hardest - 120km of hilly terrain and strong winds.  With Josh sitting in 4th on GC and needing 40 seconds, it was crunch time.  In the first 15km John launched repeated attacks on the bunch, trying to get Josh down the road from some of the riders ahead of him on GC.  A few small breaks formed but all were brought back.  After about 20km, David Edwards (2nd on GC) launched an attack.  John followed before launching a counter attack, taking two riders with him.  Josh missed the break, but gestured to John to keep going.  The hope was that Josh would ride across to the break later in the race.  With Josh back in the bunch, John sat on the other riders in the break.  At the 50km mark, the break looked like it was going to be caught by a group which included Josh.  Unfortunately, they didn't quite make it.  The 3rd rider in the break was dropped leaving only John and eventual stage winner Andrea Tonnelli.

After a somewhat hard day in the saddle, John took 2nd on the stage.  Josh finished 4th on GC.