Harry Sweeny got here into the Santos Tour Down Beneath with no expectations, saying earlier than the race that he hadn’t modified his preparation as his important goals lay later within the spring. He acknowledged, in a group launch, that he would “nonetheless be racing TDU with the whole lot I’ve received, however this can be just a few p.c lower than my peak.”
Regardless of that, the EF Schooling-Easypost rider was on the sharp finish of the motion on the troublesome stage 2, which featured the double ascent of the Corkscrew climb.
“To be sincere, truly, the entire summer time and in addition up to now, I have been going means higher than I assumed. I assumed my energy meter was damaged for the previous couple of weeks, truly,” Sweeny, with fun, instructed Seven commentators after the stage completed in Uraidla, “however I have been feeling good. I have been pleased, which is absolutely necessary.”
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“I got here into this race with no expectations in any respect after which I received a name from JV, the boss, and he was similar to, ‚why aren’t you going to experience GC right here?‘ And I assumed, truly, it is a good level. Possibly I’ll give it a crack, and that is about it.”
Although neither of them might comply with the huge counter-attack by the UAE duo of Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narváez, Sweeny managed to coalesce a chase group that might battle it out for third place, as Leonard stayed within the second chase group.
“After we simply received excessive, everybody was fairly on the restrict, and it wasn’t actually very cohesive in any respect. However then, as quickly as I attacked after, and we received a gaggle of, I do not know, 5 or 10 it was a lot simpler to work and folks have been truly prepared to as a result of I feel they realised that it was a race. However I imply, it is onerous when there are two UAE up the street, they simply work so nicely collectively, and hats off to them,” Sweeny added.
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“We rode tremendous environment friendly. We had a extremely good plan and we caught to it. So I feel we’re in a very good place with two of us nonetheless within the GC going into the subsequent days,” Leonard instructed reporters after being offered with the white finest younger rider’s jersey.
Although Leonard, who joined EF in 2026, agrees that getting the jersey was “an effective way for me to begin my time with the group”, he admits that the primary goal is the general basic classification and stage outcomes.
“After which preserve this [white jersey] type of at the back of our minds, and we’ll assess the scenario day-to-day, and do our greatest to work collectively and get one of the best outcomes potential as a group.”
Sweeny and Leonard now flip their consideration to the upcoming levels, beginning with the anticipated bunch dash on stage 3, after which stage 4 with its three ascents of the enduring Willunga Hill earlier than the ultimate stage to Stirling.
“We did not do our greatest lead out potential yesterday,” Sweeny stated of stage 1 the place their sprinter Luke Lamperti completed tenth within the bunch dash. “However I actually get pleasure from having a special facet, one thing else to deal with. And clearly I get pleasure from working for different folks as nicely, however it’s additionally good to have alternatives like this.”
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