Stage 4: Orica drills the TTT

Next stop... a winning TTT!





Infectious excitement spilled over as I watched the emotional Orica-GreenEdge team win their second consecutive stage.

Canadian Svein Tuft, 36 years old and riding in his first Tour nails his first stage victory. Not too shabby. The Aussie team is on a good roll. The team's time of 25 mins 56.28 secs was a sight to behold over the flat 25km course in Nice. The average speed of 57.841 kph was a record toppling the previous fastest time in 2011 when Garmin won the 23km TTT at Les Essarts. 



The Tuft Train!



It's utterly amazing what can happen in so short of a time since busgate. That's all but gone and Simon Gerrans is the new yellow jersey with the prospect of more success to come. Before the Pyrenees, the next three stages are up for the sprinters that means a chance for Matt Goss to add more success for Orica. What was the Orica TTT plan?


"The plan was for our big strong guys - Brett Lancaster, Svein Tuft, Stuart O'Grady, Cameron Meyer, Daryl Impey, these sort of guys - to pull longer and stronger (at the front), and for the rest of us less-strong guys to basically keep the pace. And if everyone stuck to that plan we knew we were going to go very fast."

-Simon Gerrans














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