Cooper scorches Rottnest time trial

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Reigning New Zealand time trial champion Joseph Cooper has moved himself into the race lead at the Woodside Tour de Perth after a dominant win in the TT around Rottnest Island. Cooper, riding for Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers blasted the field to take the victory by 24-seconds over an impressive performance by Harry Carpenter (Euride Racing).

Jayco Herald Sun Tour stage winner Aaron Donnelly rounded out a perfect day, despite the miserable weather, for Huon-Genesys by taking third-place while his team placed a further three riders in the top ten with Anthony Giacoppo, Jack Haig and Nathan Earle inside the top-ten.

"The time trial is something I've been working on for the past 12 months," Cooper told Cyclingnews. "Everytime I get to a time trial I think 'yep, I've got a chance to get a result'. I just have go through the process and usually at the end of the day something happens."

The day's yellow jersey wearer Jack Anderson (Budget Forklifts) was the last rider to roll out for his 20km effort and while reports were that he was on track to retain his lead, he could do little against the power of the Kiwi champ Cooper. Anderson managed to keep himself within contention of contesting the overall classification in the coming two days by crossing the line in 12th-place, 1:12 behind Cooper.

Testing conditions, rain and 20km of technical and narrow Rottnest roads were served up to the Woodside Tour de Perth peloton for Stage 2 for what would provide the first real opportunity for the general classification riders to show themselves.

Having missed out on catching the day's breakaway on Stage 1 and with a large number of riders misdirected after numerous crashed in the early part of the 80km stage there were plenty with something to prove in the first TT of the Subaru National Road Series.

Time trial specific equipment was not allowed for the individual test but riders were somewhat comforted by the allowances for disc wheels and aero helmets while the hoods and drops would be the closest thing to aerobars that riders would use to get into their wind-cutting positions.

Rain fell for much of the day with Donnelly setting the first real benchmark of the race before his time was eclipsed by the 20-year-old Carpenter who looked to have secured the win.

That was until the man in the white skinsuit, representing his homeland of New Zealand, came rushing into the finish line with a time that would not only win him the stage but also push him into the overall lead in the four-day race. While Cooper says he doesn't train specifically for the TT, he does have a formula which clearly worked today.

"The time trial is sort of based all around my warm-up," he told Cyclingnews. Generally if I can get through the warm-up and feel good then I should be able to produce the watts I need to produce a good time trial. I don't sort of do anything in training to work on that because when you are out training solo it feels like a time trial anyway.

"I can't really give away any secrets," joked Cooper when asked about his warm-up routine. "It's 45 minutes of a fairly intense nature, almost harder than the actual race so in effect that makes the TT feel pretty simple," he added.

Cooper, along with his teammate Haig were part of the winning breakaway during yesterday's Stage 1 around Rottnest and ended the day in first and third-overall respectively. Yesterday's third-place finisher Neil Van Der Ploeg (search2retain-health) did enough to hold onto second-overall, with his fifth-place time.

The entire race were quick to pack up after the soggy TT for the trip back to the mainland where Stage 3 and 4 will take place. Tomorrow's stage should prove to be one of the more selective of the entire race as the peloton heads for the Hills of Perth for a 120km road race around Kalamunda. The stage finishes on top of the Zig Zag climb which may not be steep enough to truly split the main contenders but on the third ascent of the twisting climb, a most deserving winner will be crowned.

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