Jack S Big Break Arrives

TOUR OF THE GREAT SOUTH COAST 2017

JULY 26 - 30

JACK’S BIG BREAK ARRIVES

Promising Mount Gambier bike rider Jack Patzel will fulfil the first of his cycling dreams when he lines up in the Port of Portland-Fulton Hogan Tour of the Great South Coast later this month.

Patzel, 18, today was chosen to ride in the seven-man Anchor Point-South Coast team in the acclaimed five-day tour, which starts in his home town on Wednesday, July 26.

“It’s amazing, I’m excited,” said the mild-mannered Patzel, who joined the Mount Gambier Cycling Club as an 11-year-old after gaining inspiration from his father Darryl.

“I used to go and watch Dad race and liked it a lot,” he said. “I thought to myself: ‘This is the sport for me.’”

Patzel has displayed steady progress in track and road racing and earned a silver medal in the South Australian junior kermesse championship in 2015.

He finished eighth overall in South Australia’s most prestigious domestic road race, the Mount Gambier 100, in May – a performance that persuaded Anchor Point-South Coast team manager Andrew Lindsey to include him in his Tour of the Great South Coast team.

The other six team members are Warrnambool’s Sam and Matt Lane, Portland’s Lachie Nolte and Dylan Lindsey, the Queenslander Nick Leonard, and Melbourne sprint specialist Michael Hale.

The eager Patzel has watched the past two Great South Coast tours from the comfort of the Andrew Lindsey-driven Anchor Point team vehicle, and was a little disappointed year not to be selected to ride.

“I’ve been wanting to ride it since I first saw the race, but last year they told me I was still too young,” he lamented. “Now that I’m in I want to gain experience in how to race in big bunches and how to play the team game.”

Patzel rides up to 400 kilometres a week in training and works full-time as a machine operator at Mondelez International in Mount Gambier.

Ideally, he sees the 500-kilometre Great South Coast Tour as a stepping stone to achieving greater heights – the Tour de France.

“I know I’m aiming high, but the Tour de France is the ultimate and hopefully I’ll get there one day,” he said.

The sixth annual Tour of the Great South Coast will be raced over a challenging and spectacular course in South Australia and Victoria from July 26-30.

It will comprise six stages (two criteriums and four road races) and will take in Mount Gambier, Port MacDonnell, Heywood, Casterton and Cape Bridgewater before finishing on Portland’s waterfront on Sunday, July 30.

The tour is backed by the City of Mount Gambier and the District Council of Grant in South Australia, and the Glenelg Shire Council in Victoria.

It is a feature event on Cycling Australia’s Subaru National Road Series calendar.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Kipp Kaufmann John Craven

Cycling Australia Caribou Publications

0430-303577 0408-558469