With the pace already high as a thinned peloton hits the early slopes of Willunga Hill for the second time, Nathan Haas of Dimension Data looked to be struggling to hold the wheel before dropping out the picture as the cameras panned forward to follow the ochre jersey of Richie Porte (BMC) and his race winning attack.
Once Porte had crossed the line, the cameras went searching for the first rider behind the BMC man as a resurgent Haas came into view, leading into the final corner before the finish gantry to claim a ten second time bonus and jump onto the overall podium.
"Sometimes you don't get burnt because the fire inside is bigger. Today, I can't believe what I just did," an emotional Haas told assembled media as the realisation sunk that he had risen to third on the standings with a debut WorldTour podium finish well within his reach come Sunday afternoon.
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Taking a moment to catch his breath and compose himself, an articulate Haas further described how he got the better of the likes of Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) and Diego Ulissi (UAE Abu Dhabi) having been initially been dropped "so bad" at the base of the climb, only to storm back into contention through the power of positive thinking and breathe.
"A few years ago when I was contesting GC here, I made the mistake of actually choosing to get dropped. But today I thought I made the even bigger mistake of letting myself explode," the 27-year-old explained.
"I have been doing a lot of swimming this off-season and doing some breathing exercises. I just went into the back of my mind and started doing my deep breaths and asking myself questions with positive answers. 'Are you going to get through this?' and the subconscious just said 'Yes, yes, yes' and up the gears went. Then I started to use guys to move up, step by step and then I finally saw Ulissi go. He has got the better of me for a few years in these kinds of races; I wasn't going to let it happen today.”
"Obviously, Porte is another league and I want to take my hat off to him. So to beat him on something like this takes a monster effort but I am still so proud of what me and my guys did today.”
Dimension Data find an extra gear
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