A few weeks after winning the best young rider's jersey in the Tour Down Under, Jack Haig (Avanti) is back in the spotlight in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. On today's brutal 2nd stage he managed to keep up with Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEDGE) on the Mount Alexander and now finds himself with another comfortable lead in the youth classification and an overall podium within reach.

Jack Haig has put in a mammoth ride to finish third on the Herald Sun Tour’s second stage on Friday and move himself into the same podium position on the general classification. Originally part of a race defining 17 man breakaway Haig took flight as the race climbed Mt Alexander in the last forty kilometres, with Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) and Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) for company.

Earlier in the stage the 17 man break was out to a gap of three minutes with teammate Joe Cooper pulling strong turns to give Haig every chance of success. Budget Forklifts put in a commendable chase to bring the break back to within touching distance as the race reached the bottom of Mt Alexander, but as Haig explains, the impetus from Clarke’s attack was enough to see the trio stay away.

“The peloton literally got within twenty or thirty seconds and that’s when Simon attacked,” he said. “They were just there, it was perfect! We had just enough of a gap at the bottom of the climb that when we gassed it they still had a bit of work to do to catch us.

“I think by the top we had about 50 seconds, and then we railed the descent, we would have put some time into them there. Once we got to the bottom we continued to chop off until the end, it was a whole lot of hurt.”

Although ‘frothing’ from the pain Haig always thought he and his companions could go the distance.

“I was optimistic that we could hold the group off, but to be putting time into the group was a bit of a surprise,” he added.

Fresh from winning the best young rider jersey at the Tour Down Under, another person with eyes to wearing yellow on Sunday is Bendigo-local Haig.

“I’d like to think I do have a chance in there, but it will be hard.”

A nonchalant Haig admitted he was keen to perform well on the run into his hometown, but had earmarked the day as another bike race with a job to do.

“I just head out there and do what I do best,” he said.“I definitely did think about coming into Bendigo, I knew the roads quite well, and I knew there would be quite a few people out there cheering.”

Haig said local knowledge became useful late in the stage with little left in reserve for the closing kilometres into the finish.

“Knowing the roads was handy, because I was struggling so much, I knew exactly how far I had to go, where the climbs were, where the descents were, where I could rest, so it was handy knowing that sort of stuff.

And with the white jersey for best young rider on his shoulders -and the yellow just 12 seconds away- Haig is cautiously optimistic about his chances for the overall.

“I definitely have a chance, it’s only twelve seconds,” he said. “I don’t think I can out-climb ‘Clarkee’ and put twelve seconds into him in raw time. But if somehow we manage to outmanoeuvre him, or he’s in a bad position, we could capitalize.

“But Simon’s a class bike rider and he races well, he’s going to be incredibly hard to beat.”