For Aussies, Simon Gerrans of Orica-GreenEDGE took a highlight win on Australia day up Old Wilunga hill just ahead of Slagter, a stage that has legendary status.

The other highlight of this years tour are the four stage victories of German André Greipel of team Lotto-Belisol. His team in top form for lead-outs, the pacing and finishes were without equal so that most sprint finish contenders were fighting hard just to follow Greipels’ wheel to the finish. Mark Renshaw had a solid chance in the final stage getting some led in the final stretch though was no match for the power of the big German.

Greipel is a crowd favorite and in Australia with this stage victory takes the number of professional stage victories to 100. Another favourite German, 41 year old Jens Voigt of Team Radioshack Trek was a real crowd pleaser taking part in a number of break aways during the tour.

The Tour Down Under organisers announced a turnout of 750,000 people

Photo © Santos Tour Down Under

Sunday’s final stage was raced over 20 laps of a street circuit at Elder Park on the banks of the Torrens River north of the Adelaide CBD. The 90 kilometre finale set off with the air temperature at 37 degrees celsius but the heat from road made racing conditions much hotter.

31 year old Gerrans went into the stage tied on time with Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) but as race leader because of a lower total when the pair’s places on previous stages were tallied. There was also a handful of other riders hoping to improve their positions. But GreenEDGE were up to the challenge and vigilant throughout the stage making sure they covered every move.

“When I was told yesterday that I was getting the leader’s jersey, I didn’t feel any pressure at all, it was just a nice surprise. I knew it would give us a tough job for this last stage, but as it turns out, I can’t be happier,” said Gerran who two weeks ago won the elite men’s road race crown at the nationals. “This is just fantastic. I can’t thank the GreenEdge team enough for this victory.

“We had a tough task today to control Alejandro Valverde who is a classics rider. The last lap was very fast,” said a jubuliant Gerrans whose wife Rahna was in Adelaide to witness his win. “It’s an even sweeter victory than my first one here in 2006. It gives me the opportunity to thank for the first time the Ryan family (GreenEDGE team owners Gerry and Andrew) and (GreenEDGE General Manager) Shayne Bannan for putting this team together. It couldn’t be a better start for us.

“I had Robbie McEwen looking after me (and) that was pretty special since it was his last race in Australia,”said Gerrans of his team mate McEwen who holds the record for the most stage wins in the history of the Santos Tour Down Under, 12. Greipel today notched up his 11th stage win.

“What can I say?” said Greipel after flashing across the line a good bike length clear of Australian Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) and Italian sprint ace Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre). “The team Lotto-Belisol has just been amazing in leading me out to my third win of the week.

“It looks easy but it’s not,”he said. “I was nowhere in the front on GC (overall) this year but I’m happy with the sprint finishes. I always like to come to South Australia. It’s just nice to start the new season here rather than train in Europe.”

Further back in the peloton were Valverde and Gerrans who crossed the line 25th and 27th respectively split only by Gerran’s stage finish pilot McEwen who made sure the Spaniard was well marked.

“I’m just really happy and proud to be part of this team here at the Santos Tour Down Under. I’m not retiring today, that was my last Aussie race officially, but the season’s not done. I am still going to race for another four months after this,” said McEwen. “It’s a fantastic way to go out as far as Australia racing is concerned. I joined the team and was really excited about being a part of the GreenEDGE project racing in an Aussie team, our national team. It was all about winning the jersey and that’s the success for the team, it feels like a personal win to be a part of it.”

Despite not being on the top step of the podium Valverde was satisfied to have won the Tour’s first ever hilltop finish yesterday.

“I am very happy with finishing second in the Santos Tour Down Under,” said Valverde. “The outcome is much better than I expected when I came to Australia. Today was a super fast stage with a bit of wind that made it even more difficult. I’m very happy.”

At the end of the 803km six day event both Gerrans and Valverde remained deadlocked on 20:46:12 but Gerrans’ stage placings added up to a total of 102 and Valverde’s 175 giving the Australian the win.

“I certainly am [happy],” said GreenEDGE Team Director, Matt White, who last year steered Cameron Meyer to victory. “To win the Santos Tour Down Under with our newly crowned National Champion, we couldn’t have written a better script. [I'm] elated, just elated.”

Third place overall went to Portugese rider Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan) who was eight seconds back with Canberra’s Michael Rogers (Sky Pro Cycling) fourth at 14 seconds. On the same time as Rogers in fifth place was 21 year old Rohan Dennis (UniSA-Australia) who recently claimed both the under 23 time trial and road race national titles.

Dennis was in superb form this week to claim the SKODA King of the Mountain classification and the Cycle Instead Best Young Rider (under 26) trophy.

“I wasn’t sure I was actually going to finish this race,” said Dennis explaining the effect on him of the fast start to the stage. “I was pretty happy it slowed down, I think everybody was. With that surge at the start it almost slowed it down and made it a little bit easier towards the end.”

Dennis was also given the Tanya Denver Award as the highest placed South Australian overall.

Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen had hoped to climb higher in the overall rankings today but an attack from Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Nissan) netted the Belgian some crucial bonus seconds in the Jayco intermediate sprints and pushed Boasson Hagen back to seventh. Bakelants’ audacious attack also saw him named the Hindmarsh Most Aggressive rider of the stage.

But Sky’s Boasson Hagen did hold onto his lead in the Jayco Sprint Classification to claim the trophy with 56 points, six ahead of Greipel.

“I got the jersey but I would like to be more up in the final stage, but I managed to keep the jersey so that’s a good thing,” said Boasson Hagen. “It’s an early start to the season and to be on top form now is difficult. I’m happy to be on OK form and I can still get better.”

The Brilliant Blend Team trophy was awarded to RadioShack-Nissan-Trek who were 24 seconds ahead of Sky ProCycling after the times of the top three ranked riders from each team were tallied.

“We like to win a team GC and on top of that we managed to place Tiago, we are pretty happy with the outcome of the race,” said team captain Jens Voigt.

The final word goes to the man considered the most successful cyclist of all time, Belgian legend Eddy Merckx who was a special guest at this year’s event.

“It was a great race and I will be thanking everybody, everything was great,” said Merckx.

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

“This victory is for Jurgen Roelandts who unfortunately supports us from the hospital,” said Greipel of his team mate who was injured in the crash at the end of the stage into Clare. “We’re nearly three riders down but the rest of the team that is not injured has been awesome today.

The win puts Greipel back into the ochre leader’s jersey with an eight second margin over Swiss rider Martin Kohler (BMC). Australian Michael Matthews (Rabobank) finished with the bunch and remains in third place overall at 12 seconds.

“I’m happy to get back into the lead but the time bonus (10 seconds for the stage win) I got again isn’t important in my mind,” said Greipel who has twice won overall honours but concedes he is unlikely to win a third. “The Willunga stage (Saturday) is too hard for me to win GC this year. With two stage wins, we’ve already reached our goal. We can’t have everything and we just take it day by day.”

The stage today departed from the cosmopolitan shopping hub of Unley for a 134.5km route that took in the breath taking countryside of both the McLaren Vale and the picturesque coastal scenes of the Fleurieu Peninsula.

A group of three went down the road in the first five kilometres made up of Russian Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and Belgians Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) and Thomas De Gendt (Vaconsoleil-DCM). They were soon joined by Ireland’s Matthew Brammeier (Omega Pharma – Quickstep).

De Gendt was the only rider in the quartet already on the board in the SKODA King of the Mountain competition so, not surprisingly, he hit out up Sellicks Hill Category 2 climb to claim the maximum ten points ahead of Brammeier, Bakelants and Vorganov. That puts De Gendt in the polka dot jersey with a two point lead over yesterday’s stage winner Tasmanian Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia).

The break stretched to a lead of around five minutes but the peloton, after failing to catch Clarke yesterday, judged today’s chase to perfection.

The two Jayco intermediate sprints were hotly contested by the top three placed riders with a maximum of six bonus seconds up for grabs and all within 12 seconds of the race lead. De Gendt proved the swiftest of the trio battling for the points and won the dash for the line at both Mt Compass (65km) and Goolwa (89.4km). By then the margin had shrunk to less than two minutes.

“Three of the four riders (in the break) had the same goal and that was to take the second sprint and then after that we just wanted to go back to the peloton,” said De Gendt.

After the sprint at Goolwa Brammeier tried a solo attack off the front as the peloton reeled in his there fellow escapees and although he held on for a few more kilometres it wasn’t too be his day for victory. Ten kilometres from home the pace was frenetic as the sprinter’s jostled for position.

“It was our intention to keep the breakaway in sight with a good gap. The crosswinds have made the race faster. The one kilometre to go mark was the most important point of today’s stage,” said Greipel. “I told my team-mates ‘I need to be in fifth or sixth position at that point’.They did a great job to put me there and I finished it off.”

De Gendt’s efforts along the road moved him up to fourth overall, 14 seconds off Greipel’s lead.

“The legs are not so good but I will try to attack. I think tomorrow is the best for me just to stay in the peloton and then Old Willunga Hill is going to be so hard but I am going to try and be in the front.”

Matthews still leads the Cycle Intead Best Young Rider under 26 classification but was a little disapointed with today’s finish.

“The boys had a really good lead out for me and I just couldn’t really hold the wheel in the last couple of kilometres,” said Matthews. “It just got a bit messy and Mark Renshaw [Rabobank team mate] held the lead out but I just wasn’t there to finish it.”

Tomorrow’s BUPA Stage 4 travels 130km from Norwood in Adelaide’s eastern suburb’s to Tanunda in the Barossa wine growing region. Stage 4 also hosts the Bupa Challenge Tour with more than seven thousand cycling enthusiasts hopping on their bikes to ride the race route. Joining them on the family friendly Tanunda loop will be cycling legend, Eddy Merckx.

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo
Source: Santos Tour Down Under

The 149 kilometre stage took the riders from Prospect, north of Adelaide, into the searing heat of a 40-plus degrees celsius South Australian summer day with gusty, blustery winds making it tough going for the 133 world class cyclists who reached the finish line in Clare more than half an hour later than expected.

The heat didn’t deter the fans with an estimated 95 thousand grabbing whatever shade they could find to wait for the stars of world cycling to come their way with many taking part in one of the many community events staged in support of the race.

When the riders eventually reached Clare a high speed crash 800 metres from the line split the peloton leaving the major sprinters scrabbling for position. Greipel was one of around 20 who were quick to recover their composure and forge ahead to contest the finish. Any riders caught up in the crash were given the same time as the winner because the crash occurred within three kilometres of the finish.

“I’m lucky that I won today,” said Greipel who also won Sunday’s curtain raiser Down Under Classic. “There has been a massive crash with 800 metres to go, my pedal got touched and I lost positions from about fifth to twentieth. But I could bridge the gap.

“Two of my team-mates crashed,”said a concerned Greipel. “That’s all I care about after winning this stage. We had a really hard time today with the high temperatures.”

In the wake of the crash three riders and a spectator were taken to hospital. Italian Matteo Montaguti (AG2R-La Mondiale) was treated for grazes but later released from SportsMed Adelaide after x-rays showed no fracture of his collar bone. FDJ-BigMat rider Frederic Guesdon (FRA) has been admitted to Royal Adelaide Hospital with a fractured pelvis and is likely to remain there for at least a few days to allow the break to stabilise. Greipel’s team mate Jurgen Roelandts (BEL) was also taken to Royal Adelaide Hospital for precautionary scans with the results expected overnight. A spectator caught up in the crash was treated at Clare Hospital.

Greipel’s victory has put him into the Santos Ochre Leader’s Jersey with a four second margin over Petacchi. He also leads the Jayco Sprint Classification.

At the start of the stage four riders launched an early attack and established a lead of more than ten minutes by the 20 kilometre mark. Amongst them was UniSA-Australia’s Rohan Dennis, who last week claimed both the under-23 time trial and road race national titles. With the young South Australian was Marcello Pavarin (Vacansoleil-DCM), German Martin Kohler (BMC) and Russian Eduard Vorganov (Katusha).

At the first Jayco intermediate sprint at Kapunda (75km) Kohler was awarded the win with Vorganov relegated to last place in the sprint for not holding his line. Kohler also claimed maximum points and a three second time bonus at the second sprint prime in Riverton (104km).

Today’s only Skoda King of the Mountain contest was a category three climb at Taylors Run and it was Pavarin who grabbed the points to secure the early lead in the polka dot jersey competition.

Rohan Dennis collected three bonus seconds for his placings in the Jayco intermediate sprints to put him in the Cycle Instead Young Rider jersey as the best placed rider overall under the age of 25.

“It was exceptionally hot today and the wind made it virtually impossible at times. At one point we were only doing 20km an hour,” said Dennis. “At the finish I stayed well back to let the sprinters go, I am glad I did, when the crash happened I was able to avoid it and stay with the bunch.”

Coleman’s Group Stage 2 will take the race into the Adelaide Hills for a 148 kilometre route from Lobethal to Stirling.

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo
Source: 2012 Santos Tour Down Under

Coming into the final lap the Australians took the lead of the peloton however coming towards the last kilometre this fell apart. Cavendish help Matt Goss’s wheel and then took his break with Goss catching up and but perfect timing by Cavendish put him ahead over the finishline. For third place, Andre Greipel won the photo finish against Fabian Cancellara.

Greipel rocketed ahead in the last 50 metres to find clear space at the head of a baying bunch of world class sprinters crossing the line in a time of 3hr23min49sec at the end of the 133.5km stage from Gawler, through the Adelaide Hills, to Hahndorf. The stage attracted 94,000 fans today.

“In the end it was like the finish two years ago,” Greipel explained. “I waited a long time again [before starting my sprint] and we won again.

“That is why we are here, to perform good,” he said of the perfect lead out by his team mates for the second day in a row. “It’s nice to win in a German town”.

Team Sky’s Greg Henderson (NZL) was second and Australia’s Robbie McEwen (Katusha) crossed the line in third place.

Greipel’s win has increased his overall lead to 14 seconds from Henderson with Belgian Gert Steegmans (Radioshack) now in third place overall also at 14 seconds. Robbie McEwen has moved into fourth at 16 seconds.

“We have a good team here to maybe hold on to the leader’s jersey, but there’s two really hard stages coming up,” said Greipel who knows the race is far from being finished.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flew in to lend his support at the start in Gawler along with thousands of very excited fans and an attack went as soon as the flag dropped. A trio of riders broke away in the first kilometre and, since none posed a threat to overall race honours, they were allowed to get away from the peloton.

UniSA -Australia’s David Kemp (AUS) and two Omega Pharma-Lotto riders, Mickael Delage (FRA) and Olivier Kaisen (BEL) were well in front by the time they hit the first Jayco intermediate sprint in Lyndoch (13km) where Delage was first ahead of Kemp and Kaisen. They amassed a lead of more than 11 minutes by the 35km mark and maintained that for a fair stretch but as they approached the only Skoda King of the Mountain of the day the peloton began the chase.

Kemp broke clear of his breakaway companions to claim the maximum points over Checker Hill with Delage second and Kaisen third. Kemp went on with it after the climb forging a solo lead but Delage and Kaisen soon rejoined him.

“It was really fun, it was good being up there and getting really involved in the race but trying to beat the big sprinters home was always going to be a challenge,” said Kemp. “I think I got caught with about eight km to go so unfortunately we missed out today but there is always next time and I took it to them today”.

At the second Jayco intermediate sprint at Mt Torrens (108.7km) Delage went across the line first ahead of Kemp and Kaisen.

But the big guns had already written the script for a sprint spectacular and that’s what they delivered in Hahndorf.

At the end of the day Greipel also increased his lead in the Jayco Sprint Classification while UniSA-Australia rider Timothy Roe remains in the lead in the Skoda King of the Mountains classification but is tied on points with his team mate Kemp.

Belgian rider Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma – Lotto) is the leader of the Cycle Instead Young Rider category and AG2R-La-Mondiale leads the SA Brilliant Blend Team Classification.

Tomorrow’s 132.5km Stage 3 begins in the Adelaide suburb of Unley and travels through the Adelaide Hills to finish in Stirling.

The German sprinter was a clear winner ahead of Radioshack’s Gert Steegmans (BEL) with another Belgian rider, Jurgen Roelandts (Omega-Pharma-Lotto) third in a bunch sprint for first blood in the first UCI ProTour event for the season.

The lead riders completed the 141 km stage from Clare, through some of the world’s premium winegrowing regions, to the finish in the Barossa Valley town of Tanunda in a time of 3hr15min30sec.

Greipel earned a ten second bonus for the stage win to put him in the Santos race leader’s jersey with Steegmans sitting four seconds behind in second place. Swiss rider, Martin Kohler (BMC) won both Jayco intermediate sprints of the day to knock six seconds off his race time putting him in third place overall, also four seconds behind Greipel.

Clare turned out on force to support the event and she stage began with a crash and a bang before it had even left the town of Clare when there was a rider collision and reigning World Champion Cadel Evans needed a shoe replacement in the early part of the race.

Euskadel-Euskadi rider Gorka Izagirre (ESP) launched an very early attack but it didn’t last. UniSA-Australia rider Timothy Roe then had a go with Kohler and AG2R la Mondiale rider Biel Kadri (FRA) joining him in the lead. The trio managed gained a lead of almost ten minutes by the 45 kilometre mark and merrily made their way through both intermediate sprints at Riverton (44.6km) and Kapunda (74.5km) but as the race approached the Skoda King of the Mountain at 114km the chasing peloton was hot on their wheels.

Roe wasn’t waiting to be caught and launched a solo attack at the foot of Mengler’s Hill and managed to stay clear to collect the climber’s points across the summit cheered all the way thousands of vocal fans who lined the road. The 20 year old was also awarded the Hindmarsh Most Aggressive Rider of the Day Jersey for initiating the break and snatching the Skoda jersey.

However after the climb the sprinter’s teams got organised and hunted down all challengers as they worked to set up their fast men for the finish which was a furious, fast paced gallop to the line.

Tomorrow’s 133km Stage 2 will take the peloton from Gawler, north of Adelaide and through the Adelaide Hills to Hahndorf.

Andre Greipel was the stage winner, his fourth victory of the tour. David Moncoutie (Cofidis) was the overall winner of the mountain classifications while Xacobeo-Galicia took the over team victory.

Australian Cadel Evans missed out on a better result and chance to challenge Valverde after a puncture and bad wheel change cost him over one minute.

And that was the story for the next 150 kilometres. The main pack was taking it easy and Rosendo went along increasing his lead to a maximum of 13 minutes. From that point on, Columbia, Liquigas, Contentpolis-AMPO and Milram went to work at the head of the pack to track down Rosendo.

And 18 kilometres from the finish line, the foray of the Andalusian rider came to an end and the sprinter teams battled for position up front to arrive at the mass sprint finale with chances to win the stage victory. There was a spill three kilometres from the end, but fortunately the four cyclists affected by it were able to cross the finish line. In the final sprint, Greipel made the effort by Columbia pay off and earned his third victory of this year’s Vuelta.

The 2010 Vuelta, a night-time start and a leader in red

Javier Guill?n, Director-General of Unipublic, and Luciano Alonso, Andalusian Regional Minister of Trade, Tourism and Sport, have announced a series of innovations for the 2010 Vuelta. The race will start in Seville with an 8 km nocturnal prologue around the Guadalquivir River and La Giralda. And that’s not the only news: as of next year the race leader will wear a red jersey.

“We have decided to support the Vuelta as cycling is a very complementary sport for the promotion of Andalusia’s image throughout the world. We are also going to continue supporting our professional team as a further promotional tool, as well as maintaining our current funding of more than 70 cyclists competing in a wide range of categories”, explained Luciano Alonso.

Javier Guill?n spoke of his satisfaction regarding the agreement reached with Seville: “We had a lot of possibilities, because there are many cities interested in hosting the Vuelta, but in the end we opted for Andalusia, and within Andalusia we opted for Seville. In addition to the capital, the 2010 edition will include further stages within Andalusia”.

About participation in the race, Guill?n declared: “We have the same-set up for 2010 as we did this year. There is a signed agreement with the 16 ProTour teams and we have complete freedom to select the other six squads. In 2009, we decided to help out Spanish teams because it was a hard year for finding sponsors. We also brought in Cervelo because of the undeniable talent of their cyclists and Vacansoleil since the race started in the Netherlands. Vacansoleil was an unknown factor coming in, but their performance has made it the revelation of the Vuelta”.

Cadel a Marked Man

Cadel sits in fourth place, pushed back after a puncture in Saturdays climb to Sierra Nevada. With the puncture, Valverde and the leaders pushed forward increasing the gap while two ‘neutral’ mechanics were unable to change the wheel and the support car had trouble quickly reach Cadel. To make matters worse, officials also gave Cadel a 10 second fine after he changed bikes and got a new water bottle.

With 5 stages to go a 1min 51secs behind race leader Valverde, Evans has a tough challenge ahead though if he manages a break away still has a chance for a podium place.

source: lavuelta.com