Thursday 21 January 2010 at 20h58

Today's stage was on a more hilly route and the temperatures weren't helping the riders to sit down and relax either.

Many attacks marked today's stage and in the end, for a chance, it was not a bunch sprint but a sole attack at 200 meters from the finish which saw Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) win the stage. Only the King of the Mountains jersey changed shoulders after this stage.

With even warmer temperatures than before (up to 40°C!) the riders went from Unley to Stirling today over 132.5 km. When they first crossed the finish line in Stirling they just did the first part of the loop which started at Mylor and continued through Aldgate and Stirling back to Mylor via Heathfield and Bradbury. They did this loop twice (the first from Mylor to Stirling three times) before finishing uphill at the Stirling Oval.

Since Pieter Weening (Rabobank) didn't start today, a field of 131 riders started in Unley. Numerous attacks at the start of the stage were all neutralised after 15 kilometers when the riders all got back together. As the organisation predicted, since the initial climb of the Southern Expressway was quite steep it was perfect for an early attack (several actually), but those attacks didn't really work out.
When the riders left the Southern Expressway however, a leading group of 9 riders was formed by Sébastien Rosseler (Team Radio Shack), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Juan Ripoll Horrach (Team Katusha), Thibaut Pinot (Française des Jeux), Mathieu Perget (Caisse d'Epargne), Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Matthew Wilson (Garmin Transitions), Jurgen van de Walle (Quick Step) and Peter Mcdonald (UniSA-Australia). Although they arrived first at the first intermediate sprint at McLaren Flat, several riders decided to wait for the peloton there and the whole bunch soon got back together. The sprint was won by Gorka Izaguirre ahead of Peter Mcdonald and Andriy Grivko.

After the first sprint Thomas Rohregger and Luke Roberts (both Team Milram) attacked on the climb of Wickhams Hill Road. Rohregger arrived first on top, thus taking the King of the Mountain leader's jersey, before Roberts and Valeriy Dmitriyev (Astana) took the third place. 15 riders joined the leading duo before two riders of this new leading group attacked: José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) and Cameron Meyer (Garmin Transitions). Their time gap went up to 1'35" with still 70 km to go and 6 kilometers further the whole bunch got back together.

While approaching the second intermediate sprint Karsten Kroon (BMC Racing Team) and Simon Clarke (UniSA-Australia) launched a new attack, followed by Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Transitions), Jens Voigt and Maciej Paterski (Liquigas-Doimo). The sprint was won by Karsten Kroon before Simon Clarke and Jack Bobridge. While their lead went up to 1'32", it already started to get smaller at the first crossing of the finish line at 1'06".
While Bobridge and Clarke do what they can to stay ahead the three others are taken back by the peloton, when Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) launches a counter attack. When he joins the leading duo they are only 400 meters ahead of the peloton and it doesn't take long before the peloton is back together.

Christian Meier (Garmin-Transitions) and a bit later Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) are the last two riders to attack but at 5 kilometers from the finish the whole bunch is back together.

While it thus seemed clear that there would be another bunch sprint, the Portuguese champion Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) finally decided there wouldn't and attacked at 200 meters from the finish. He finished the stage with a whole second ahead of the other riders. The bunch sprint was won by Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) for the second place, before World Champion Cadel Evans (BMV Racing Team).

The winner's comment

After the finish Cardoso commented the race as follows: I was extremely happy to have won the tough stage to Stirling. Once the attack had been closed Caisse d'Epargne did a lot of work on the front in preparation for the finish but I was able to make a big move in the final kilometre. I don't think I have a chance to win the overall despite my win here. I have had a lot of hard days over the first couple of days of this race, and I am probably too far behind. But it was really important for me, it is my first pro race, first pro team, first pro tour victory for me and the team, so it is a very important win.

A video summary of the stage Unley > Stirling

The classifications

The stage result

1/ Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) - 3h14'38" (average speed: 40,846 km/h)
2/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'01"
3/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'01"
4/ Peter Sagen (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'01"
5/ Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'01"
6/ Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) - +0'01"
7/ Luke Roberts (Team Milram) - +0'01"
8/ Markus Fothen (Team Milram) - +0'01"
9/ Anthony Roux (Française des Jeux) - +0'01"
10/ Eduard Vorganov (Team Katusha) - +0'01"

Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Liquigas-Doimo) abandoned during the stage.

General classification

No change at the lead of this classification, but thanks to his second place Alejandro Valverde climbs up to the 4th place:
1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 9h53'38"
2/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +0'14"
3/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack) - +0'14"
4/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'14"
5/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - +0'16"
6/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'16"
7/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'16"
8/ Andriy Grivko (Astana) - +0'19"
9/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank) - +0'20"
10/ Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) - +0'20"

Best young rider

1/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 9h53'54"
2/ Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'04"
3/ Anthony Roux (Française des Jeux) - +0'13"
4/ Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Transitions) - +0'13"
5/ Thomas Frei (BMC Racing Team) - 0'13"

Points classification

1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 16 points
2/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 12 points
3/ Mickaël Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 12 points
4/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - 8 points
5/ Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) - 8 points

King of the Mountain

Since he arrived on the top of the climb first, the German rider Thomas Rohregger takes over the King of the Mountain jersey from David Kemp:
1/ Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram) - 26 points
2/ Timothy Roe (UniSA-Australia) - 22 points
3/ David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) - 16 points
4/ Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Doimo) - 14 points
5/ Luke Roberts (Team Milram) - 12 points

> Click here to download the full results

All pictures in this article are © Tour Down Under

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | UCI ProTour | Tour Down Under 2010

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