Friday 22 January 2010 at 23h28

For the third time we saw a bunch sprint at the finish of today's Tour Down Under stage and for the third time it was the German sprinter, always in top form at the start of the season, André Greipel of the HTC-Columbia team who won it. He and his team show some very good performances under the South-Australian sun!

The summary of the stage Norwood > Goolwa

130 riders at the start of Norwood this morning for a 149.5 kilometer long stage (the longest stage) towards Goolwa. Yet another stage with difficult meteorological conditions for the riders: with temperatures up to 36°C and fierce gusts of wind.

Immediately at the end of the neutralised zone a leading group is formed by 7 riders: Stef Clement (Rabobank), Anthony Ravard (AG2R La Mondiale), Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram), Jonathan Castroviejo and Miguel Minguez(Euskaltel-Euskadi), David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) and Thomas Frei (BMC Racing Team). Timothy Roe (UniSA-Australia) tried to join them but finally didn't manage to bridge the gap.
When the leading group arrived on top of Fox Creek Road the gap with the peloton was 2'25". Thomas Rohregger is the first to arrive at the top with a big lead on David Kemp and Stef Clement. Rohregger thus secured the King of the Mountain jersey he took yesterday.

The gap went up to 2'57", but at the first intermediate sprint in Langhorne Creek it was back to 2'06" and the peloton was quickly coming back on the 7 leading riders. The sprint was won by Anthony Ravard ahead of David Kemp and Thomas Rohregger. Not muchg after the second sprint at Milang, won by Thomas Rohregger ahead of David Kemp and Thomas Frei, 3 riders of the leading group attack and while the 4 others are taken back by the peloton, David Kemp, Stef Clement and Jonathan Castroviejo form the new leading trio.

When Yuriy Krivtsov (AG2R La Mondiale) tries to join them, the Dutch rider of the Rabobank team, Stef Clement, continues alone and the two other riders are taken back by the peloton. His last attack and his presence in the leading group right from the start are awarded at the finish with the prize of Most Aggressive Rider of the stage, but at 14 kilometers of the finish the peloton also gets back on him and the bunch is completely back together and ready for a mass sprint.

Team Radioshack gets to the front of the peloton and Tomas Vaitkus and Lance Armstrong do not seem to want to wait for a bunch sprint and they attack at the front of the peloton. HTC-Columbia starts chasing them and at 3 kilometers from the finish the leading duo is back in the peloton.

Just like in the 1st and 2nd stage, the HTC-Columbia team again showed very good team work and at a bit over 300 meters from the finish the sprint already started with Matthew Goss leading. Greipel thus had a perfect and well-protected position to taked over the lead at about 150 meters from the finish and win the stage for the third time in a sprint. Greipel wins the sprint ahead of two other sprinters who are among the first riders to finish each time: Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) and Graeme Brown from Rabobank.

The winner's comment (André Greipel)

After the stage André Greipel underlined once more the good team work which allowed him to win his 3rd stage of this Tour Down Under (the 8th out of the 13 stages he's done in the history of the Tour Down Under): The whole team went to the front for the finish. We had to fight to get the front and we did it. In the last 5 kms we were on the front, it is a sign of our team strength. In the end Michael Rogers went to the front of the train and no one could pass him.
It is no pressure for me for the last two years we have taken the responsibility (to drive the race) : everyone is looking for us, if the team works together it can be successful. We deserve the win, we always ride from the front and its good.

The video summary of the 4th stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010

As usual I propose you to discover the video summary of this stage below. Just like one of the stages of the Tour de France (under the name L'Etape du Tour - for the Tour de France 2010 it will be the stage Pau > Col du Tourmalet which will on Sunday 18 July see about 9,500 cycling fans ride together), today's stage was organised as the Mutual Community Ride which saw 8,100 riders do the exact same route as the professional riders. The video thus first shows some images of this popular race.

The classifications

The stage result

1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 3h30'29" (average speed: 42,616 km/h)
2/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha)
3/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank)
4/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack)
5/ Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto)
6/ Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions)
7/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
8/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia)
9/ Robert Förster (Team Milram)
10/ Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux)

Wim Stroetinga (Team Milram) abandoned early in the stage.

General classification

At the finish André Greipel took another 10 bonus seconds which allow him to secure his leader's jersey even more. Will the two climbs of Willunga Hill be too difficult for this real sprinter? Or will he be able to defend his jersey until the very end. We'll see in the forelast stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under. Remember you can check out the 2010 Tour Down Under route on Google Maps / Google Earth.

After this 4th stage, the general classification looks as follows:
1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 13h23'57"
2/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - +0'20"
3/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +0'24"
4/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack) - +0'24"
5/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank) - +0'26"
6/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'26"
7/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'26"
8/ Andriy Grivko (Team Astana) - +0'29"
9/ Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) - +0'30"
10/ Baden Cooke (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'30"

Best young rider

1/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 13h24'23"
2/ Wesley Sulzberger (Française des Jeux) - +0'13"
3/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'20"
4/ Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'53"
5/ Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'58"

Points classification

1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 24 points
2/ David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) - 16 points
3/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 12 points
4/ Mickaël Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 12 points
5/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - 10 points

King of the Mountain

1/ Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram) - 42 points
2/ David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) - 28 points
3/ Timothy Roe (UniSA-Australia) - 22 points

> Click here to read the full results

All photos in this article are © Tour Down Under

door Thomas Vergouwen
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