Wednesday 18 January 2012 at 10h02

Already briefly in a breakaway in yesterday's stage, Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia) got in the breakaway of the day today right from the start of the stage. Finishing the stage solo, he won the stage in Stirling with an over one minute gap on last year's winner of this stage, Michael Matthews.

The Swiss rider who animated yesterday's stage, Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) takes over the lead in the general classification.

The summary of the stage 2/ Lobethal > Stirling of the Tour Down Under 2012

The weather conditions were almost completely opposite today compared to yesterday with temperatures "only" around 20°C and forecasts of rain for the end of the stage (this didn't happen however).

Right from the start, a breakaway is formed by Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia) and Martin Kohler, already in the breakaway yesterday. These two riders thus battled for the sprint in Mount Torrens and that's where the Swiss rider of the BMC Racing Team took some additional bonus seconds. In the peloton, Michael Matthews (Rabobank) took a short lead to take the 3rd place.

Even though today's race route was quite hilly all the way long, there was only one official climb, at Fox Creek Road in Lenswood, and Will Clarke took the points for the King of the Mountain classification there, thus taking the lead in this classification. Kohler was second and in the peloton Tiago Machado (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) arrived first on top.

When getting closer to the circuit around Stirling, Martin Kohler again took the points and bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint in Balhannah, thus taking the lead in the general classification! Michael Matthews took the 3rd place in this sprint. The gap was around 11 minutes at one point in the stage but at that time it was down to 5'05" and Will Clarke than dropped Kohler who achieved his goal.

While Kohler is taken back by the peloton, there's only 3 laps on the circuit left for Will Clarke with a gap which is again up above 11 minutes and even though he loses quite a lot of time on the circuit, he still has a 4'20" lead at 10 kilometers from the finish and the stage victory is thus for the young Australian rider.

Finally the time gap Will Clarke still had at the finish was 1'02" and he won the stage ahead of Michael Matthews who won it last year.

The classifications of the Tour Down Under 2012 after the 2nd stage

The top 10 of stage 2/ Lobethal > Stirling

Here's the top 10 of this stage:

1/ Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia) - 3h58'35"
2/ Michael Matthews (Rabobank) - +1'02"
3/ Simon Gerrans (GreenEDGE)
4/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team)
5/ Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling)
6/ Oscar Freire (Katusha Team)
7/ Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team)
8/ Luke Roberts (Team Saxo Bank)
9/ Gerald Ciolek (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
10/ Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda)

General classification

The general classification now has Martin Kohler leading, thanks to the bonus seconds of the intermediate sprints, and Michael Matthews went up to third position. Here's the top 5:

1/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 8h33'05"
2/ André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) - +0'02"
3/ Michael Matthews (Rabobank) - +0'04"
4/ Simon Gerrans (GreenEDGE) - +0'08"
5/ Rohan Dennis (UniSA-Australia) - +0'09"

King of the Mountain classification

By arriving first on top of the only climb of today's stage, Will Clarke takes the lead in the King of the Mountain classification. Here's the top 5 of that classification:

1/ Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia) - 10 points
2/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 8 points
3/ Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan) - 4 points
4/ Marcello Pavarin (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 3 points
5/ Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 2 points

Sprinters classification

Will Clarke is now also leading in the sprinters classification, ahead of Martin Kohler:

1/ Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia) - 21 points
2/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 20 points
3/ Michael Matthews (Rabobank) - 18 points
4/ André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) - 15 points
5/ Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) - 14 points

The photos of the 2nd stage of the Tour Down Under 2012

Thanks to a friend who's currently there, Tim Ransome, I invite you to discover some photos of today's stage in the section Photos > Tour Down Under 2012: 2/ Lobethal > Stirling!

The video summary of the stage

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under 2012

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