Since last year the Tour Down Under -which is organised for the 11th time this year- is the start of the season for the UCI ProTour. That'll again be the case this year and as usual this race in South-Australia (around Adelaide) will be preceded by a criterium.
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The Cancer Council Classic
The Down Under Classic, which adopted the name Cancer Council Classic this year, has taken place yesterday in Rymill Park in Adelaide on a 1,7 km track. 30 rounds on this track together formed the total distance of 51 flat kilometers. This criterium is not part of the Tour Down Under and thus not part of the UCI ProTour, but all teams which participate in the Tour Down Under participated: 19 teams with each 7 riders, a total of 133 riders.This year's Cancer Council Classic circuit was the same as the one used for the Tour Down Under's last stage in 2008.
In the 30 rounds, the organisation planned 3 intermediate sprints: the first one was won by Jack Bobridge of the UniSA team, in front of Maciej Bodnar of Liquigas, the two riders who rode away from the pack.
A few minutes later they were joined by Alexandr Pliuschin (photo, AG2R La Mondiale)The same Jack Bobridge, Australian champion road and time trial under 23, also won the second intermediate sprint in front of Alexandr Pliuschin and Maciej Bodnar, just before the pack joined this breakaway.
The third intermediate sprint was won by Timothy Gudsell of the Française des Jeux team who took a little lead on the pack to cross the finish line first.
While Graeme Brown of Rabobank was the big favourite and the Columbia team showed up front, probably thinking about winning this criterium, finally another Australian, Robbie McEwen (photo's) of the new Russian team Katusha (or should I say Katyusha, we'll probably never know how we really should write this ;-), crossed the finish line first in front of 138,000 spectators! This was the very first victory for his new team.The Dutch rider Wim Stroetinga of the German Milram team finished second and Graeme Brown third.
Last year's winner, Andre Greipel (Columbia) finish fourth, Jose-Joaquim Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) 5th, Allan Davis (QuickStep) 6th, Baden Cooke (UniSA) 7th, Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) 8th, Hilton Clarke (Fuji-Servetto) 9th and Chris Sutton (Garmin-Slipstream) 10th. Lance Armstrong's (Astana) comeback led to a place somewhere in the middle of the pack with the 64th place, 23 seconds after McEwen.
You're probably desperately waiting for some video coverage of this very first criterium of the year, so I propose you watch this short video summary:
De Tour Down Under
Het parcoursThe Tour Down Under really only starts tomorrow, on Tuesday 20 January 2009 at 11AM (local time) with a 140 km stage between Norwood and Mawson Lakes. The riders will arrive in Mawson Lakes for the first time after a few kilometers already but that's only the start of a big loop around it which will finally lead them back to the finish line.
The second stage will start in Hahndorf on Wednesday 21 January towards Stirling, for 145 km. After a first small loop north of Hahndorf, the riders are back at the start and will continue south-west for another loop which is terminated by a local circuit which they will do 3 times.
On Thursday 22 January, again at 11AM, the start is planned in Unley for a 136 km stage towards Victor Harbor.
The 4th stage will take place on 23 January between Burnside Village and Angaston over a distance of 143 km.
The forelast stage starts on Saturday 24 January at 11AM in Snapper Point to cross the finish line 148 km further in Willunga. After two stages with a pretty classic route the riders will do one part of this stage's route no less than 5 times and they will cross the start line 3 times. The double circuit (one part will be done 3 times and the other part twice) will finally lead to the finish line in Snapper Point.
The last stage, on Sunday 25 January, will take place on a 4,5 km circuit in the centre of Adelaide for a total distance of 90 km (20 times). The start is planned at 1.35PM.
The teams and participating riders
Since the Tour Down Under has the UCI ProTour label, the 18 ProTour teams all participate in this race in Australia, together with the local team UniSA.
Here's the list of participants:
Team Columbia1. Andre Greipel GER
2. George Hincapie USA
3. Michael Rogers AUS
4. Bernhard Eisel AUT
5. Mark Renshaw AUS
6. Greg Henderson NZL
7. Adam Hansen AUS
Astana11. Lance Armstrong USA
12. Assan Bazayev KAZ
13. Jesus Hernandez ESP
14. Michael Schar SUI
15. Maxim Iglinskiy KAZ
16. Steve Morabito SUI
17. Jose Luis Rubiera ESP
AG2R La Mondiale21. Martin Elmiger SUI
22. Sebastien Hinault FRA
23. Vladimir Efimkin RUS
24. Alexandr Pliuschin MDA
25. Nicholas Roche IRL
26. Rene Mandri EST
27. Alexander Efimkin RUS
Silence Lotto31. Mario Aerts BEL
32. Glenn D'Hollander BEL
33. Pieter Jacobs BEL
34. Olivier Kaisen BEL
35. Jonas Ljungblad SWE
36. Matthew Lloyd AUS
37. Tom Stubbe BEL
Team Kat(y)usha41. Robbie McEwen AUS
42. Gert Steegmans BEL
43. Kenny De Haes BEL
44. Juan Horrach ESP
45. Stijn Vandenbergh BEL
46. Sergey Klimov RUS
47. Nikolay Trusov RUS
Team Saxo Bank51. Stuart O'Grady AUS
52. Jens Voigt GER
53. Nicki Sorensen DEN
54. Kasper Klostergaard DEN
55. Matthew Goss AUS
56. Frank Hoj DEN
57. Anders Lund DEN
BBox Bouygues Telecom61. Matthieu Sprick FRA
62. Mathieu Claude FRA
63. Vincent Jérôme FRA
64. Laurent Lefèvre FRA
65. Rony Martias FRA
66. Alexandre Pichot FRA
67. Perrig Quemeneur FRA
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne71. David Moncoutié FRA
72. Mickael Buffaz FRA
73. Aliaksandr Usau BLR
74. Guillaume Blot FRA
75. Florent Brard FRA
76. Julien El Fares FRA
77. Rein Taaramae EST
Française des Jeux81. Mikael Cherel FRA
82. Remy Di Gregorio FRA
83. Timothy Gudsell NZL
84. Jussi Veikkanen FIN
85. Yoann Offredo FRA
86. Jeremy Roy FRA
87. Wesley Sulzberger AUS
Caisse d'Epargne91. Oscar Pereiro ESP
92. Luis Leon Sanchez ESP
93. Jose Rojas ESP
94. Pablo Lastras ESP
95. Mathieu Perget FRA
96. Imanol Erviti ESP
97. Mathieu Drujon FRA
QuickStep101. Allan Davis AUS
102. Matteo Tosatto ITA
103. Dries Devenyns BEL
104. David Malacarne ITA
105. Francesco Reda ITA
106. Hubert Schwab SUI
107. Kurt Hovelijnck BEL
Euskaltel-Euskadi111. Josu Agirre ESP
112. Pablo Urtasun ESP
113. Inaki Isasi ESP
114. Andoni Lafuente ESP
115. Markel Irizar ESP
116. Sergio De Lis ESP
117. Aitor Hernandez ESP
Milram121. Christian Knees GER
122. Luca Barla ITA
123. Martin Muller GER
124. Markus Eichler GER
125. Wim Stroetinga NED
126. Thomas Rohregger AUT
127. Ronny Scholz GER
Lampre - N.G.C.131. Matteo Bono ITA
132. Emanuele Bindi ITA
133. Andrea Grendene ITA
134. Mauro Santambrogio ITA
135. Vitaliy Buts UKR
136. Volodymyr Zagorodniy UKR
137. David Loosli SUI
Rabobank141. Graeme Brown AUS
142. Stef Clement NED
143. Mathew Hayman AUS
144. Jos van Emden NED
145. Rick Flens NED
146. Tom Leezer NED
147. Kai Reus NED
Liquigas151. Maciej Bodnar POL
152. Cladio Corioni ITA
153. Gianni Da Ros ITA
154. GJacopo Uarnieri ITA
155. Aliaksandr Kuchynski BLR
156. Francesco Chicchi ITA
157. Frederik Willems BEL
Garmin Slipstream161. Julian Dean NZL
162. Trent Lowe AUS
163. Timmy Duggan USA
164. Chris Sutton AUS
165. Cameron Meyer AUS
166. Ryder Hesjedal CAN
167. Christian Meier CAN
Fuji - Servetto171. Daniele Nardello ITA
172. Ermanno Capelli ITA
173. Hilton Clarke AUS
174. Javier Megias ESP
175. Davide Vigano ITA
176. William Walker AUS
177. Ivan Dominquez USA
UniSa - Australia181. Baden Cooke VIC
182. Aaron Kemps QLD
183. Scott Davis QLD
184. Travis Meyer WA
185. Jack Bobridge SA
186. Simon Clarke VIC
187. Matthew Wilson VIC door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Cycling general (except Tour de France) | UCI ProTour
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