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Robbie McEwen wins the Cancer Council Classic, get ready for the Tour Down Under!

Added: tuesday 20 January 2009 at 0:25:00
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    Robbie McEwen wins the Cancer Council Classic, get ready for the Tour Down Under!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.

    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.

    Robbie McEwenIn 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.

    Alexandr PliuschinA 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.

    Robbie McEwenWhile 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 parcours
    The 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:
    ColumbiaTeam Columbia
    1. 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



    AstanaAstana
    11. 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 MondialeAG2R La Mondiale
    21. 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 LottoSilence Lotto
    31. 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



    KatushaTeam Kat(y)usha
    41. 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



    Saxo BankTeam Saxo Bank
    51. 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 TelecomBBox Bouygues Telecom
    61. 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



    CofidisCofidis, le crédit en ligne
    71. 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 JeuxFrançaise des Jeux
    81. 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'EpargneCaisse d'Epargne
    91. 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



    QuickStepQuickStep
    101. 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 EuskadiEuskaltel-Euskadi
    111. 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



    MilramMilram
    121. 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 NGCLampre - 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



    RabobankRabobank
    141. 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



    LiquigasLiquigas
    151. 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 SlipstreamGarmin Slipstream
    161. 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 ServettoFuji - Servetto
    171. 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 - AustraliaUniSa - Australia
    181. 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

    by Thomas Vergouwen
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    this article appears in the following categories: Tour Down Under| Cycling general (except Tour de France)| UCI ProTour | share on Facebook | delicious | twitter | Google | technorati

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