Without too much surprise the German sprinter of the HTC-Columbia team, André Greipel, has won the 2010 Tour Down Under today. After his 3 stage victories he thus took his second overall victory of the Tour Down Under, after the 2008 edition of the Tour Down Under.
Today's stage took place on a 4.5 kilometer circuit for a total distance of 90 km and has been won by Chris Sutton of Team Sky.
A summary of the stage on the Adelaide City Council Street Circuit
The circuit in the city center of Adelaide proposed an almost completely flat profile and for such a stage it's known beforehand that it'll end in a bunch sprint.
The organisation tried to add 4 magic moments in the stage in addition to this sprint finish: two ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 5333x
Today's stage was the queen stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010 with two climbs of Willunga Hill.
The Australian World Champion, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), ticked this stage to show his rainbow jersey to his public. Unfortunately for him he was finally not the strongest: the Spanish rider Luis Léon Sanchez of the Caisse d'Epargne team showed how strong he was to win this stage ahead of Luke Roberts (Team Milram) and Sanchez' team mate, Alejandro Valverde. Evans finally finished 4th and consoled with the prize of most aggressive rider in this stage; Sanchez makes a big jump in the general classification.
The summary of the stage Snapper Point > Willunga
After the start from Snapper Point, on the sea side, it was not very surprising that -as usual- the riders of UniSA-Australia were the first to attack: David Kemp and Simon Clarke.
The first leading group however was only really formed after an attack from Anthony Roux (Française d ...> Read the whole story | 2 comments | shown 4930x
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). Timo ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 2515x
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 ...
Second bunch sprint, second stage victory for André Greipel (HTC-Columbia). Could he be working towards a performance similar to what he did in the Tour Down Under 2008? That year he won 4 stages after having won the Down Under Classic just before.
A summary of the stage Gawler > Hahndorf
Under a clear blue sky and with temperatures up to 30 degrees the second stage today took the riders from Gawler to Hahndorf through a loop from Williamstown via Springton and Mount Pleasant.
At the start there were still 132 riders and three of them, David Kemp (UniSA-Australia), Mickaël Delage and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), decided to attack today. At the first sprint in Lyndoch (after only 13.4 km) they already had a 2'10" lead. This first sprint was won by Delage before Kemp and his team mate Kaisen. ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 1566x
After having run in Team Sky's trap last Sunday during the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, the HTC-Columbia train could correctly do its work today to put André Greipel in a perfect position for the stage win and thus the first leaders jersey of this Tour Down Under 2010!
A summary of the stage
132 riders came at the start (see the 2010 Tour Down Under start list) of this first stage in Clare. Andreas Stauff (Quick Step) could not start in this very first UCI ProTour race in 2010 because the rider, coming from Team Kuota-Indeland, has -since his transfer- not yet had the 3 blood tests which are necessary fo ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 6568x
The Team Sky team presentation and all buzz preceding this presentation seemed to indicate that Team Sky was about to change professional cycling. What could be a better demonstration than a double win in the first race of the team?
On a 1.7 kilometer circuit around Rymill Park in Adelaide in Australia the 131 riders (Martin Pederson [Footon-Servetto] and Andreas Stauff [Quick Step] didn't start) have done 30 rounds to come to the total distance of 51 kilometers.
As expected the race ended in a sprint, but before that sprint the riders made a nice show of this criterium. The organisation of the Tour Down Under 2010 proudly announced that there are no less t ...
On www.velowire.com you have already discovered the 2010 Santos Tour Down Under route on Google Maps / Google Earth. In only a few hours from now the criterium which announces the upcoming start of the Tour Down Under, the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, will take place on a closed circuit of 1,7 kilometers around Rymill Park in Adelaide.
From Tuesday the first race of the UCI ProTour 2010 will take place in South-Australia.
In this article you can discover the start list for the Tour Down Under 2010 including the numbers of the participants*. At the end of the article you can also discover some short videos about the Tour Down Under! ...
From 17 till 24 January 2010 the 12th Tour Down Under will take place in South Australia under the name Santos Tour Down Under.
In this article you can find the details of the 6 stages and of the Down Under Classic (Cancer Council Helpline Classic). You also find the route of the 794,5 kilometers of this Tour Down Under 2010 on Google Maps -exclusively on www.velowire.com- with the possibility to download all stages in a KML file to open it in Google Earth, so you can discover the area where this first race of the UCI ProTour 2010 will take place. It even allows you to do a virtual fly-over of the stages in Google Earth. For the very first time you can also find the profiles of all stages based on the routes I've drawn in Google Maps.