It was Australia Day today, the official national day of Australia (every year on the 26th of January). What a good occasion to see an Australian rider win the Tour Down Under 2014. That was almost guaranteed with two Australian riders at the first positions of the general classification before the start of this last stage which would end in a sprint today. Even better, an Australian rider won it and established a new record: Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) is the first rider to win the Tour Down Under for the 3rd time! (after 2006 and 2012).
So far Gerrans shared the record of 2 victories with André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) who won the last stage today but who ends up at the 46th position in the general classification this year, over 11 minutes behind Gerrans.
Remember Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team)' incredible performance on Corkscrew Road in the 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2014? He went off with Richie Porte (Team Sky) to finally get rid of him and go on alone to win that stage. That's about what's happened on Willunga Hill today but this time Richie Porte switched roles with and won the queen stage of the Tour Down Under quite nicely!
In the general classification, Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) takes back the leader's jersey from Cadel Evans.
The summary of the 5th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014: McLaren Vale > Willunga Hil
After a first unsuccessfull breakaway attempt, it was up to Jens Voigt (Trek F ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 5433x
A real sprint finish was expected for this 4th stage and that was indeed what we saw today in Victor Harbor. André Greipel finally took his victory while the German rider rarely had to wait until the 4th stage to get on the podium in previous editions!
The summary of the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014: Unley > Victor Harbor
Between Unley and Victor Harbor, the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014 presented a profile with only one referenced climb for the King of the Mountains classification and with a somewhat downhill finish. Towards the port of Victor Harbor the peloton risked however to explode due to the lateral wind.
As usual since the start of this Tour Down Under, the stage started with several breakaway attempts. We had to wait until after the first intermedi ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 7120x
In the 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2014 today, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) did a double good operation, attacking on the steepest climb of this stage, Corkscrew Road, which name is based on the numerous turns. First accompanied by Richie Porte (Team Sky), the Australian rider finally arrived alone on the finish kine and took the leader's jersey of the general classification at the same time.
The summary of the 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2014: Norwood > Campbelltown
Immediately after the start, Travis Meyer was the first to attack and the Australian rider rapidly got company from Jérôme Cousin (Team Europcar) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) and a bit later from the veteran of the race, Jens Voigt (Trek Factory Racing). The gap was already above 2 minutes and after 14 kilometers in the race it reached its highest value at 2'40" before it stabilised around 2'2 ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 5111x
The second stage of the Tour Down Under 2014 visited the hilly zone around Adelaide. The stage unfolded in a quite classical way again, with a 3 rider breakaway, reduced to 2 at the end and taken baken at about twenty kilometers from the finish. The slightly uphill finish didn't prevent a bunch sprint to end off the stage: 97 riders arrived in the same tile. The surprise maybe came from the rider who won the stage, the Italian sprinter Diego Ulissi of the Lampre-Merida team.
The summary of the 2nd stage of the Tour Down Under 2014: Prospect > Stirling
This second stage of the first UCI WorldTour race in 2014 was 150 kilometers long between Prospect and Stirling, with two climbs counting for the King of the Mountains classification, Golden Grove and ...> Read the whole story | 2 comments | shown 3642x
The first stage of the Tour Down Under 2014 took place between Nuriootpa and Angaston and this stage on a circuit ended in a sprint, with the stage victory for Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE). The rider who freshly became the Australian champion again (he already took that title in 2012) has already won the overall classification of the Tour Down Under twice, in 2006 and in 2012.
The summary of the 1st stage of the Tour Down Under 2014: Nuriootpa > Angaston
As every year, yet another sprinter won the People's Choice Classic, the criterium which announces the Tour Down Under which will start on Tuesday.
And this time it was not André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) who won it, but Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) who beats him in the sprint!
The summary of the People's Choice Classic 2014
The criterium took place on a new circuit, 2 kilometers long around the river Torrens, close to the Adelaide Zoo, with 25 laps for a total distance of 50 kilometers.
The race started with several solo attacks which remained without success, until the creation of a small group with Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp) who took the prime in the sprint at the 5th crossing of the finish line and who was joined by Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale) and Lucka Wackermann (Lampre-Merida) and later on also by Anthony Roux (FDJ.fr).
In a few days, the 2014 Tour Down Under will start in South-Australia, in Nuriootpa to be more precise. 815.5 kilometers further, in Adelaide, we'll know who will be the winner of the first race of the UCI WorldTour 2014.
This will all, as usual, be preceded by the People's Choice Classic, which is not officially part of the Tour Down Under but which is part of the official UCI criterium calendar which thus allows the riders of the UCI ProTeams to participate.
In this article you'll find all information about the race route of the Tour Down Under 2014 inclu ...