Tour Down Under: First stage to Greipel

German sprint legend Andrew Greipel has picked up where he left off with an emphatic win on the 145 kilometre Stage 1 of the Santos Tour Down Under in the Barossa Valley town of Lyndoch.

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Tour Down Under: First stage to Greipel

German sprint legend Andrew Greipel has picked up where he left off with an emphatic win on the 145 kilometre Stage 1 of the Santos Tour Down Under in the Barossa Valley town of Lyndoch.

Lotto-Soudal rider Andre Greipel wins stage 1 of the Santos Tour Down Under. Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo 

“It’s a nice one,” said an elated Greipel after outpacing Australian young gun, Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton Scott) and three time World Champion Peter Sagan (Bora hansgrohe). He crossed the line in a race time of 3.50.21. It was a pretty fast sprint but I could wait as long as I wanted, said Greipel, who benefitted from the experience of his team mates who put him in position to unleash the winning burst of speed. “It’s nice to be back here this way after a few years of absence.

It’s the 17th stage win for the Lotto Soudal rider who first stepped onto the Tour podium in Hahndorf in 2008, the same year he won four stages and the first of his two Santos Tour Down Under crowns. He closed out his 2012 appearance with a win on the final stage and has marked his return the same way. Because of the heat, the racing isn’t that stressful,” said Greipel of the steady pace set by the peloton for the early stages of the race as the temperature topped 30 degrees. “We were one guy down (non starter Bjorg Lambrecht) but my team set the sprint really well.

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

“Today, I expected all sprinters’ teams to take their responsibilities for setting up a bunch sprint at the end,” said Greipel but noted his team mate, Thomas De Gendt is ‘happy to ride in front of the peloton’. “He’s begging us to let him lead the bunch.” “It’s also nice to get the ochre jersey,” said Greipel who wears the Santos Ochre Leader’s into tomorrow’s stage with a four-second time buffer over Ewan and Australian Will Clarke (Education First-Drapac) who was an early protagonist on the stage.

Ewan meantime accepted it wasn’t his day despite being in the right place to challenge for stage honours. “I’m really happy with how the team worked but at the end of the day, it’s just my fault if I didn’t win,” said Ewan while fourth placed Elia Viviani (QuickStep Floors) was also blaming himself for missing the podium. “I was not happy with the fourth-place, but I was happy with the lead-out,” said the Italian. “I am new to this team, and this is only our second sprint together, so things are going well (but) I went too early at 200 metres to go and maybe I don’t have the legs to go that early at this time of year.

“We are working well together,” said Viviani. “Last year, I had to wait until Romandie (in April) for the first win, and now we are already getting closer. We have more chances this week.” Sagan’s team director Patxi Vila says he’s happy with the form of the reigning world champion. “It was a messy sprint, downhill, with a tail-crosswind, very fast,” said Vila. “It’s not the ideal kind of sprint for Peter, so we are happy. Peter is showing he is already strong at this point of the season. When you have riders like Greipel and Ewan here, Peter has no pressure to win.”

“We have to be happy with how the first big sprints of the season have gone,” said Vila. “Tomorrow is a hard circuit, so maybe we can try something with Jay [McCarthy].”

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

The Santos Tour Down Under returned to Port Adelaide for the first time since the 1999 inaugural event for today’s start of the 20th edition of the event.

Three riders attacked almost as soon as the flag dropped and quickly rode out to a lead of around five minutes as the main field sat back content to ride tempo and let the trio contest the first Subaru King of the Mountain contest which was a six kilometre Category 2 climb at Humbug Scrub, 38 kilometres in to the stage.
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South African Nicolas Dlamini, Team Dimension Data claimed the top points ahead of Australian Will Clarke (Education First-Drapac) with UniSA-Australia national team rider Scott Bowden third across the line. Several minutes later Damien Howson (Mitchelton Scott) led the peloton over the line to claim fourth place climbing points.

“The plan was to get in the early breakaway to get the KOM jersey but I stuffed it up a bit,” said Clarke. “By the time I started my sprint I couldn’t catch Nicholas (Dlamini).”

While Clarke and Dlamini went on with the breakaway, Bowden dropped back to the main bunch.

At the first southaustralia.com sprint challenge at 74 kilometres it was Clarke in front with Dlamini second. Almost three minutes down the road Laurent Didier (Trek Segafredo), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and Jhonatan Restrepo (Team Katusha Alpecin) raced clear of the bunch to fight for the one-second time bonus on offer for third place at the Cockatoo Valley sprint line. Restrepo claimed the bonus and the three then sat up to wait for the bunch.

Clarke and Dlamini powered on working together to maintain their lead which was more than two minutes as they crossed under the finish arch to begin three laps of the a 26 kilometre Barossa Valley circuit. The next time through Cockatoo Valley at the 100 kilometre mark it was again Clarke who grabbed the southaustralia.com sprint points ahead of Dlamini. Meanwhile in the peloton the pace picked up as Australians Nathan Haas (Team Katusha Alpecin) and Jay McCarthy (Bora – hansgrohe) tested their legs with Haas pipping McCarthy in the sprint for third place.

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

The flurry of pace impacted the leaders whose margin was down to less that two minutes as the race entered the final 50 kilometres. Dlamini, having claimed the Subaru King of the Mountain lead, decided his job was done. “It’s not exactly the racing conditions we’re used to in South Africa but we’ve been here for almost two weeks now and I felt good in the heat,” said Dlamini. “Breaking away like this and going for the KOM was something I did before in the Under 23 races.

“I wanted to give it a try in the World Tour as well,” he explained. “It worked out perfectly and hopefully there’ll be more in the next few days.”

Clarke headed down the road solo hoping he might snatch a stage win and when the race went under the finish arch for the final lap his lead was 1:35. But a repeat of his solo stage victory of 2012 wasn’t to be and Clarke was soon swamped by the stampeding peloton setting up the the spring guns. “You never know,” said Clarke of his bid for glory. “There might be some hesitation in the bunch when you still have 40 seconds with five kilometres to go.”

The 148 kilometres Stage 2 will begin in the Adelaide suburb of Unley and travel through to the Adelaide Hills, making three laps of the leafy town of Stirling before the race finish on Mount Barker Road.

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

Stage Result
1 GREIPEL Andre LTS
2 *EWAN Caleb MTS
3 SAGAN Peter BOH
4 VIVIANI Elia QST
5 *CONSONNI Simone UAD
6 *BAUHAUS Phil SUN
7 HAAS Nathan TKA
8 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM
9 NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas TBM
10 *MINALI Riccardo AST
11 BEVIN Patrick BMC
12 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ
13 IMPEY Daryl MTS
14 *LAWLESS Christopher SKY
15 *PEDERSEN Mads TFS
16 *WELSFORD Sam AUS
17 MCCARTHY Jay BOH
18 SELIG Rudiger BOH
19 BEPPU Fumiyuki TFS
20 DUCHESNE Antoine FDJ
21 *PETERS Nans ALM
22 BENNETT George TLJ
23 BARBERO CUESTA Carlos MOV
24 RENSHAW Mark DDD
25 VON HOFF Steele AUS
26 *OOMEN Sam SUN
27 PREIDLER Georg FDJ
28 ROUX Anthony FDJ
29 CHEREL Mikael ALM
30 GESINK Robert TLJ
31 FERNANDEZ Ruben MOV
32 ULISSI Diego UAD
33 *SCHMIDT Mads Wurtz TKA
34 SABATINI Fabio QST
35 MORABITO Steve FDJ
36 *DENZ Nico ALM
37 *HAMILTON Chris SUN
38 *OWEN Logan EFD
39 FARIA DA COSTA Rui UAD
40 *BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley SKY
41 ZAKHAROV Artyom AST
42 SIEBERG Marcel LTS
43 *RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan TKA
44 CLARKE Simon EFD
45 IZAGUIRRE Jon TBM
46 DOCKER Mitchell EFD
47 *EDMONDSON Alexander MTS
48 DE VREESE Laurens AST
49 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon AST
50 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte DDD
51 *LATOUR Pierre Roger ALM
52 MARCATO Marco UAD
53 OLIVIER Daan TLJ
54 WYSS Danilo BMC
55 DEBUSSCHERE Jens LTS
56 CANTY Brendan EFD
57 *BOHLI Tom BMC
58 EARLE Nathan AUS
59 PORTE Richie BMC
60 BOARO Manuele TBM
61 MORI Manuele UAD
62 *EG Niklas TFS
63 MACHADO Tiago TKA
64 VANDENBERGH Stijn ALM
65 GERRANS Simon BMC
66 *GUERREIRO Ruben TFS
67 BAK Lars Ytting LTS
68 ARASHIRO Yukiya TBM
69 AGNOLI Valerio TBM
70 *DAVIES Scott DDD
71 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ
72 POZZOVIVO Domenico TBM
73 DEVENYNS Dries QST
74 MORKOV Michael QST
75 *MATOS Nuno MOV
76 *SOLER Marc MOV
77 HANSEN Adam LTS
78 *DLAMINI Nicholas DDD
79 GONÇALVES Jose TKA
80 MORTON Lachlan DDD
81 *O CONNOR Ben DDD
82 IZAGUIRRE Gorka TBM
83 FERRARI Roberto UAD
84 *MAS Enric QST
85 VALGREN Michael AST
86 DIDIER Laurent TFS
87 KOCHETKOV Pavel TKA
88 GASTAUER Ben ALM
89 DENNIS Rohan BMC
90 LAMMERTINK Maurits TKA
91 CLARKE William EFD
92 *CASTRILLO ZAPATER Jaime MOV
93 DE KORT Koen TFS
94 OLIVEIRA Nelson MOV
95 SUTTERLIN Jasha MOV
96 SCULLY Thomas EFD
97 WYNANTS Maarten TLJ
98 MORENO Daniel EFD
99 PUCCIO Salvatore SKY
100 *PORTER Alexander AUS
101 MEYER Cameron MTS
102 DEMPSTER Zakkari AUS
103 *DOULL Owain SKY
104 ROE Timothy AUS
105 DE GENDT Thomas LTS
106 BONO Matteo UAD
107 *BOWDEN Scott AUS
108 GATTO Oscar AST
109 *SCOTSON Miles BMC
110 *DIBBEN Jonathan SKY
111 *KORSAETH Truls AST
112 CAPECCHI Eros QST
113 KENNAUGH Peter BOH
114 VENTER Jaco DDD
115 LEEZER Tom TLJ
116 TEUNISSEN Mike SUN
117 HOWSON Damien MTS
118 HAYMAN Mathew MTS
119 CIMOLAI Davide FDJ
120 WISNIOWSKI Lukasz SKY
121 OSS Daniel BOH
122 HAGA Chad SUN
123 ARNDT Nikias SUN
124 *FRAME Alex TFS
125 BAUER Jack MTS
126 *SENECHAL Florian QST
127 *STORER Michael SUN
128 BODNAR Maciej BOH
129 WAGNER Robert TLJ
130 BENNETT Sam BOH
131 *HOELGAARD Daniel FDJ

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