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 for the biological passport.

After a first attack by Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) several riders fell in the pack. This fall didn't cause that much trouble but a big number of riders did call the race doctor or their team car for mechanical problems. After 7 kilometers Izaguirre already has a 2'20" lead on the peloton, but a chasing group catches up with them 10 kilometers further.
A bit later it's up to Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team), Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) and Timothy Roe (UniSA) to attack. These 3 riders quickly take a big lead on the peloton and fight for the points in the sprint in Riverton together: 1/ Martin Kohler, 2/ Blel Kadri and 3/ Timothy Roe. At the time the peloton crosses the line of this sprint, the leading group shows a 9'45" lead on the peloton. At that time, HTC-Columbia takes the lead in the bunch, together with Team Katusha and Team Sky, to reduce the lead to 6'04" at the second sprint in Kapunda. This sprint is again won by Martin Kohler and the two accompanying riders in the leading group follow in the same order as for the first sprint.

At 30 kilometers from the finish, the lead is back to 2'33" and in the climb of the Menglers Hill, Timothy Roe (photo) decides to attack. He takes the 16 points which give him the right to wear the King of the Mountains jersey, sponsored by Škoda, at the finish. Just after the top the peloton gets back on Blel Kadri and Martin Kohler, while Timothy Roe stays ahead alone. The peloton quickly splits up in different groups after several attacks and the young Roe is finally first taken back by Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram).
While Roe is taken back by the peloton the German rider continues to lead until 12 kilometers from the finish. The first chasing group thus becomes the leading group with a tiny lead on the peloton. While Matthew Wilson (Garmin-Transitions) does an ultimate try to escape, HTC-Columbia already thinks about the last 3 kilometers of the stage which are completely flat and thus the perfect occasion for a bunch sprint!

Wilson is taken back and in the last 5 kilometers the peloton is back together. The HTC-Columbia train works better than last Sunday and finally their home sprinter, the German rider André Greipel, wins the first stage and thus also takes the first ochre leader's jersey of this 2010 Tour Down Under.

The winner's comment

After the finish André Greipel commented his win as follows: We spoke to the other teams but nobody wanted to ride with us. We have a strong team, I am on the podium but the whole team should be.
We took responsibility for the whole stage. The team made the difference, we started as a team and finished as a team.

A video summary of the stage

The classifications

The stage classification

Below you'll find the top 10 of this first stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under:
1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 3h15'30" (average speed: 43,273 km/h)
2/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack) - +0'00
3/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'00"
4/ Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team) - +0'00"
5/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +0'00"
6/ Baden Cooke (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'00"
7/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank) - +0'00"
8/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - +0'00"
9/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'00"
10/ Valeriy Dmitriyev (Astana) - +0'00"

Thomas Frei (BMC Racing Team) celebrated his birthday today and finished 42nd. The 2009 Tour Down Under 2009 winner, Allan Davis (Astana), ended 96th at 8'22". His chances to repeat his last year's performance are thus quite small.

The general classification

In comparison with the stage classification, only the bonification seconds won in the intermediate sprints and at the finish led to differences in the general classification. This classification is now as follows:
1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 3h15'20"
2/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack) - +0'04"
3/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - +0'04"
4/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'06"
5/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'06"
6/ Timothy Roe (UniSA Australia) - +0'08"
7/ Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team) - +0'10"
8/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +0'10"
9/ Baden Cooke (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'10"
10/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank) - +0'10"

Best young rider classification

In the classification of best young riders, sponsored by Cycle Instead, we find the following top 5:
1/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 3h15'24"
2/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'02"
3/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'02"
4/ Timothy Roe (UniSA Australia) - +0'04"
5/ Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team) - +0'06"

Sprinter classification

The classification of the best sprinter is sponsored by Jayco and in this classification 6 riders obtained points today:
1/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 12 points
2/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 8 points
3/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - 8 points
4/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack) - 6 points
5/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 4 points
6/ Timothy Roe (UniSA Australia) - 4 points

King of the Mountain classification

The Škoda King of the Mountains classification awarded points to 5 riders today at the top of Menglers Hill:
1/ Timothy Roe (UniSA Australia) - 16 points
2/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - 12 points
3/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 8 points
4/ Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram) - 6 points
5/ Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Doimo) - 4 points

> Click here to download the full results after this first stage

All photos in this article are © Tara Creevey. Tara is a cycling fan and regularly writes articles and 60 seconds interviews for 602nds.com.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | UCI ProTour | Tour Down Under 2010

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