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. After 35 kilometers their lead was at its highest with 11'30" and from that moment, the peloton started to get back on them very slowly.

Today's stage had one climb, after 89.3 kilometers: Checker Hill Road. That's a 600 meter climb only but with a 13.3% average slope. David Kemp arrived first on the top, about 20 seconds ahead of Mickaël Delage and Olivier Kaisen.
At the second sprint, in Mount Torrens, the three riders of the leading group are back together and just like in the first sprint Delage won the sprint before Kemp and Kaisen. Their lead was back to only 30 seconds at that time and since the final part of the stage was slightly going down, the sprinters counted on a bunch sprint. Olivier Kaisen was the first to be taken back by the peloton.

Just like yesterday, HTC-Columbia and Team Sky tried to get a spot at the head of the peloton to prepare the sprint.

Just like in 2008 (the Tour Down Under had a stage finish there every year since 2003) André Greipel won the stage in Hahndorf. Would that be because it's a former German colony?

Greipel managed to beat the winner of the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, Greg Henderson (Team Sky) in the sprint. Team Katusha's sprinter, Robbie McEwen, finished 3rd.

The winner's comments

After the stage André Greipel announced: I am surprised how tired I am today. Even with the break we were happy to let it go out 8 minutes or more because we could claw back the time. In the end it was like the finish two years ago I waited a long time again (before starting my sprint) and we won again. Concerning the work of his team mates he said: That is why we are here, to perform good and it's nice to win in a German town. There is nothing to relax for (now we've won 2 stages) , although we are yet to know how good we will be tomorrow.

Another look at the buzz around the race radios

As I wrote yesterday in my article about the first stage, Allan Davis (Astana) lost precious time during this stage and can thus most probably not claim his second Tour Down Under win in row.
Today, the organisation of the Tour Down Under announced that (for a still unknown reason) the Astana team came to the Tour Down Under without race radios for the riders. Davis explained that that's the reason why he's lost so much time yesterday: I was just sort of riding within myself up the climb and just found myself 50 metres behind my teammates and (they) didn't realise. It was at a moment where we were at the top of the climb where everyone was on the edge of their limits ... because the guys just sort of got in front and dropped the wheel and took me and sort of 40 guys out. They didn't realise I wasn't on the back and left me behind. It was partly new team teething problems, getting to know each other. The boys were doing the right thing, it was sort of one of those situations (the Astana team has changed a lot since many riders left the team for Radioshack; Davis himself is coming from Quick Step).

While the directeurs sportifs announced during the Tour de France 2009 that they were against the radio ban, Hendrik Redant of the Omega Pharma-Lotto team explained today that he does a race without race radios whenever possible. According to him this asks the riders to think a bit more themselves. During the Tour Down Under in 2003 for example, during the stage which arrived in Hahndorf just like today, the team didn't use race radios and Robbie McEwen managed to win the stage.

A video summary of the stage

The classifications

The stage classification

The top 5 of today's stage was as follows:
1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 3h23'49" (average speed: 39.3 km/h)
2/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky)
3/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha)
4/ Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions)
5/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank)

The general classification

After this stage and mainly thanks to the bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints and at the finish, the top 10 of the general classification of the 2010 Tour Down Under is now as follows:
1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 6h38'59"
2/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +0'14"
3/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack) - +0'14"
4/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - +0'16"
5/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'16"
6/ Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team) - +0'20"
7/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank) - +0'20"
8/ Baden Cooke (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'20"
9/ Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) - +0'20"
10/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'20"

Best young rider

1/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 6h39'15"
2/ Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team) - +0'04"
3/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'04"
4/ Nikolas Maes (Quick Step) - +0'04"
5/ Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'04"

Classification by points

1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 16 points
2/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 12 points
3/ Mickaël Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 12 points
4/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - 8 points
5/ David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) - 8 points

King of the mountain

1/ Timothy Roe (UniSA-Australia) - 16 points
2/ David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) - 16 points
3/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - 12 points
4/ Mickaël Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 12 points
5/ Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram) - 10 points

> Click here to download the full results

All pictures in this article are © Tour Down Under

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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