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 intermediate sprints at the 8th and 12th round and points being awarded for the King of the Mountain classification at the 10th and 15th round. These points were awarded at the "top" of Montefiore Hill. The quotes around the word top are justified by the fact that this climb was really ridiculous, even compared to Willunga Hill in yesterday's stage.

After several unsuccessful tries the first rider who really managed to get away from the peloton is Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) in the 2nd round. There again the gap never became too big and before the start of the next round he was already taken back. Than it's up to Mikaël Cherel (Française des Jeux) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) to get their try, joined by the Swiss rider Martin Elmiger of the French AG2R La Mondiale team. This leading group only lasted for one round as well.
Elmiger than tries again with Kohler and Rohan Dennis (UniSA-Australia), joined by 6 other riders who were chasing them. These 9 riders are again taken back quite quickly and several other attempts fail before the first intermediate sprint.

Team Saxo Bank is the first to position itself for the sprint of its sprinter Baden Cooke, but finally it's Greg Henderson (Team Sky) who wins the sprint and takes 3 precious seconds which allow him to approach the podium. He's followed by Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) and Baden Cooke (Team Saxo Bank).

A bit later Thibaut Pinot (Française des Jeux) arrives first on the "top" (yes, I insist!) of Montefiore Hill, ahead of Valeriy Dmitriyev (Astana) and the King of the Mountain classification leader, Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram). Thomas Rohregger stays ahead, together with Mikaël Cherel and they are joined by Martin Pederson (Footon-Servetto) and the Dutch road Champion, Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank). Their gap with the peloton quickly goes up to 30 seconds but when the HTC-Columbia and Saxo Bank teams take back the control of the peloton, even a final attempt by Koos Moerenhout can't stop Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) from winning the second sprint, ahead of Robbie Hunter and George Hincapie (BMC Racing Team). For McEwen the 3 bonus seconds allow him to take a virtual third place ex aequo with Luke Roberts (Team Milram; best South-Australian rider of this Tour Down Under 2010).

In the 14th round, 3 new riders get their try: Wesley Sulzberger (Française des Jeux), Trent Lowe (Garmin-Transitions) and Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas-Doimo). They battle for the King of the Mountains points when they pass the "top" at the second time those points are awarded: Sabatini wins it before Sulzberger and Lowe. This does not in anyway threat Thomas Rohregger who definitely wins this classification.

With a gap up to 43 seconds Sulzberger becomes the virtual leader of the general classification and the leading trio is taken back only in the final round of the Adelaide circuit. A not very well organised sprint is than being set up, especially with Team Sky and Rabobank leading in the peloton. Finally Team Sky makes it a double win, in the opposite order of the Cancer Council Helpline Classic last week: Chris -CJ- Sutton wins the stage ahead of his team mate Greg Henderson and Graeme Brown of the Rabobank team. This is the very first UCI ProTour win of the British team.

André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) finishes 5th in this stage and wins the Tour Down Under 2010. Thanks to the bonus seconds of his second place in the stage and to those of the first intermediate sprint, Greg Henderson finally accesses the podium with his third place.

According to the Tour Down Under website, the director of the race, Mike Turtur, calls this last stage the equivalent of the Champs Elysées in the Tour de France but I must admit that I don't really see that many common points between those two stages!

The comment of the stage winner, Chris Sutton

In an interview just after the stage CJ said: I could not believe that sprint, we talked about our team tactics last night and it was all about team work.
We took control with about 2k's to go. I just kicked and went for it. I just went as long as I could and if Greg went around me, he went around me, but we just went 1-2, it was incredible !

The comment of the overall winner, André Greipel

André Greipel, listening to the nickname Gorilla since his victory in the Tour Down Under 2008 today won his second Tour Down Under and commented this victory as follows: The other teams had to do the work today if they wanted to win. We just stayed calm and managed our own race. I am very happy to have won this race twice, the team have ridden well all week and we deserve this.

The result of the stage

1/ Chris Sutton (Team Sky) - 1h53'20" (average speed: 47,647 km/h) 2/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) 3/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank) 4/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) 5/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia)

6/ Allan Davis (Astana) 7/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia) 8/ Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux) 9/ Gert Steegmans (Team Radioshack) 10/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne)

Thomas Vedel Kvist (Quick Step) abandoned while Anthony Ravard (AG2R La Mondiale) was disqualified.

The video summary of the stage

Below you can find a video summary of this last stage and the official ceremony of the 2010 Tour Down Under:

The list of Tour Down Under winners since 1999

After Stuart O'Grady, the German rider André Greipel is only the second rider to win this South Australian race twice in the 12 year long history of the Tour Down Under.

Here's the list of winners of the Tour Down Under since 1999:
1999 Stuart O'Grady (Crédit Agricole)
2000 Gilles Maignan (AG2R Prévoyance)
2001 Stuart O'Grady (Crédit Agricole)
2002 Michael Rogers (Australian Institute of Sport)
2003 Mikel Astarloza (AG2R Prévoyance)
2004 Patrick Jonker (UniSA)
2005 Luis León Sánchez (Liberty Seguros-Würth)
2006 Simon Gerrans (AG2R Prévoyance)
2007 Martin Elmiger (AG2R Prévoyance)
2008 André Greipel (Team High Road)
2009 Allan Davis (Quick Step)
2010 André Greipel (Team HTC-Columbia)

2010 Tour Down Under overall classifications

General classification

1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 18h47'05"
2/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'11"
3/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +0'15"
4/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - +0'17"
5/ Luke Roberts (Team Milram) - +0'17"
6/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'21"
7/ Eduard Vorganov (Team Katusha) - +0'25"
8/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'26"
9/ Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) - +0'26"
10/ Markus Fothen (Team Milram) - +0'27"

Best young rider

1/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 18h47'31"
2/ Wesley Sulzberger (Française des Jeux) - +0'13"
3/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'20"
4/ Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'58"
5/ Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +1'09"
6/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +1'12"
7/ Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Transitions) - +1'44"
8/ Thibaut Pinot (Française des Jeux) - +3'00"
9/ Arthur Vichot (Française des Jeux) - +3'10"
10/ Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +3'33"

Points classification

1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 24 points
2/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - 18 points
3/ Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) - 16 points
4/ David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) - 16 points
5/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 12 points
6/ Mickaël Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 12 points
7/ Eduard Vorganov (Team Katusha) - 10 points
8/ Valeriy Dmitriyev (Astana) - 10 points
9/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - 10 points
10/ Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram) 8 points

King of the Mountains

1/ Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram) - 62 points
2/ Valeriy Dmitriyev (Astana) - 36 points
3/ David Kemp (UniSA Australia) - 28 points
4/ Timothy Roe (UniSA-Australia) - 22 points
5/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne - 16 points
6/ Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas-Doimo) - 16 points
7/ Mikaël Cherel (Française des Jeux) - 16 points
8/ Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Doimo) - 14 points
9/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) - 12 points
10/ Luke Roberts (Team Milram) - 12 points

Some additional photos

Luke Roberts (Team Milram), best South Australian rider of the 2010 Tour Down Under	AG2R La Mondiale, best team of the 2010 Tour Down Under
André Greipel (HTC Columbia)
The podium of the Tour Down Under 2010: Wesley Sulzberger (Française des Jeux), Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram), André Greipel (HTC-Columbia), Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Luke Roberts (Team Milram)
Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne), 2nd of the Tour Down Under 2010	Greg Henderson (Team Sky), 3rd of the Tour Down Under 2010

The non-clickable photos in thumbnail format in this article are © Tour Down Under. All other photos are © Tara Creevey. Tara is a cycling fan and regularly publishes articles or short interviews on 602nds.com.

All articles about the 2010 Tour Down Under

If you want to check back all my articles about the 2010 Tour Down Under you can go to the 2010 Tour Down Under category or directly use the links below:
> The Santos Tour Down Under 2010 route on Google Maps & Google Earth
> Santos Tour Down Under 2010: list of participants / start list with their numbers and a few short movies

> Team Sky makes a good start into 2010: Greg Henderson wins the Cancer Council Helpline Classic ahead of his team mate Chris Sutton

> First stage 2010 Tour Down Under (Clare - Tanunda): André Greipel sprints to victory
> André Greipel takes a two in row by winning the second stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010 (Gawler - Hahndorf)
> Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) surprises everyone by winning the third stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under
> André Greipel's third stage win in the 4th stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under (Norwood-Goolwa)
> Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) shows big forces for his stage win at the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010
> André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) wins the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010, Chris Sutton (Team Sky) the last stage

door Thomas Vergouwen
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