Picking up where he left off last year, defending Tour Down Under champion Andre Greipel won Stage 1 of this year's edition in a hard-fought sprint.
Greipel's Columbia teammates drove the pace at the end of the 89-mile stage. Unlike Sunday's results in the Classic, however, Greipel held off his challengers at the finish line.
Comeback cyclist Lance Armstrong finished in the pack, in 120th place, but only 11 seconds down. Earlier he had said his main goal was to not get dropped on the day's two King of the Mountains climbs. He survived unscathed.
Defending champ
Germany's Greipel is one of the carry-overs from the T-Mobile team when it became High Road, then Columbia-High Road.
He won four stages of the Tour Down Under last year enroute to winning the 2008 TDU championship. He also won the Sunday night Classic in 2008.
It looked like he would win on Sunday night this year too, until Australian Robbie McEwen sped past him at the finish line.
On Stage 1, Team Columbia, which includes US-veteran George Hincapie, set up for Greipel heading into Mawson Lakes. After Columbia did its job, Greipel held his lead over Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady at the finish. McEwen, who had to make a bike switch earlier in the stage, finished in fourth.
[McEwen's arm collided with a long camera lens on the sprint finish.]
CyclingNews says the time bonus at the finish gives Greipel a lead of 5 seconds over Cooke.
Breakaway of the day
Andoni Lafuente (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Olivier Kaisen (Silence-Lotto) escaped the peloton early and achieved a gap of over 6 minutes midway through the race. After nearly 70 miles in the lead, first Lafuente, then Kaisen were caught with about 12 miles left to race.
UniSA's Jack Bobridge, Australia's Under 23 Road Champion, made a short-lived attack late in the stage. You might remember that Bobridge is the young cyclist who Armstrong rode with when first arriving in Australia last week.
Armstrong
After the race, the Texan noted it was “hotter than donut grease” on the road, but his legs still felt good.
The day's two climbs — Gould Creek and Checker Hill — provided a test for Armstrong's training after 3 1/2 years of retirement. He didn't get dropped, so he must be feeling good. After the race, he told the media:
“They told me this was an easy one [stage]. But it was not as easy as they told me.”
Live racing
The Versus cable TV network will broad highlights of Stage 1 from 4-4:30 p.m. (eastern) and 1-1:30 p.m. (Pacific) on Tuesday.
Stage 2 — Handorff to Stirling — begins at 11 a.m. Wednesday Australia time; that's 7:30 p.m. (eastern) and 4:30 p.m. (Pacific) on Tuesday in the US. Race officials estimate the stage will last about 3-hours-45.
Top 10 overall:
1 Andre Greipel (Ger) Team Columbia – High Road
2 Baden Cooke (Aus) UniSA — 5 seconds behind
3 Olivier Kaisen (Bel) Silence – Lotto — same
4 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank — 7 seconds behind
5 Andoni Lafuente (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi — same
6 William Walker (Aus) Fuji-Servetto — 10 seconds behind
7 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha — 11 seconds behind
8 Jacopo Guanieri (Ita) Liquigas — same
9 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step — same
10 Willem Stroetinga (Ned) Team Milram — same
Others:
56 George Hincapie — 11 seconds
120 Lance Armstrong — 11 seconds
Photo from team presentation by YellowMonkey/Blnguyen
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