See also: Hincapie told feds about Armstrong doping: “60 Minutes”
Lance Armstrong may just have been testing his legs, but no one in the Tour Down Under peloton was going to see how far up the road he could get.
The 7-time Tour de France winner attacked with Australian Under-23 champion Jack Bobridge about 25 miles from the finish of Stage 2 in Stirling. They got away for about a minute before they were reeled back in.
What remained in the 90-mile stage was a series of attacks and attempts to control the sprint before QuickStep catapulted sprinter Allan Davis, above, across the finish line on Wednesday in Australia.
His win moved him into the overall race lead, 2 seconds ahead of Andre Greipel, last year's winner. The overall standings are extremely tight; Armstrong, for instance sits in 68th place but is only down 23 seconds.
“Fit guys”
After the race, Armstrong texted the following description: “A tough, hilly course. Felt decent but not super. There's definitely some fit guys in the bunch.”
The race that started in Hahndorf ended with a 3 1/2 laps that ended in Stirling. A group of three cyclists — Aaron Kemps (UniSA), Guillaume Blot (Cofidis) and Markel Irizar (Euskaltel-Euskadi) — gained a four-minute gap on the peloton and were joined by New Zealander Julien Dean of Garmin.
The peloton caught them well before the finish.
A series of short attacks followed, with none of the groups gaining even a minute. Toward the end, Columbia tried to control the peloton, and team Katusha did the same for Robbie McEwen.
Hincapie
QuickStep drove Australian Davis home at the finish, though. Following him across the finish line, CyclingNews reports, were Graeme Brown (Rabobank), Martin Elmiger (Ag2R), Stuart O'Grady (Saxo Bank), and US's George Hincapie (Columbia).
It's great to see Armstrong's long-time compatriot Hincapie in the final mix in the sprint.
Top 10 Overall
1 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step
2 André Greipel (Ger) Team Columbia – High Road — 3 seconds
3 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank — 4 seconds
4 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank — 8 seconds
5 Baden Cooke (Aus) UniSA
6 Martin Elmiger (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
7 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C — 14 seconds
8 José Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse D'Epargne
9 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Française Des Jeux
10 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Slipstream
Others:
13 George Hincapie (Columbia) — 14 seconds
55. Oscar Pereiro (Caisse D'Epargne) — 23 seconds
68 Lance Armstrong (Astana) — 23 seconds
Stage 3
Stage 3 is a 84-mile race Unley to Victor Harbor that starts at 11 a.m. Thursday Adelaide time. In the US, the race will start at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (eastern) and 4:30 p.m. (Pacific). It should finish shortly after 11 p.m. (eastern) and 8 p.m. (Pacific).
CyclingNews appears to be the best place to follow the race; ABC Radio in Adelaide seems to reluctant to interrupt its regular radio shows for long except for the finishing sprint.
If Armstrong is in a position to make a move, it will probably be on Stage 5 on Saturday (which will begin Friday night in the US time zones).
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