Team HTC-Columbia might have had some personnel changes in the off-season, but the US-based team still packs plenty of punch as Andre Greipel won Stage 1 of the Tour Down Under on Tuesday in Australia.
If Columbia is suffering from the notable absence of George Hincapie, who went to BMC Racing, it wasn't evident on the 87-mile route from Clare to Tanunda.
The team took charge of the peloton to reel back a 9-minute margin to a three-man breakaway, then led their man to the front of a bunch sprint.
RadioShack
Belgium's Gert Steegmans, on Lance Armstrong's Team RadioShack, finished in second place. Armstrong finished 46th. After the race, Armstrong Tweeted:
“Great job to Geert (sp) Steegmans for his 2nd place finish. Good start to @tourdownunder for @teamradioshack!!”
Former TDU champion
Greipel has been in this position before. The German won Stage 1 of the Tour Down Under in 2009 and won the Tour Down Under championship in 2008.
He can thank his Columbia teammates for his success on Tuesday. He sat in a sluggish peloton that trailed a three-man breakaway by 9 minutes with about 55 miles to go in the race. Columbia took the front of the peloton and caught two members of the break — Martin Kohler (BMC Racing) and Biel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale) — with about 14 miles to go.
Tim Roe, a member of Australia-based UniSA, took a flyer on this two breakaway companions and earned the King of the Mountain jersey on Menglers Hill. He wasn't out front for long after that, however. (While Roe is riding for the national team this week, he's also a member of Armstrong's Trek LiveStrong development team.)
It's amazing to see Columbia picking up where it left off last season. A recuring theme of many bike races last year entailed Columbia dragging the peloton up to a breakaway, then setting up a train to the finish for its sprinter. As Mark Cavendish isn't racing in Tour Down Under, I suppose that role is going to fall to Greipel.
Schedule
Stage 1 can be seen in the US on Versus cable network at 6 p.m. (EST) Tuesday. Stage 2 starts at 7:30 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday. The race ends Sunday (Saturday night in US time zones).
Top 10
1. Andre Greipel — Columbia
2. Gert Steegmans — RadioShack
3. Jurgen Roelandts — Omega Pharma-Lotto
4. Danilo Wyss — BMC
5. Gregory Henderson — Team Sky
6. Baden Cooke — Saxo Bank
7. Graeme Brown — Rabobank
8. Robbie McEwen — Katusha
9. Jose Rojas — Caisse d'Epargne
10. Valeriy Dmitriyev — Astana
….12. George Hincapie — BMC Racing
….46. Lance Armstrong — RadioShack
(Top 84 finishers given the same time)
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