Greipel wins Tour Down Under; Australia's Sutton wins finale

I don't know how many ochre-colored leaders' jerseys were prepared for the Tour Down Under, but one would have been sufficient this year.

Andre Greipel donned the leader's jersey after the first stage on Tuesday and retained it through the week to win the 2010 Tour Down Under championship on Sunday.

Team Sky's Chris Sutton won the final stage, a 56-mile criterium around Adelaide. It was the only stage won by an Australian on his home soil this week.

Lance Armstrong, who arrived to great fanfare with the new RadioShack cycling team, finished in 25th place overall.

HTC Columbia

US-based Team HTC Columbia certainly deserves a huge credit for Greipel's repeat of his 2008 Tour Down Under championship. Columbia controlled the peloton all week, chasing back breakaways and setting up Greipel for 3 mass sprint victories.

Greipel dominated all week. In addition to the 3 stage wins, the 27-year-old German's other finishes where 23rd, 17th, and — on Sunday's last stage — 5th.

He joins Stuart O'Grady as the only other cyclist to win two Tour Down Under championships.

Sprints

The 20-lap criterium featured two intermediate sprints. Greg Henderson (Team Sky) won the first sprint Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) and Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank) in second and third.

Robbie McEwen (Katusha) won 2nd intermediate sprint, with Hunter in 2nd and George Hincapie (BMC Racing team) in 3rd.

Final laps

A three-man break added excitement to the final laps. Australian Wes Sulzberger (FDJ) was the highest placed in the group at 39 seconds behind Greipel in 22nd place. With 4 laps to go, he actually had a 5-second gap in the virtual lead.

The peloton, led by Columbia, RadioShack, Astana and Sky, closed that margin, however, and the break was caught with a half-lap remaining. Sutton won, followed by Henderson and Graeme Brown (Rabobank).

Top 10 Overall

1. Andre Greipel (Ger) HTC Columbia

2. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne — 11 seconds behind

3. Greg Henderson (NZea) Team Sky — 15 second

4. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Katusha — 17 seconds

5. Luke Roberts (Aus) Milram — 17 seconds

6. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC — 21 seconds

7. Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha — 25 seconds

8. Jurgn Roelandts (Bel) Omega — 26 seconds

9. Robbie Hunter (RSA) Garmin — 26 seconds

10. Markus Fothen (Ger) Milram — 27 seconds

US finishers

12. George Hincapie (US) BMC — 29 seconds

25. Lance Armstrong (US) RadioShack — 1:03

84. Jason McCartney (US) RadioShack — 25:53