Greipel starts off with a win in Australia
Source: Agencies |
January 20, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ANDRE Greipel of Germany won the first stage of the Tour Down Under in Adelaide yesterday, while Lance Armstrong finished among the peleton in 46th place after a "fairly uneventful day."
Greipel won here in 2008, but his promising 2009 campaign ended after only three of six stages when he was seriously injured in a collision with a parked police motorbike.
The worst of Greipel's various injuries was a broken collarbone which kept him out of competition for four months, severely damaging his 2009 season.
Greipel said he no longer thinks about the crash after he broke from a bunched sprint yesterday to win a 141-kilometer stage between the rural towns of Clare and Tanunda north of Adelaide.
He later praised the work of fellow riders in his US-based Team Columbia for his win, which left him with the tour leader's orange jersey and a four-second advantage on general classification.
"It was a good finish and a good warmup for the team," he said. "We took responsibility for the whole stage. The team made the difference. We started as a team and finished as a team."
Gert Steegmans took second place for Armstrong's new Radioshack Team, which made its official ProTour debut yesterday, while Steegman's Belgian compatriot Jurgen Roelandts was third.
Thousands of spectators watched yesterday's stage, lining the streets of small townships or waiting patiently outside remote homesteads for riders to pass.
Armstrong raced among the peleton for most of the stage, which undulated through some of Australia's richest wine-growing country and finished in the pack, credited with Greipel's winning time of 3 hours, 15 minutes, 30 seconds.
"I feel pretty good, but it was not an easy day. It was very up and down," Armstrong said. "Overall, it was a fairly uneventful day."
Armstrong dodged a crash only 300 meters after the start which brought down almost 60 of the 132 riders, among them two-time Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans of Australia who had to replace a broken shoe.
"It was a quick bit of work with the electrical tape and it was all right," said Evans.
Greipel won here in 2008, but his promising 2009 campaign ended after only three of six stages when he was seriously injured in a collision with a parked police motorbike.
The worst of Greipel's various injuries was a broken collarbone which kept him out of competition for four months, severely damaging his 2009 season.
Greipel said he no longer thinks about the crash after he broke from a bunched sprint yesterday to win a 141-kilometer stage between the rural towns of Clare and Tanunda north of Adelaide.
He later praised the work of fellow riders in his US-based Team Columbia for his win, which left him with the tour leader's orange jersey and a four-second advantage on general classification.
"It was a good finish and a good warmup for the team," he said. "We took responsibility for the whole stage. The team made the difference. We started as a team and finished as a team."
Gert Steegmans took second place for Armstrong's new Radioshack Team, which made its official ProTour debut yesterday, while Steegman's Belgian compatriot Jurgen Roelandts was third.
Thousands of spectators watched yesterday's stage, lining the streets of small townships or waiting patiently outside remote homesteads for riders to pass.
Armstrong raced among the peleton for most of the stage, which undulated through some of Australia's richest wine-growing country and finished in the pack, credited with Greipel's winning time of 3 hours, 15 minutes, 30 seconds.
"I feel pretty good, but it was not an easy day. It was very up and down," Armstrong said. "Overall, it was a fairly uneventful day."
Armstrong dodged a crash only 300 meters after the start which brought down almost 60 of the 132 riders, among them two-time Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans of Australia who had to replace a broken shoe.
"It was a quick bit of work with the electrical tape and it was all right," said Evans.
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