Santos Tour Down Under

Stage 6: Adelaide City Council Circuit, 90km/56mi

By Cathy Mehl

The 2010 Santos Tour Down Under came to an exciting conclusion on Sunday afternoon in the heart of downtown Adelaide.  Under sunny skies with temperatures sitting near 88°F/31°C, the riders contested 20 laps of  4.5km in an attack-filled circuit race that provided plenty of action.  After a week of no Australian wins in their home tour, the final stage saw national favorite Chris Sutton (Team Sky) take a tightly contested sprint win after almost two hours of racing.  Teammate Greg Henderson took second and Graeme Brown of Rabobank rounded out the stage winners. Team RadioShack’s Gert Steegmans managed a 9^th-place finish, showing yet again that his sprinting legs are coming into form.

German Andrei Greipel (HTC-Columbia) maintained his race lead from start to finish and captured his second win in the Australian tour.  Second place went to yesterday’s stage winner Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) at 11-seconds back with third to Kiwi Greg Henderson (Team Sky) another four seconds off the pace.

After the race team director Johan Bruyneel said, “This was the first race for the new team.  First time in new shirts with a new sponsor.  It looked good.  We had ambitions with Steegmans and every day we tried.  He was second and fourth but Greipel was at another level.  For him this was definitely a goal, but not for us.  We are happy with what we achieved.  We had a plan every day but it was not always executed as we expected.  We are not on auto-pilot yet.  Everybody did his best and don’t forget it’s only January.  Congratulations to Sean Yates and Sky.  What a debut!”

Asked how Lance Armstrong did in the race, Bruyneel continued: “Lance felt good and had much better condition than last year.  He feels better in the bunch and in the team than in 2009.”  He also addressed the bike position for Armstrong, saying, “We only adjusted it a little bit.  Last year his seat height was a bit lower.  We’ve worked on it since August 2009.  The most important difference is his upper body which is smaller.  He got rid of a lot of muscles in the upper body.  At the end of 2008 he did so many sports, including weightlifting.  He had a perfect body to go to the beach, not that of a bike rider.  All good now!” he concluded.

The day was filled with attacks as riders would hit out solo or in small groups to hold the lead for a few laps before being reabsorbed into the main field, setting up the opportunity for another try by another rider.  Team RadioShack’s Daryl Impey made an escape with a group and spent time off the front, as did Saxo Bank’s Jen Voigt and Andriy Grivko (Astana) but all efforts were neutralized by the driving train of HTC-Columbia.   Getting Greipel to the finish line safely was their main concern, and they carefully measured their efforts throughout the stage.

The most serious effort of the day came on Lap 14 when Aussies Trent Lowe (Garmin) and Wesley Sulzberger (FdJ) were joined by Fabio Sabatini of Liquigas to establish a sizable advantage of 47 seconds by 4 laps to go.  The peloton remained calm despite the possibility that the break might stay away.  At 3 laps to go, 38 seconds were still in hand for the fearless threesome still away, but suddenly by 2-laps to go the gap had plunged to 17 seconds.  Team RadioShack and Rabobank did the lion’s share of the work to bring back the escapees before HTC-Columbia and then Team Sky took over for the catch.  Despite their best efforts, tired legs and a week of racing took the firepower out of the trio and they were caught halfway through the final lap.

Once the peloton was all together Team Sky put five riders on the front, displaying precision teamwork just as they had in the opening circuit race a week ago.  Sutton started his sprint and never looked back, but teammate Henderson was right behind him and the British team took bookend wins in their inaugural race. 

Team RadioShack spent plenty of time on the front during the week, launching Lance Armstrong several times in order to test his form and see how the legs were responding.  The same can be said of Yaroslav Popovych when he put in a late-stage attack near the finish line earlier in the week. Sprinters Steegmans and Sebastien Rosseler were in the thick of the action for several stages as were Tomas Vaitkus and Daryl Impey.   And workhorse Jason McCartney did miles and miles of work at the front of the race, driving the peloton and keeping the pace high.  Next up for the boys is team training camp in Spain before the first race in Europe begins for Team RadioShack February 17-21 on Portugal at the Volta ao Algarve.   Safe travels to the riders and staff and thanks for a good start to what is sure to be an exciting racing season.

Beyond the Finish Line:  It was a perfect day for a picnic.  Did you bring the wine?  If not just 20 minutes from Adelaide city center is the Adelaide Hills wine growing region. The climate coolly nurtures the vines and provides fruit of fresh, clean and unforgettable flavor. Enjoy a refreshing glass of Sauvignon Blanc or Sparkling wine, as well as Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Pinot Gris, Viognier and Nebbiolo.

Top Ten Results

1 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Team Sky 1:53:20

2 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky    

3 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank    

4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Katyusha    

5 Andre Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia    

6 Allan Davis (Aus) Astana    

7 Matthew Goss (Aus) HTC-Columbia   

8 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française Des Jeux   

9 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Team RadioShack    

10 Jose Rojas (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne

Team RadioShack on Stage 6

42 Sebastien Rosseler (Bel)

58 Daryl Impey (RSA)

77 Lance Armstrong (USA) 0:00:16

84 Jason McCartney (USA)

116 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)  0:00:26

118 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)

Final General Classification

1 Andre Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia 18:47:05  

2 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:11  

3 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky 0:00:15  

4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Katyusha 0:00:17  

5 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram    

6 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:21  

7 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katyusha 0:00:25  

8 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:00:26  

9 Robbie Hunter (RSA) Garmin-Transitions    

10 Markus Fothen (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:27

Team RadioShack on General Classification

25 Lance Armstrong (USA)  0:01:03  

31 Daryl Impey (RSA)  0:01:49  

36 Gert Steegmans (Bel)  0:02:36  

42 Sebastien Rosseler (Bel)  0:03:07  

43 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)  0:03:11  

49 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)  0:03:38  

112 Jason McCartney (USA)  0:25:53

Photo by Graham Watson