Santos Tour Down Under

Stage 5: Snapper Point to Willunga, 148km/92mi

By Cathy Mehl

 

It was the Queen stage of the Santos Tour Down Under and native son and current world champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) made sure to give the locals plenty to cheer about.  In the final 30-minutes of racing Evans made a clean break with Alejandro Valverde and Luis Leon Sanchez of Caisse d’Epargne along with Peter Sagan of Liquigas.  The foursome put their heads down and never looked back, at one point grabbing 37 seconds to the group containing race leader Andrei Greipel (HTC-Columbia), putting Evans in the virtutal leader’s jersey on the road.  It was non-stop action in the final kilometers as another Australian Luke Roberts (Team Milram) bridged across with 1km to go and attacked the front runners.  With 500m to go Sanchez saw the opportunity to power up for the win but Evans was hot on his wheel and Valverde was driving it hard too.   Sanchez hit the line first and the 2005 Tour Down Under champion claimed the stage  win in a thrilling final worthy of any grand tour. Second was Roberts with Valverde in third and Evans in 4^th place.  Greipel came in some seventeen seconds behind the stage winners but it was enough to keep the leader’s jersey for a 5^th day.  Only one stage remains in this 12-edition of the Australian classic.

 

 

After the race Team RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong felt today’s outcome was “to be expected.  Two Spanish guys and Cadel – we all thought they would be the strongest and they were.  This young Slovenian (Sagan) is showing a lot of talent,” said Lance.   Asked about his form today,  he continued,  “I was a little stuffed on the second time up.  It was a hard day.  From a spectators standpoint it was a great day!  I don’t know that I would have had the legs to go with those guys.  They are riding well.”

The weather cooperated on Saturday with temperatures hovering near 80F/27C, making for decent conditions for the peloton as they made their way from Snapper Point to Willunga, climbing twice over Willunga Hill.  An early break of seven riders established a gap and included Michael Matthews (UniSA), Ludovic Turpin (Ag2R La Mondiale), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Cameron Meyer, Matt Wilson (both Garmin-Transitions), David Gutierrez (Footon-Servetto) and Valeriy Dmitryev (Astana).  HTC-Columbia kept the gap in check near the two-minute mark and steadily brought them back into the fold.

With 25km to go the race was all together and BMC Racing went to the front to up the pace for Evans’ attack as they approached the bottom of the climb. Caisse d’Epargne was attentive to the move and the four riders took off on the climb.  The powerful composition of the foursome made them a real threat to the general classification and Team RadioShack and Saxo Bank teamed up with HTC-Columbia to hunt down the leaders, but the gap continued to hold as speeds hit 95kph on the downhill.  But there would be no catching the escapees on this stage and Sanchez took the win before a shattered peloton rolled in a few seconds later.  Sebastien Rosseler put in a good sprint and captured 7^th from the chasing group.

Only one stage remains in the Santos Tour Down Under and barring any mishap Greipel should be crowned the winner after Sunday’s circuit race.  It’s been a solid week of racing for Team RadioShack in their first effort as a new team. Armstrong said, “Not much can be taken from here, in fact nothing can be taken from here as it relates to summer.  The main thing is we got good racing in which equals good preparation mixed with no bad luck, illnesses, injuries, crashes.  Smooth trip, good weather so now I have to go back from here.  I think last time I messed up the weeks after this race (in training).  I have to not make those mistakes again and keep on the gas right through February.”

 

Top Ten Results

1 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 3:29:39  

2 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram 0:00:02  

3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:04  

4 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team    

5 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Doimo 0:00:06  

6 Markus Fothen (Ger) Team Milram    

7 Sebastien Rosseler (Bel) Team RadioShack    

8 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Garmin-Transitions    

9 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky 0:00:09  

10 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo

 

Team RadioShack on Stage 5

18 Daryl Impey (RSA)

33 Lance Armstrong (USA)

45 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

47 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)

68 Gert Steegmans (Bel) 0:02:21

86 Jason McCartney (USA) 0:06:21

 

General Classification After Stage 5

1 Andre Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia 16:53:45  

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

3 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram 0:00:17  

4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Katyusha 0:00:20  

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

6 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky 0:00:24  

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

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

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

10 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Astana 0:00:29

Team RadioShack on General Classification

24 Lance Armstrong (USA)  0:00:47

31 Daryl Impey (RSA)  0:01:49

36 Gert Steegmans (Bel)  0:02:36  

39 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)  0:02:45

44 Sebastien Rosseler (Bel)  0:03:07

46 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)  0:03:12

112 Jason McCartney (USA) 0:25:37

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Graham Watson