ADELAIDE, Australia — Germany’s Andre Greipel finished fifth in the final stage of the Tour Down Under Sunday to win the six-stage ProTour event for the second time in three years.
Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, riding for his new Team RadioShack, raced near the middle of the peloton for most of the stage which looped parklands near the city’s business hub.
He finished near the middle of the 129-rider field as more than 200,000 spectators watched the tour’s conclusion.
Chris Sutton of Australia won the 52-mile sixth stage around a 2.8-mile street circuit in downtown Adelaide to give Britain’s newly-formed Team Sky its first stage win in a ProTour event.
Sutton’s teammate Greg Henderson of New Zealand was second and Graeme Brown of Australia third, while Greipel finished close up for his U.S.-based Team Columbia.
Greipel was initially placed third by tour organizers.
“I can’t believe it. It’s all about teamwork,” Sutton said. “I just kicked and went for it. I just went as long as I could and if Greg (Henderson) went around me, he went around me, but we just went 1-2, it was incredible.”
The race is the first of the 2010 ProTour season and the first step for Armstrong towards July’s Tour de France which he hopes to win for the eighth time. He has repeatedly said he feels stronger and lighter this year than at the start of 2009 when he used the Tour Down Under to end a 3½ year retirement.
“It won’t be easy (to win the Tour de France) as a guy who’s 39 years old by then, but I’ll give it my best,” Armstrong said.
Greipel won the Australian race for the first time in 2008 but crashed on the third stage last year after colliding with a police motorbike. He joins Australian Stuart O’Grady, who won in 1999 and 2001, as two-time winners.
Greipel started the stage with an 11-second lead on general classification over Luis Leon Sanchez. Luke Roberts of Australia was a further six seconds back in third.
Armstrong was 24th overall after five stages, 47 seconds behind Greipel.
Australians Wesley Sulzberger and Trent Lowe and Fabio Sabatini of Italy launched a three-man break which led the race from the 13th lap and by up to 43 seconds.
The group were steadily hauled back by the peloton — their lead was down to 14 seconds at the start of the final lap — and they were eventually claimed with more than a mile remaining.
The capture of the breakaway allowed the strongest teams — Team Sky and Columbia — to work to the front of the pack and to set up the finish for their sprinters.
Sutton went with his teammate and proved strongest in the final sprint while Greipel finished powerfully for fifth.
Greipel won the first, second and fourth stages of the race in a outstanding team performance. He has now won eight stages in three appearances in the event, the only ProTour race in the southern hemisphere.
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing newstips@heraldnet.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to letters@heraldnet.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.
