Bumped out of the ochre jersey by Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) yesterday, Andre Greipel powered back into the Tour Down Under race lead today with a strong win into Victor Harbor.
The German Lotto Belisol rider clocked up his third triumph of the season and underlined that in terms of sprinting, he is the rider of the moment. He beat FDJ - BigMat rider Yauheni Hutarovich by half a wheel, while Evald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling) was next home.
“This victory is for Jurgen Roelandts who unfortunately supports us from the hospital,” he stated afterwards, referring to his team-mate injured on stage one. [Editor’s note: he has now been released] “We're nearly three riders down but the rest of the team that is not injured has been awesome today.”
The time bonus for his victory puts him eight seconds clear of Kohler in the general classification, with former world under 23 champion Michael Matthews (Rabobank) a further four seconds back in third.
Three days remain in the race for the 2008 and 2010 winner, yet he doesn’t seem confident about holding onto the lead until the end.
“I'm happy to get back into the lead but the time bonus I got again isn't important in my mind. The Willunga stage is too hard for me to win GC this year,” he said. “With two stage wins, we've already reached our goal. We can't have everything, and we just take it day by day.”
His rivals will be pleased to hear that he is ruling himself out of being in contention after Saturday’s summit finish. Matthews will hope to show strongly there, as will others such as Australian champion Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge), Boasson Hagen and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
So too Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil), who moved up to fourth overall today after being part of the day’s big break.
He, Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and Belgians Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) clipped away inside the first five kilometres of the 134.5 km stage from Unley, then were joined soon afterwards by Irish national champion Matt Brammeier.
De Gendt went over the top of the category two Sellicks Hill in first place, adding to the points he already had in the King of the Mountains competition and taking the jersey by two points from yesterday’s stage winner Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia). Brammeier, Bakelants and Vorganov were next, pulling hard with De Gendt to extend their lead to five minutes.
De Gendt was first in the Jayco intermediate sprints at Mt Compass (65km) and Goolwa (89.4km), beating Bakelants and Vorganov in both of those. All three had started the day close to the race lead and were determined to gain time, but the Vacansoleil rider was quickest.
The gap was dropping all the time and De Gendt suggested afterwards that they had little incentive to stay out there, knowing the bunch was coming back. “Three of the four riders (in the break) had the same goal and that was to take the second sprint. After that we just wanted to go back to the peloton.”
Brammeier had lost time on yesterday’s stage due to his work for the team, and he consequently wasn’t in the move to chase the bonus seconds. He wanted to try for the stage win and launched an attack from the break, but the peloton reeled him in soon afterwards.
Several other riders tried to get clear, but the peloton nullified everything. Matthew’s Rabobank team was doing what it could to set him up for the win after yesterday’s second place, and drove the pace along. However he said afterwards that he wasn’t quite on top of things.
“The boys had a really good lead out for me and I just couldn't really hold the wheel in the last couple of kilometres,” he stated. “It just got a bit messy. Mark Renshaw [Rabobank team mate] held the lead out but I just wasn't there to finish it.”
He ended up twelfth, with Renshaw fourth.
In contrast, things worked out perfectly for Greipel. “The one kilometre to go mark was the most important point of today's stage,” he said. “I told my team-mates 'I need to be in fifth or sixth position at that point'. They did a great job to put me there and I finished it off.”
Boasson Hagen finished close by in third. Sky Procycling team-mate Chris Sutton revealed afterwards that the Norwegian had a slow puncture “Maybe he got caught up in a bit of the carnage behind but when we got back to the cars his tyre was half flat.”
Two places further back was Robbie McEwen, the GreenEdge veteran who is riding the race for the last time before retirement.
“The finish has some tight corners, and Robbie knows how to operate in a technical sprint like that,” said his directeur sportif Matt White. “That’s the reason why he’s the guy with the stage win record at the Tour Down Under. He had a good go at it.”
However he said that the general classification is a bigger goal for the team. “All will be decided on Willunga. Our goal is to make it to Queen stage within reach of the overall.”
The same applies to De Gendt, who said he was tired after the finish but would keep riding aggressively. “The legs are not so good but I will try to attack. I think tomorrow is the best for me just to stay in the peloton and then Old Willunga Hill is going to be so hard. But I am going to try and be in the front.”
Tomorrow’s stage covers 130 kilometres to Tanunda and may see overall contenders who are less confident in their climbing trying to steal some time before Willunga.
For a gallery of today's photos, click here: