German powerhouse André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) picked up where he left on in Sunday’s Down Under Classic with another sprint victory in the opening stage of the Santos Tour Down Under between Prospect and Clare. The Gorilla managed to hold off the wheel of Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD), who had misfired on Sunday, with Belarusian Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat) in third, after a big crash decimated the peloton inside the final kilometre.
"I'm lucky that I won today," said Greipel afterwards. "There has been a massive crash with 800 metres to go, my pedal got touched and I lost positions from about fifth to twentieth. But I could bridge the gap.
“My teammates – two of them crashed I think – Jürgen Roelandts is not good,” the German added. “It was just a really hard day with the temperature.”
As the sprinters began to attack the line, Petacchi moved slightly from close to the left hand barrier, towards the centre of the road, causing Greipel to check slightly and move off his own line.
“For Petacchi – he’s a big star – he shouldn’t do this,” Greipel said of the incident. “He should just keep the line, and… just keep the line.”
Victory in the stage, and the time bonuses with it, give Greipel the first Ochre jersey of the race.
The stage, which took a virtually straight south to north route, was dominated by a four-man break that was brave enough to show itself in the almost constant headwind. Marcello Pavarin (Vacansoleil-DCM), Martin Kohler (BMC Racing), Rohan Dennis (UniSA-Australia), and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) were the rabbits of the day, and they escaped almost immediately after the race pulled out of the Adelaide suburbs.
Behind the four fugitives, the peloton began to split into echelons in the wind, with riders having to cope with the Australian summer temperatures of up to 42 degrees centigrade (~108 Fahrenheit).
As the peloton struggled to reform itself behind them, the breakaway riders managed to open their advantage to almost twelve minutes by the middle of the stage. Unfortunately for their chances though, the tough conditions, along with enough teams that fancied their sprinters’ chances, meant that they never really stood a chance; they were eventually pulled in with 12km to go, and the peloton began to line itself up for the fast Clare finishing straight.
Shortly after it passed under the inflatable final kilometre banner though, disaster struck the peloton as a crash near the front rippled back and brought down a number of riders. The group contesting the stage finish was reduced to no more than twenty as more than sixty of their colleagues hit the tarmac.
“We were going approximately 60km an hour and a saw riders come from left to right,” explained Vacansoleil-DCM’s Kenny van Hummel, who was among those to hit the deck. “I was sitting in the wheel of Petacchi and had nowhere to go.”
Among the more serious casualties was FDJ-BigMat veteran Frédéric Guesdon, who suffered a fractured hip; with Greipel’s teammate Roelandts and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) also hospitalised. With many riders sliding off the road, a 70-year-old woman was hit, and suffered some minor injuries.
Team Sky and Lotto-Belisol were well represented at the front of what was left of the peloton, and it was Sky’s Australian sprinter Chris Sutton that opened up his sprint first, on the right hand side of the road. It was Petacchi on the left that was moving faster though, although he swerved a little as Greipel came past, with Hutarovich jumping across to take third.
The next stage, between Lobethal and Stirling, is also expected to finish in a sprint, although the uphill finishing straight should slow the peloton a little, making things safer for the riders.
Result stage 1
1. André Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol
2. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-ISD
3. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-BigMat
4. Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
5. Daniele Bennati (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
6. Chris Sutton (Aus) Team Sky
7. Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Saxo Bank
8. Xavier Florencio (Spa) Katusha
9. Mark Renshaw (Aus) Rabobank
10. Manuel Belletti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
Overall standings after stage 1
1. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol
2. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-ISD @ 4s
3. Martin Kohler (Swi) BMC Racing Team
4. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-BigMat @ 6s
5. Rohan Dennis (Aus) UniSA-Australia @ 7s