Although he’s ridden smaller Australian events this year, today’s Adelaide Cancer Council Classic was the first chance for Robbie McEwen to line out alongside Lance Armstrong and his other RadioShack team-mates. Things went well with a third place behind Matt Goss and Mark Renshaw (both HTC-Highroad), and a motivated McEwen is determined to go even better in the Santos Tour Down Under.
“My legs are getting better and better since the Jayco – I ‘ve gotten myself a bit of form since then,” he said afterwards. “I felt good when I sprinted so it’s looking good for the rest of the week. I’m here looking for a win.”
The result was actually a little misleading as McEwen says he was going better than third place suggests. A fall near the end complicated things for him, requiring him to come from a long way back. Had that not happened, it’s likely he would have been a lot closer to Goss.
“There was a crash at the second to last corner when Greg Henderson (Team Sky) went down. That split the field and four guys were effectively in a breakaway after that,” he explained. “I was about ten spots back. I’d been amongst the crash, full locked-up brakes, so I began my sprint from there and crossed the gap to the front four. So to get third on the day is a good result from the position I came from and looks promising for the rest of the week.”
McEwen is likely to be the team leader in the race in terms of general classification, even if Lance Armstrong would like to try to grab one last big result before his retirement from international competition.
The Australian is a strong sprinter and the Santos Tour Down Under often goes to fast-finishing riders who can gobble up bonus seconds in the sprint finishes. It will also be necessary to ride well on the hills, though, including the tough Willunga Hill stage, and so his chances will depend on how he is going then.
Today’s race is a good start, though, in terms of morale.