Today was the first stage of the Tour Down Under, which takes place in Adelaide & surrounds. Before the race proper, there was the Down Under Classic, a 50 km race which takes place right in the city, with 25 laps of a 2km course around Rymill Park. It was a hot night, about 32 degrees celcius at the start of the race. Plenty of people came down to see it, great to see lots of people getting excited about bikes. The winner was Mark Renshaw of Credit Agicole.
Today they got into the serious stuff, fortunately it’s not over 40 like yesterday, but it is still over 30 in Adelaide, and probably hotter up in the Barossa where they finished (the stage goes from Mawson Lakes to Tanunda). I’ve been following the live (text) coverage on the tour website. There was a major breakaway of 18 riders who ended up about 10 minutes ahead of the pelloton. From that group, 5 got away in Tanunda, with Karl Menzies of the UniSA team the winner.
Haven’t got the full results yet, but it seems that 19 year old Kiwi Clinton Avery made a solo attempt to chase down the lead group, for quite a while he was about half way between the lead group and the peloton, not sure where he finished though. He’ll be beaten for the white jersey by 23 year old Australian Simon Clarke who was the only young rider in the breakaway.
There were two sprints, Luke Roberts of CSC crossed first at One Tree Hill and 2nd at Williamstown, while Gene Bates from SouthAustralia.com took the top points at Williamstown after being 2nd at OTH. (do they both get a Green Jersey?)[edit: actually it’s obvious – the one who finishes first gets it, that was Bates ]
There was one King of the Mountain climb, Humbug Scrub (great name!) with Serge Pauwels (Chocolade Jacques – Topsport Vlaanderen) taking the points.
I was hoping for nightly highlights on TV, but that’s only for people with Foxtel. Channel 10 should have some coverage in Sports Tonight.
Tomorrow they’ll be starting out on the Murray at Mannum and heading through the hills to Hahndorf. I’ll have to follow the next couple of stages online, but I’m hoping to get out to see the final two stages (in Willunga and North Adelaide respectively)