The Tour down Under has been going on all week in Adelaide, Australia kicking off the cycling season. Typically an event which is sprinter-heavy terrain, this year’s TdU added an uphill finish on the stage 5 ‘queen’ stage of the race. Prior to that we saw Andre Griepel dominate the race early on with wins in the prologue Cancer Classic, Stage 1 and Stage 3. Will Clarke had an unexpected solo breakaway to steal a stage 2 win and Oscar Friere got the sprinters back in on the action winning stage 4. However, the day everyone was waiting for was the 5th stage which saw pre-race favourite Simon Gerrans go head to head with the fast-finishing Spaniard Alejandro Valverde on Old Willunga Hill. It was Valverde who took the line first over-taking Gerrans on the outside and winning by half a wheel-length.
Today is the final stage of the race with Gerrans in the ochre jersey and thanks to the win yesterday, Valverde is tied with the same time. It’s unlikely we’ll see a change in the standings as Gerrans possesses the stronger team for today’s 90km crit and only has to protect the lead. It’s been an exciting first race of the season and you can watch the conclusion live from Nine News in Australia at the following web-address starting at around 1:10pm Adelaide/3:40pm EST/6:40pm PST:
Nine News Live: Tour Down Under
TDU Top Three:
1. Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge)______18h49’24″
2. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)_____s.t.
3. Tiago Machado (RadioShack)_____+:08″
