Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) produced a trademark sprint finish to win the third stage of the Tour Down Under to regain the overall race lead.
- Andre Greipel sprints to victory to claim his second stage of the 2012 race
Victory for the German sprint sensation came at the expense of RoadCyclingUK columnist Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), who rode in a breakaway that built a lead of over five minutes.
But the Irish road race and time trial champion and his companions were hauled in 40km from the finish, leaving the Lotto-Belisol sprint train to deliver Greipel to his second stage victory in three days and the ochre leader’s jersey.
Greipel was quick to pay tribute to his Lotto-Belisol team, who are without leadout man Jurgen Roelandts, hospitalised with a hairline fracture of the sixth neck vertabrae after crashing on stage one.
“This win is for Jurgen Roelandts,” said Greipel. “Although we have three injured riders, we still have a great team. “The most important point of today’s race was the one kilometre to go mark, I asked my guys to put me there in fifth or sixth position, and they did.”
Perhaps mindful of the heroic breakaway of Will Clarke (UniSA) on stage two, the peloton acted decisively to reel in a strong breakaway group that included Jan Bakelants (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), Thomas de Gendt (Vaconsoleil), and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), as well as Brammeier.
Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat) claimed second, while Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen delivered another strong performance to finish third. His team-mates worked hard to put him back in contention for the stage when he suffered a puncture as the peloton neared the finish at Victor Harbour.
Greipel is bidding to win his third Tour Down Under, having previously taken the overall title in 2008 and 2010, and his victory added a tenth stage win in the event to his palmares.
Friday’s 130km stage will take the riders from Norwood to Tanunda.
Tour Down Under stage three
1) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Belisol – 3:21:55
2) Yauheni Hutarovich (BLR) – FDJ-BigMat
3) Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) –Team Sky
4) Mark Renshaw (AUS) – Rabobank
5) Robbie Mcewen (AUS) – GreenEDGE
6) Jacopo Guarnieri (ITA) – Astana
7) Heinrich Haussler (AUS) – Garmin-Barracuda
8) Daniele Bennati (ITA) – RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
9) Manuel Belletti (ITA) – Ag2r La Mondiale
10) Chris Sutton (AUS) – Team Sky
General classification
1) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Belisol – 1:54:52
2) Martin Kohler (SWI) – BMC +8″
3) Michael Matthews (AUS) +12″
4) Thomas De Gendt (BEL) – Vacansoleil-DCM +14″
5) Simon Gerrans (AUS) – GreenEDGE +16″
6) Jan Bakelants (BEL) – RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
7) Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) – Team Sky
8) Eduard Vorganov (RUS) – Katusha
9) Rohan Dennis (AUS) – UNI SA-Australia +17″
10) Xavier Florencio Cabre (SPA) – Katusha +20″
