The result of todays Tour Down Under Classic does not count for the Tour Dwon Under general classification. The traditional
crit at the Adelaide's beach side suburb of Glenelg was won by German rider Andre Greipel (Team High Road). Greipel outsprinted
Australian riders Mark Renshaw (Credit Agricole) and Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) after 25 laps on the 2 kilometres
long circuit.
75.000 spectators saw Rabobank's Bram De Groot's attack in the first lap. De Groot crossed the line after the first lap
in a time of 2 minutes and 50 seconds but was caught before the end of the second lap. High Roads Bernhard Eisel was the first
rider who crossed the line after the second lap. In the third lap the pack stayed together. Not surprising as the race
was getting faster and faster.
With 42 kilometres to go Simon Clarke (Unisa - Australia) attacked. Clarke
is chased by Erki Putsep (Bouygues Telecom) and Christophe Mengin (Francaise Des Jeux), with the bunch only a few metres behind
them. Clarke was caught but Putsep and Mengin continued their attack and grapped the first points after 5 laps.
Both riders were caught again after a furious chase by the peloton. With 34 kilometres to go Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and
Bernhard Eisel (Team High Road) attacked and had a few hundred meters on the peloton. CSC's Stuart O' Grady didn't like it
and was leading the chase of the peloton. Brown and Eisel were caught again by the bunch and with 32 kilometres to go Matt Wilson (Unisa - Australia) attacked with Philippe Gilbert (Francaise Des Jeux) and Adam Hansen (Team High Road). In the nervous
and very fast race the bunch managed to snap the breakaway group again.
With 31 kilometres to go a nine man breakaway group attacked to get some points at the finish line. Heinrich Haussler won the second bonus sprint, with Adam Hansen (Team High Road) getting second and Philippe Gilbert on the third spot.
After the riders grabbed their sprint points they were caught by the bunch again. Attack after attack followed but Rabobank
kept the pace very high for their sprinter, Australian rider Graeme Brown.
After 15 laps Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) won the third sprint for the points. Milram's Igor Astarloa grabbed
the second spot and Allan Johansen (CSC) was third.
Credit Agricols's Laszlo Bodrogi attacked with 18 kilometres to go and the Hungarian time trial specialist managed to stay
away witha lead of a few hundred meters. Bodrogi was caught again after Rabobank send 7 riders to the front of the bunch to
lead the chase. With 10 kilometres to go the final points sprint was won by Andre Greipel (Team High Road) with Jose Ivan
Gutierrez second, while Marcus Burghardt (Team High Road) grabbed the third spot.
Rabobank was still at the front of the bunch, clearly preparing a bunch sprint for Graeme Brwon. But with 6 kilometres
to go Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) was taking position at the front as well. Allan Davis also moved to the front of the bunch.
With only 4 kilometres to go Xavier Florencio Cabre (Bouygues Telecom) and Jerome Pineau (Bouygues Telecom) broke Rabobank's
train while Heinrich Haussler moves to the front as well.
At the final lap all sprinters were around the Rabobank riders and Graeme Brown opened the sprint with Mark Renshaw
but it was High Road's Andre Greipel who came over and won the race.Renshaw came in second and Robbie McEwen came in third.
"It was a really big sprint, the last 50 metres were really hard, but I am happy," Greipel said. "It is why I am here.
I started early training and I am happy to win."
Greipel added: "The Rabobank team had a little bit of bad luck on the last corner, so I tried to start my sprint and I
thought 'okay, it's a headwind, but it doesn't matter - you have to be strong and sprint to the finish'."
Indeed Rabobank was unlucky, sports director Erik Dekker said: "I do not know who committed that mistake, but they let
themselves get pushed to the side in the final corner, which then forced them to hit the brakes."
But in the end Dekker was satisfied with the performance of the Rabobank squad: "The guys did very well. First, we
had Bram's attack and then we basically rode a seven-men time trial. It is a very promising sign for next week."
