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Greipel again — and now, in front
It appears Andre Greipel is a man who can do no wrong. Before this week, the palmarès of the 25-year-old from Rostock amounted to five wins in much smaller stage races.
But all of a sudden, he's stepped up to the ProTour level in a very, very big way. And after a third stage victory Saturday in Willunga, he finds himself the likely champion of the 2008 Tour Down Under with just one stage remaining.
On the slopes of the notoriously difficult Old Willunga Hill, Greipel transformed himself, tackling the 3.7km ascent with the poise of a climber, before his teammate — Australian time trial champion Adam Hansen — paced him back to the lead group and into overall contention 14km from the finish.
At that point, overnight leader Mark Renshaw of Crédit Agricole was a group behind, just 400 meters back. But for the New South Welshman, that gap was a metaphorical 400km apart, his 17-strong group no match for the firepower in front. And there wasn't a man happier in the world than Greipel, who, quite remarkably, rediscovered the remarkable turn of speed he's shown all week to pass UniSA's Allan Davis in the final 10 meters, regaining the leader's ochre jersey by a margin of seven seconds.
"I don't know why I'm so good in January," said a bemused Greipel. "I think it's because I trained really hard just for the Tour Down Under. I wanted to be good here, and it seems like I did it in the right way. I feel good, and I think I can win the general [classification].
"To be honest, this morning I thought if I don't make the front group, it's okay. I was 15 seconds behind [the leaders] at the top of the climb but I stayed the whole time with Davis and his teammates waited for him, so I just needed to follow Davis. My teammate Adam Hansen rode 20k [on the front] to bring me back — he chased every rider and he did a fantastic job."
The German may be confident and in the form of his life, but Davis has vowed to give everything he's got in tomorrow's 88km circuit race, where a tantalizing 16 bonus seconds are there for the taking.
"The race isn't over yet; we've got 88 kilometers to go and we'll be fighting till the last centimeter. Even if we stay second it's an awesome result for UniSA — but we're here to win. Seven seconds is winnable, we can win it," Davis said.
No doubt Davis will be banking on friends and calling in favors in the peloton to give himself every possible chance of stealing victory, with a view to picking up that ProTour contract that still eludes him.
"Personally, I need this win. I haven't won an overall and I'm in a fighting opportunity here — the best I'll ever get," he said.
Twenty seconds behind in third overall is Caisse d'Epargne's Jose Rojas. The Spaniard's small buffer to those closest to him makes his position equally tenuous, but the fight between Greipel and Davis on Sunday could work in his favor.
Some sympathy must go to Renshaw, who came so close to taking what would have been the biggest victory of his career.
"I just didn't have the legs today," he lamented. "I'm disappointed now, but later on I think I'll be okay, because never did I imagine coming to this week hoping to win."
A clear air of expectation
The most anticipated stage of the Tour Down Under began under a cloudless, baby-blue sky, with conditions at the start noticeably milder than that of the day before. The 129 men pinned on their race numbers and, as predicted, an early flurry of attacks ensued, intermittently splitting the peloton till the 22km mark when five broke free.
In the move were Renaud Dion (AG2R), Greg Henderson (High Road), Julien Mazet (Astana), Carlo Westphal (Gerolsteiner) and Aitor Galdos (Euskaltel-Euskadi). For the time being, the quintet's escape was sealed when Radio Tour announced a time gap of 2:10 after 27km. At the end of the first of three laps (39.9km), the front five were flying, 10 minutes ahead of schedule and over three minutes ahead of the peloton.
Come the first intermediate sprint at Aldinga Beach, Westphal launched early to comfortably take six points and a three-second time bonus ahead of Dion and Galdos. Even representation in the break ensured a solid level of cooperation, which was absolutely vital if they were to save any of their maximum 4:45 lead attained at the 89km mark.
The result of the second sprint (100.7km) was a carbon copy of the first, but far more pressing was their diminishing advantage, now a shade below two minutes. Inexorably eating into their lead at 15 seconds every kilometer and largely driven by Caisse d'Epargne, CSC, Gerolsteiner and Saunier Duval, the chase finally retrieved the five after 114km, 10km before the base of Old Willunga Hill.
Caisse d'Epargne led the peloton onto Willunga's lower slopes, but soon after, Adam Hansen (High Road), Alessandro Proni (Quick Step) and mountains leader Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux) took off. Cofidis' David Moncoutie was the next to go before 2006 TDU champion Luis Sanchez of Caisse d'Epargne also flew the coop, with the peloton now in tatters.
Moncoutie was first over the summit, shortly followed by Sanchez, the pair 10 seconds ahead of the next group of 15. Only a few hundred meters separated this lot from a similarly sized bunch, before one saw the ochre tunic of Renshaw looking remarkably composed and paced by three of his team-mates.
On the descent that followed, the lead pair merged with the two bunches behind to form a front group of 40, the Renshaw group still trailing half a kilometer back. A bunch sprint was inevitable, but nevertheless a few tried their luck before Greipel emphatically took yet another stage and the race lead. Early escapee Dion led the group containing Renshaw over the line, 56 seconds in arrears.
The road ahead
Into the heart of the South Australian capital for the final stage, the 88km kermesse — 16 laps of a 5.5km circuit — will be one not to be missed. With two intermediate sprints before the final dash on Rundle Road, it'll be a fast and furious affair before the overall winner is crowned and the festivities begin, which has a habit of going well into the night.
Apart from the glory of being crowned champion of the 10th edition of the race and the honor of wearing the first ProTour leader's jersey, on the line are 50 ProTour points and 10,000 euros - making this last hurrah no procession, particularly for Greipel and Davis.
"I have a really strong team, and they'll look after me as well as they can. Maybe the other teams will have to go for the intermediate [sprints], but I don't have to," said Greipel.
Responded Davis: "He's the fastest at the moment; we're underdogs coming into a sprint finish with him, but a sprint is totally different after six days of racing. I'm one of the guys in the race that can beat him."
Race notes
A crash during Saturday's stage saw Igor Astarloa (Milram) and Nicolas Crosbie (Bouygues Telecom) both go down, with both riders abandoning. While Astarloa is not seriously hurt, Crosbie is suspected to have a broken collarbone. Race doctor Peter Barnes also advised that Matthew Hayman underwent a successful operation to repair his fractured left collarbone, broken in a crash the previous day that saw culprit Elio Rigotto (Milram) ejected from the race. Surgeons inserted a plate and screws to stabilize the break and speed his return to racing.
