HTC-Columbia’s André Greipel took his third stage win at the 2010 Santos Tour Down Under to retain the race leader’s Ochre Jersey, besting Robbie McEwen (Katusha) and Graeme Browne (Rabobank) at the end of the 150km route.
Despite an effort by Team RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong and Tomas Vaitkus to breakaway from the pack and give themselves and others a chance against the German sprinter, Greipel showed he’s the man to beat in a bunch sprint this year.
“It would have been better to keep it down to a smaller bunch in that wind and hopefully give everyone a better chance against Greipel,†Armstrong said. “But Greipel I think we can all see is unbeatable right now.
“That was as hard as I can go. Tomas went and kept going and kept going. I turned around and it was just the two of us. It was a good effort, maybe not the best outcome.â€Â
Video Highlights of Stage 4 at the 2010 Santos Tour Down Under
Greipel’s win puts him a full 20 seconds ahead of 2nd place Robbie McEwen, and Greg Henderson (Team Sky) at +24 seconds and Cadel Evans (BMC) at +50 seconds, putting him in a good position for tomorrow’s big climb. He’s also the clear sprint leader with 24 points against Kemp’s 16. For his part, Greipel said his team is doing well (they led the peloton for the first 100km to catch a breakaway), but the race isn’t over yet.
“Today’s race is over, but not tomorrow’s,” Greipel said. “Everyone is looking out for us but if the team works we can be successful. We deserve the wins because we always ride from the front.
“If you have riders like (we do), no one can pass us.”
We’ll post full stage results soon. In the meantime, check out Graham Watson’s photo gallery for more photos (including the one above).
results coming soon…
