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The 2014 Tour Down Under continues this afternoon with a 150km stage from Prospect to Stirling. Join me at 1.30pm AEDT for live coverage of the BikeExchange Stage 2.
The stage will take riders through the Adelaide Hills and through the picturesque town of Hanhdorf before finishing at Stirling.
With Australia’s Simon Gerrans sitting pretty in ochre, after out gunning Germany’s Andre Greipel on the line in yesterday’s first stage sprint to the line, we should be in for yet another day of terrific racing.
Today’s stage will have two KOM opportunities, with the first climb at the 34 kilometre mark at Golden Grove. Riders will face a climb with a 10 percent gradient.
The second KOM is at Checker Hill, which comes along at the 56-kilometre mark. This climb has a 13 percent gradient.
Lotto-Belisol’s Adam Hansen took out yesterday’s KOM jersey, however, the Australian says he’s not planning on defending it.
Hansen’s team orders to get Greipel over the line first are the Queenslanders first priorities.
The KOM points are sandwiched between two intermediate sprint points. The first of these is at One Tree Hill, 25 kilomteres into the race.
The second intermediate sprint is at Balhannah, after riders have completed 83 kilometres.
Gerrans also took out the sprint points yesterday, three points ahead of Greipel.
The course will finish with a loop that will see riders pass through Mylor three times and their third trip through Stirling will signify the end of the race.
Today’s stage will most likely see an early breakaway, however, the breakaway surviving the day is unlikely.
The bunch should get back together before the end and it will be interesting to see how Orica-GreenEDGE play today’s stage.
Gerrans is in the leader’s jersey and with only four stages to follow today’s, presumably the Aussie team wish to retain it.
Tomorrow’s Stage 3 also has the infamous climb up the Corkscrew and this may be in the back of many riders mind’s today.
Today’s weather forecast is for a warm 31 degrees Celsius and although this is much cooler than last week’s heat wave of multiple days over 40, riders will find it a warm day in the saddle.
Join me today from 1.30pm AEDT for the live blog of Stage 2.
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