The first WorldTour cycling event of the year begins today, with Stage 1 of the 2016 Tour Down Under. Can defending champion Rohan Dennis (BMC) become the first man in the race’s history to claim back-to-back titles? Join The Roar for all the action from 12:30pm (AEDT).
Today’s stage is 130.8 kilometres from Prospect to Lyndoch, and while it looks likely to be decided by a bunch sprint, with the mercury set to tickle 38 degrees Celsius, it’s anything but an easy day in the saddle.
The day begins with the first King of the Mountains points on offer around 12 kilometres in, before heading toward the scenic Barossa, and finishing with three circuits around Lyndoch.
As mentioned, it’s a day for the sprinters, with Australia’s hottest young talent Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEDGE) at short odds to claim the day – no real surprise given his blistering form to start 2016, taking out Sunday’s People’s Choice Classic in Adelaide, as well as the National Criterium Championships and overall at the Bay Classic Series on the back of three stage wins.
Ewan’s biggest threat probably comes in the form of Italian Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek–Segafredo), although Ewan’s directeur sportif, Matthew White, has suggested Nizzolo’s countryman Matteo Pelucchi (IAM) is the man his team will be watching.
Join The Roar for Stage 1 of the Tour Down Under, and be sure to leave your comments below as the stage progresses.
Joe Frost
Editor
Top ten of: 1. Caleb Ewan 2. Mark Renshaw 3. Wouter Wippert 4. Marko Kump 5. Adam Blythe 6. Giacomo Nizzolo 7. Ben Swift 8. Steele Von Hoff 9. Jose Joaquin Rojas 10. Gregory Henderson
Joe Frost
Editor
Top three of 1. Ewan 2. Renshaw 3. Wippert
Joe Frost
Editor
Wow, that wasn't even close. Ewan's sixth win of this month! And he'll ride out tomorrow wearing the race leader's ochre jersey.
delbeato
Roar Guru
boom! still waiting for 2nd place :)
Joe Frost
Editor
And Ewan takes victory! Just tucked himself into Mark Renshaw's slipstream and blew the rest of them away.
Joe Frost
Editor
The bunch sprint is on, with Ewan Looking great.
Joe Frost
Editor
Sky are leading but Ewan still has Darryl Impey
Joe Frost
Editor
Final kilometer. Here we go...
Joe Frost
Editor
Wouter Wippert is looming, as is Mark Renshaw. But Sky have numbers.
Joe Frost
Editor
Final 2 kilometres and Ian Stannard pulls off the front for Sky, done for the day.
Joe Frost
Editor
The sprinters' teams are now getting themselves sorted, with OGE and SKy taking prominent places at the front of the peloton for Caleb Ewan and Ben Swift respectively.
Joe Frost
Editor
At the 6 kilometre mark Lake's been caught. Amazing effort from the Uni-SA man who initiated the day's break.
Joe Frost
Editor
With a little under 8 kilometres to go Lake's advantage is all but gone. There's also a hint of precipitation.
Joe Frost
Editor
OGE have suffered a mechanical, with Matt Hayman in a bit of strife.
Joe Frost
Editor
The teams are finally getting organised, ready to reel Lake in, with Sky starting to loom ominously. Lake holds 35 seconds.
Joe Frost
Editor
Lake's gone and pushed his lead out to almost a minute. We've got a hell of a finish on our hands!
Joe Frost
Editor
Lake not content to just chuck in the towel, flying the flag for Team UniSA. He's a handy time triallist too, this could be an interesting final 20 kms.
Joe Frost
Editor
With 22 kilometres to go it appears the breakaway have given up the ghost, and are slowly heading back to the peloton. Chapeau to the lads, was a brave attempt. Lake will wear the black-spotted KOM jersey tomorrow.
Joe Frost
Editor
With 26 kilometres to go, and the final circuit looming, Lake and Gougeard are 1 minute ahead.
Joe Frost
Editor
We've seen some serious yo-yoing of the breakaway's lead today, with that 1:50 lead more than halved in the last ten or so minutes, with a 40-second lead.