A Giant Down Under, Greipel Triples – 2010 Santos Tour Down Under Stage 4
The parcours for Thursday's Stage 4 of the 2010 Santos Tour Down Under were as close to ideal for the sprinters as they come. And when the occasion arose, the fastmen did not disappoint.
Andre Greipel (Team HTC-Columbia) remained the peloton's unsolvable puzzle as he would take the bunch sprint ahead of Australians Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank), and stake claim to his third stage in four tries.
Since Greipel arrived Down Under in 2008, the 27-year-old German has essentially owned the race. The overall champion and points classifications winner in 2008, Greipel has now won 8 of the 13 stages he has started. Although the Stage 5 profile, with several passes up Willunga Hill before an uphill finish, does not particularly suit his talents, Greipel is more than likely to win his second Tour Down Under championship, and perhaps one last stage in the process.
At this point, would you bet against him?
In addition to fighting another day of high temperatures, the peloton was besieged by strong winds along the 149.5km route from Norwood to Goolwa. Nonetheless, the baroudeur-rouleur would give it another go.
David Kemp (UniSA-Australia) and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto) would once again launch themselves off-the-front, accompanied this time by Thomas Frei (BMC Racing), Stef Clement (Rabobank), Thomas Rohregger (Milram), Anthony Ravard (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The break would stay away for the majority of the Mutual Community Stage 4 only to be swept away, literally, by day's end.
At the peloton's arrival into Goolwa, Lance Armstrong and Team RadioShack teammate Tomas Vaitkus would launch a late attack, but like the earlier break, they would not survive the onslaught from the voracious, hard charging sprinters.
Results - Stage 4
1. Andre Greipel (Team HTC-Columbia)
2. Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha)
3. Graeme Brown (Rabobank)
General Classification After Stage 4
1. Andre Greipel (HTC-Columbia)
2. Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha)
3. Greg Henderson (Team Sky)
4. Gert Steegmans (Team RadioShack)
5. Graeme Brown (Rabobank)
6. Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
7. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team)
8. Andriy Grivko (Astana)
9. Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Transitions)
10. Baden Cooke (Team Saxo Bank)
More:
Andre Greipel has Tour Down Under at his mercy
Lance attacks but Greipel too good
Next: Jayco Stage 5 - Snapper Point to Willunga (148km)
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