Tour Down Under

18-01-2012 02:09:43

Two-time race champion Andre Greipel of Germany took the leader's ocher jersey at the Tour Down Under Tuesday in a crash-marred start to the season's opening WorldTour race. Lotto sprinter Greipel, who won the pre-race criterium on Sunday, won a photo-finish decision from veteran Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre to set out his stall for a third overall win.

"I'm lucky that I won today," Greipel said. "There was a massive crash with 800 meters to go. My pedal got touched, and I lost positions from about fifth to 20th but managed to bridge the gap."

Now a WorldTour event, the Tour Down Under offers ranking points to individual riders and their teams. And some believe that led to some erratic behavior in the lead-up to a dramatic bunch finish. As several teams jostled in a bid to put their main sprinters in a winning position ahead of the home straight, one rider's mistake caused a whole bunch to hit the deck.

Yet some later claimed that wasn't the main reason around 15 riders crashed just under a kilometer from the finish line of the 149km ride from Prospect to Clare, during which temperatures were said to have reached 51 degrees Celsius (124 degrees Fahrenheit). Australian Matt Goss, hoping to score a first win for his new Australian team GreenEdge, said he saw some questionable tactics.

"There were no doubt some idiots fighting for position who were going to do nothing at the finish anyway," said Goss, the Milan–San Remo champion who finished runner-up here in 2011. "Some guys have no care for what happens to themselves or what happens to everyone else."

Briton Adam Blythe also complained of suspect tactics. "Two Vacansoleil riders caused the crash," he told AFP. "To have two teammates causing a crash when they're not fighting against each other is just stupid. Under-eights racing don't do that—it's just ridiculous. They're not riding with their eyes closed."

One of the Vacansoleil riders in question, Kenny Van Hummel, took skin off his left arm, buttocks, and legs after hitting the tarmac. After his team claimed its two riders had been brought down by another, unidentified cyclist, Van Hummel said: "Someone came from the left and the right, I couldn't react and someone rode me off the bike. "It was unbelievable."

Van Hummel said the WorldTour status of the race had perhaps been a factor. "It's the first WorldTour race so everybody's trying to score points, and everybody wants to show his level and we're all motivated, but that means people are taking risks," he added. "Some people are trying for the sprint and they don't yet have the level for it."

Veteran Frenchman Frederic Guesdon, who was caught up in the crash, was left with a fractured hip, which could signal the end of his career according to his FDJ-BigMat team manager Yvon Madiot. A former Paris-Roubaix winner, Guesdon was scheduled to hang up his bike for good after the famous French classic in April, but Madiot said it was now unlikely he would be able to take part as planned.

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