It was obvious that today was going to end in a sprint and Lotto-Belisol made Greipel’s win look like a walk in the park. The Henderson/Greipel duo are reminiscent of Renshaw/Cavendish back in the HTC days and look to be unbeatable. We saw Marcel Kittel trying to make his way up but fading early and Cantwell and Ferarri were left fighting for the scraps.
Andre Greipel, seemingly unaware of the carnage behind him said after the race, “Yeah, there was a bit of a crosswind at the end and with the headwind the last two kilometers was pretty messy. The team did a good job to keep me in the front. With the headwind it wasn’t easy but we waited as long as possible and I think we did a perfect lead-out again”.
When asked about tomorrow’s Willunga stage he said, “first I’m thinking about air conditioning in the hotel.”
Orica-GreenEDGE had a horrible day today with Jens Morris, Matty Goss and Daryl Impey in the final crash with Impey sustaining some pretty bad injuries that might put him out of the race (he’s geting scans in the hospital right now).
Who is going to be able to challenge Lotto-Belisol come July? Omega Pharma-Quickstep will no doubt challenge them with a Boonen and Terpstra lead-out. Not since stage 1 of the 2011 Tour Down Under has Matty Goss beat Greipel in a head to head sprint. We saw the Argos-Shimano leadout train make John Degenkolb into a star during the Vuelta. Kittle had a good record against Greipel last year but they can’t seem to break the Lotto Belisol train this week.
When we look at some of the prominent sprinters of 2013, here’s how they compared to Andre Greipel in races classified as “sprints” in 2012 (courtesy of CyclingQuotient):
Mark Cavendish had the best record of all the sprinters in 2012 in a head to head sprint against Greipel.
Tyler Farrar only bettered Greipel once last year in a race that neither of them won.
Matt Goss only bettered Greipel once in 2012 (meaning nothing in this case), but never a win against him.
Kittel had an excellent record against Greipel in 2012, but never in a race where Lotto-Belisol brought their A-Team
Peter Sagan can mix it up in the sprints, but not the types of sprints Greipel dominates in.
Petacchi was up there, but his days are dwindling. New Lampre sprinter Roberto Ferrari has no record of going against Greipel in 2012.
Click here for full results and stage 4 report.
- Unfortunately Nathan Haas (Garmin Sharp) didn’t finish stage 4 due to illness.
- Saxo-Tinkoff team planning for stage 4 of Tour Down Under. A cool change came in at it was a cross-tailwind for most of the day.
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- I had a good chat with this technician who has a view of all three television cameras on the road (two motos and one helicopter). The TV production pales in comparison to the Tour de France, but it’s still a massive undertaking which costs in excess of $100k per stage. Find out more about how bike races are broadcast to television
- Julian Kern (AG2R La Mondiale) still racing Tour Down Under after his horrific accident from stage 2.
- Stretching in the team van.
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- A few skin scrapes on the leg of Jens Voigt (Radioshack Leopad).
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- Bernard Sulzberger (Team UniSA Australia) doing a radio check.
- Phillipe Gilbert (Team BMC) and Damien Howson (Uni SA - Australia) maintaining their lead as they cross the KOM on HumBug Scrub
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- Who cause the crash in the final sprint? From what I saw in the video, Graeme Brown must have touched wheels and went over the handlebars which caused the chain reaction.
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- Andre Grieipel (Lotto Belisol) winning his second stage in the 2013 Tour Down Under. This win marks his 13th stage win in all editions of Tour Down Under and setting a new record in TdU.
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- Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) was one of the casualties of the crash inside the final two kilometers of the race.
- Jonas Ahlstrand(Argos Shimano) was involved in the crash.
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- Tyler Farrer (Garmin-Sharp) also involved in the crash prior to the sprint finish of stage 4
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- Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) still leading the GC by 5 seconds and it’s still tight at the top with the leading 13 riders only 15 seconds down. Willunga Hill will shake things up tomorrow.
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