The Tour Down Under may not have officially started but the racing got under way tonight, first with a women's race and then the men's.
The three stage Women's Santos Cup kicked off with a criterium on a 2k circuit in Adelaide. While I am familiar with the big names in women's cycling, the majority of the riders were domestic and I recognized just a couple of the teams, leading me to suspect that this is not one of the bigger races on the women's calendar.
Still, the crowd was looking forward to an exciting crit as the race got underway.
The riders launched several attacks…
…always with a chase group trying to bridge the gap.
Lap after lap, the Dutch national time trial champion Loes Gunnewijk (who signed my flag the other day) managed to stay free of the peloton and won in her first race of the season.
It was a clean sweep for Orica-AIS on the women's podium.
Women's results
1st Loes Gunnewijk (Netherlands, Orica-AIS)
2nd Melissa Hoskins (Australia, Orica-AIS)
3rd Annette Edmomdson (Australia, Orica-AIS)
Immediately after the women's race ended, the men were out on the course for a few final practice laps of the same 2k circuit. Below: Cadel Evans.
Caleb Ewan.
Jack Bauer.
Jens Voigt: the only rider to receive more cheers than Cadel Evans.
Nathan Peter Haas.
A clean shaven Lachlan Morton sharing a laugh with Thomas Dekker.
I get a kick seeing how bored the riders look right before a race starts. Below: Steele Von Hoff lets out a big yawn.
Simon Gerrans, Andre Greipel, and Jens Voigt.
The eager peloton.
Go!
Despite arriving at the race later than I had hoped, I was able to find a spot with a clear view of the start/finish line and a screen.
The peloton was driving hard right from the start, knowing they had only 50km to ride. It made for exciting racing but it also made for a lot of terrible photos. Below: Greipel flies by in his German national champions jersey.
Lotto Belisol was organized and protecting Greipel early in the race.
Nathan Haas took the second intermediate sprint as well as the third. By the time the fourth sprint came around, the breakaway had been absorbed back into the peloton and Sky's Phil Deignan claimed the final sprint.
The big sprint teams of Sky, Giant Shimano, and Lotto Belisol were pushing their lead out trains to the front to support their sprinters, so I was pleased to see Garmin's Jack Bauer hanging in there as a one man lead out train for Steele Von Hoff (Steele finished 11th).
With just a lap or two to go, the peloton was severely split and Lachlan Morton and Thomas Dekker found themselves together again, but this time at the back and not laughing.
Of the 139 riders to start, 135 finished. Because this particular race does not count towards the TDU final result, riders are allowed to start in Tuesday’s stage 1 even if they did not finish. One rider who is sure not to start on Tuesday is Giovanni Visconti after a bad pile up on a turn early in the race sent the Movistar rider to the hospital with a possible broken leg.
Coming down the home stretch, Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel, Caleb Ewan, and Chris Sutton were going full gas. Kittel, who was at the back of the 4, reached into his suitcase of courage and found fresh legs to motor past his competitors, beating Greipel by the narrowest of margins. The finishe as so fast and so sudden I could only get a photo of a frustrated Greipel.
Looking strong in third place was 19 year old Caleb Ewan. He rode impressively and didn't seem at all intimidated to challenge 2 of the best sprinters in the peloton. As he prepared to ride back to his hotel, fans gathered to congratulate him and take photos and I managed to score an autograph from the young prodigy.
As I walked back through town, the last of the cyclists pedaled casually down the road. Caleb Ewan talking with Sky's Chris Sutton and Geraint Thomas was a great sight. I congratulated Dutchman Koen de Kort as he waited at a red light on his team's victory tonight and he turned and excitedly thanked me in his Aussie-accented English.
Men's results
1st Marcel Kittel (Germany, Giant Shimano)
2nd Andre Greipel (Germany, Lotto Belisol)
3rd Caleb Ewan (Australia, UniSA)
Today's autograph: 191 Caleb Ewan.