My team was just gonna participate to cause havoc, but seems the WT teams already are taking care of that xD

Well, I think this is the first time since the Giro that Calzone competes against Cavendish & Co. Hopes are high, please don't crush them.

Does the nationality bonus kick in even for Australia?

I didnt thought that I could ever have so much ambitions at Down Under. Calzone is there with some decent support for the sprints and I hope that Christian Schröder can rock the hilly stages.

Hopefully Kawasaki can do something in the sprints for Androni.
Also hoping Birth does well in his first race for Orica.

Shit man... The win goal I think is still achievable, but much harder than I thought.

Welcome to Nuriootpa for the first stage of the 2014 Santos Tour Down Under, which means the official start of the WorldTour this season. The riders can enjoy a sunny summer day today, although the temperature might become a problem. Nevertheless the riders all seem excited for the start.

Very quickly after the start the first attacks take place. Küng (BMC), King (Trek), Di Silvestro (CCC), Minard (AG2R), Jauregui (FDJ), Bettiol (Cannondale) and Mohoric (Astana) attack. They don't get very far.


Just before the first intermediate sprint Bol (Belkin), A. Feunard (FDJ) and Hansen (Lotto) attack. This leads to them making the podium in the intermediate sprint.


It takes another while to form the definitive break of the day, but finally Howson (Omega Pharma), Bettiol (Cannondale), V. Feunard (CCC) and King (Trek) manage to distance the pack.


After having had a max lead of 4m10 the break reaches the 2nd sprint (63km from the line) with a lead of 4m02. Bettiol wins this sprint ahead of Feunard and King. Howson comes 4th.


The pack, lead by Sky, Lotto and Katusha, sets the pace high and brings the lead down to 2m22 with 40km to go.


20kms later the gap has decreased even further. With 20kms to go the lead has gone down to less than 1m30.

The break is putting up some resistance though. At the foot of Mengler's Hill, 15km from the line, the 4 leaders still hold over a minute. However, even if they survive the climb they will have to hang on for another 13km.


Although the pack is getting very close, the break does manage to reach the summit ahead of the pack. There, we see a very close sprint. It's Feunard who, with a minimal gap, manages to beat Howson. Bettiol and King don't have the strength to form a serious threat, but do manage to hang on.


In the pack the GC riders come forward in order to avoid losing time. However, some sprinters manage to hang on as well. Many, for example Guardini are visibly suffering to hang on in front.


With 12km to go Feunard accelerates from the break. He realizes the group of 4 stands no chance, and given that he was the strongest on the climbs, he feels confident he can stand for another few kilometers.


It seems he was right. While the French rides into the final 10km his former companions are caught by the Pate-lead pack.


It had to happen once, but it has taken longer than expected. The end for Feunard is there with 5kms to go, but surely he will be proud of his ride today, leading for so long. His reward will be the KoM jersey.


Katusha and Sky set up their sprint trains. Kristoff has 3 riders in front of him, while Sky is still waiting for Weschenbach, who leads today due to Mengler's Hill. Other sprinters in front are Greipel, Hanzen and even Kakhi (sorry for the Liechtenstein shirt, something seems to have gone wrong there).


A shot with 2.5kms to go indicates the chaos of this race. Kristoff may have had 3 in front of him, all had run out soon. He'll have to launch early and hope for the best. Meanwhile Eisel launches Weschenbach, who had some trouble catching up. At the far left Gerrans also sets off early.


Kristoff leads with 2kms to go. Greipel is sitting on his wheel though. From behind we see Haussler, Bennati, Hanzen and Calzone appearing, while Gerrans seems to drop back a little.


Weschenbach soon ditches Eisel and sets an incredible pace. He storms to the front, where Kristoff is still leading. Gerrans meanwhile seems to fade a bit.


With one km to go Kristoff still leads.


However, 200m later it's Weschenbach who takes over the lead. Only Greipel might be able to overtake him, but he'll have to leave Kristoff's wheel soon if he wants to do that.


And that's exactly what doesn't happen. In fact, Kristoff even gets away from Greipel. Nevertheless it won't be enough to overtake Weschenbach.


At the line

it's an easy victory for Weschenbach. Kristoff, Greipel, Hanzen and Kakhi complete the top-5 behind him.

Very far behind them Haussler, Bennati, Moreno, Gerrans and Gasparotto complete the top-10.


Stage Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Benedikt Weschenbach	Sky Procycling	2h58'15
2	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
4	Adrien Hanzen	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Rajesh Kakhi	Team Champion System	s.t.
6	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	s.t.
7	Daniele Bennati	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
8	Daniel Moreno	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
9	Simon Gerrans	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Enrico Gasparotto	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
11	Bernhard Eisel	Sky Procycling	s.t.
12	Carlo Calzone	Movistar Team	s.t.
13	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	s.t.
14	Christian Schroder	Team Europcar	s.t.
15	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

GC

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Benedikt Weschenbach	Sky Procycling	2h58'05
2	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	+ 4
3	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	+ 6
4	Alberto Bettiol	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 7
5	Jetse Bol	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Pyroli Feunard	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	+ 8
7	Aquali Feunard	FDJ.fr	s.t.
8	Adam Hansen	Lotto Belisol	+ 9
9	Ben King	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
10	Adrien Hanzen	BMC Racing Team	+ 10
11	Rajesh Kakhi	Team Champion System	s.t.
12	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	s.t.
13	Daniele Bennati	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
14	Daniel Moreno	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
15	Simon Gerrans	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.

Points

Rank	Name	Team	Points
1	Benedikt Weschenbach	Sky Procycling	15
2	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	14
3	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	13
4	Adrien Hanzen	BMC Racing Team	12
5	Rajesh Kakhi	Team Champion System	11

KoM

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain
1	Pyroli Feunard	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	16
2	Damien Howson	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	12
3	Alberto Bettiol	Cannondale Pro Cycling	8
4	Ben King	Trek Factory Racing	6
5	Danny Pate	Sky Procycling	4

-25

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Benedikt Weschenbach	Sky Procycling	2h58'05 (1)
2	Alberto Bettiol	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 7 (2)
3	Jetse Bol	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 7 (3)
4	Pyroli Feunard	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	+ 8 (4)
5	Aquali Feunard	FDJ.fr	+ 8 (5)

Teams

Rank	Team	Time
1	Sky Procycling	8h54'45
2	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
5	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.

Not a bad stage for us with Bettiol in the break and Bennati in the top 10.

Also good to see Di Silvestro trying at least. Already did more than the entire Gabon race.

Plusvite 100+... seems about right Nice to see Jauregui out ftont early even if it came to nothing.

Ok start for Hanzen. Seemed completely isolated and had to fight back quite a way so 4th place makes sense. The BMC leadout will get better i'm sure, although this i why he wanted Eisel!

Krista sets her next record as first female to ride a WT race. Annonymous day but safely in the pack, can't ask for much more from an 18yo neo-pro

\o/

please keep this going this way

also I think it was Aquali Feunard and not Jauregui at the first intermediate sprint cause he's not near the front of the GC thanks to the boni seconds.

Wow, great win by Benedikt

Not our stage but at least it looks like my three leaders are where they need to be all finishing in top 21 today.

You may very well be right. It's been edited

Good to see our team doing exactly what I want them to Brilliant debut for Pyroli and this time we have a man, which can get the KoM home

Getting 6th on the GC like in Gabon on the first stage, but this time it got better with the KoM jersey Surprised Pyroli could hold the gap for so long

We already scored more points here than we did last season (0), so I'll take that. Just a shame we have to put up with these new OP riders when we managed to get rid of most of them in the Offseason.

Ollfardh, what does the points table look like this season?

@TMM - Even if I had got Eisel, I wouldn't have sent him here, just like I didn't send Phinney or Hushovd. Bit disappointed with Felline though, has to be said.

Nice result in the first race of the season for me. Kristoff beating Greipel is already better than expected. Also Kakhi in 5th is good.
Looking forward to see how my riders do in the hilly stages.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!? I mean sure it looks pretty selective, but Docker, Ewan and Howard ALL outisde the TOP 100!?

Very meh. Bring on stage 2!

Paul Martens our best sprinter? Come on guys..

Great stage for the Feunard army

Hmm,a decent start to TDU