The australian bookmakers dont seem to be very knowledgable at the moment as they make Jimmy Casper, Max van Heeswijk and Roger Hammond (!?) 3 star favourites.

DFL's Lefevre makes the first attack of the day and is countered by Rui Costa. Mike Friedman, Peter Seyfert and Lars Petter Nordhaug also counter but do not reach the front 2.

Costa takes the first intermediate sprint, the mountain pount and the 2nd intermediate sprint.


Mike Friedman has been chasing hard behind and finally catches up on a sharp hill.


Friedman then takes the next KoM points but 2nd is enough for Costa to take the Kom jersey. Wearing a jersey at the end of the stage earns 1 Ranking point, so Rui Costa is temporarily the Continental Leader.


Friedman takes an easy 6 points but is almost immediately dropped by the other 2 with 60km to go. It does not matter much though as with 27km to go the break has been caught and the peleton are in control.

The sprinters get their chance now although many failed to make it over the hills.


Dockx is followed by Stevic with Van Heeswijk tooked behind the Serbian's back wheel. Van Heeswijk then makes his move:


But he can't get a gap on Henderson, the SouthAustralia.com rider goes with 1km to go and with no opposition he gives his team the perfect start to their big race of the season.

Designa Kokken perform well with Traksel 2nd, D'Amore 4th and Cabrera 10th, while Van Heeswijk has to settle for 3rd.

1	Gregory Henderson	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	3h59'24
2	Bobbie Traksel	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
3	Max Van Heeswijk	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
4	Crescenzo D'Amore	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
5	Alejandro Borrajo	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
6	Fabian Wegmann	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
7	Jimmy Casper	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
8	Stefan Van Dijk	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
9	Javier Benitez	BENFICA	s.t.
10	Raúl Granjel Cabrera	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
11	Steven Caethoven	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
12	Ivan Stevic	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
13	Angel Vicioso	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
14	Graeme Brown	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
15	Matthew Hayman	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
16	Hans Dekkers	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
17	Kirk O'Bee	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
18	Gert Dockx	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
19	Janek Tombak	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
20	Adam Hansen	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
21	Gerrit Glomser	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
22	Mahdi Sohrabi	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
23	Henk Vogels	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
24	Aleksandr Usov	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
25	Tom Stamsnijder	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
26	Nico Mattan	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
27	Roger Hammond	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
28	Takashi Miyazawa	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
29	Julian Dean	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
30	Erki Pütsep	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
31	Kevin Ista	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
32	Daniel Lloyd	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
33	Marco Guillén	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
34	Kim Marius Nielsen	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
35	Nathan O'Neill	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
36	Tom Leezer	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
37	René Weissinger	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
38	Staf Scheirlinckx	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
39	Niels Albert	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
40	Christian Pömer	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
41	Markus Eichler	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
42	Michael Reihs	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
43	Markus Zberg	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
44	Daniel Martin	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
45	Axel Merckx	TEAM SLIPSTREAM	s.t.
46	Ruslan Grychenko	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	s.t.
47	Santo Anza	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
48	José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
49	Diego Gallego	BENFICA	s.t.
50	Pieter Mertens	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Gregory Henderson	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	3h59'04
2	Bobbie Traksel	DESIGNA KØKKEN	+ 8
3	Max Van Heeswijk	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	+ 12
4	Crescenzo D'Amore	DESIGNA KØKKEN	+ 20
5	Alejandro Borrajo	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
6	Fabian Wegmann	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
7	Jimmy Casper	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
8	Stefan Van Dijk	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
9	Javier Benitez	BENFICA	s.t.
10	Raúl Granjel Cabrera	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
11	Steven Caethoven	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
12	Ivan Stevic	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
13	Angel Vicioso	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
14	Graeme Brown	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
15	Matthew Hayman	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
16	Hans Dekkers	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
17	Kirk O'Bee	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
18	Gert Dockx	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
19	Janek Tombak	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
20	Adam Hansen	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Gregory Henderson	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	25	25
2	Bobbie Traksel	DESIGNA KØKKEN	20	20
3	Rui Costa	BENFICA	16	16
4	Max Van Heeswijk	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	16	16
5	Crescenzo D'Amore	DESIGNA KØKKEN	14	14
6	Alejandro Borrajo	AGRITUBEL	12	12
7	Laurent Lefèvre	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	10	10
8	Mike Friedman	TEAM SLIPSTREAM	10	10
9	Fabian Wegmann	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	10	10
10	Jimmy Casper	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	9	9

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Rui Costa	BENFICA	10	10
2	Mike Friedman	TEAM SLIPSTREAM	8	8
3	Laurent Lefèvre	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	6	6