Crescenzo D'Amore, 4th yesterday, is wide away today as he takes the opening intermediate sprint ahead of Slipstream's Tyler Farrar. Another strong Designa rider yesterday, 2nd Overall Bobbie Traksel, obviously does not rate his hopes today as he set the pace for the peleton early on.
By the top of the 1st climb, 4 men were clear, with Ghader Mizbani (Marco Polo) being the rider crossing 4th over the top.
Ortega looks like he wants to take the KoM jersey over from his teammate but the bad news for them was that Laurent Lefevre managed to catch up the 4 riders, with Eduardo Gonzalo. Lefevre already has 6 KoM points from yesterday. Ben Swift and Brad Armstrong also catch the lead group at the foot of the 2nd KoM climb, but are soon dropped. Behind them are Nippo's Nelson, followed by Rovny, Riblon and Hutchings, with a duo of Daniel Lloyd and Christopher Sutton also infront of the peleton.
Ortega takes the 2nd KoM sprint ahead of Mizbani and Gonzalo, Lefevre didnt seem too bothered about taking any. Further down the course, the first sprinters have been dropped and our 2 minutes behind the peleton. The group includes D'Amore, Brown, Chavanel, Manan and Dekkers.
The peleton is unoprganised though, and 3 riders manage to ride away.
Scheirlinckx and Hansen (Tinkoff) plus Lewis (SouthAus).
At the foot of the 3rd and toughest climb, Ivan Rovny manages to make it across to the leaders, the other 3 riders would begin falling behind now once the climb gets going.
The peleton reach the 3rd climb and Landbouwkredit's Proni launches the first of many attacks. Of the attacks only Glomser, Proni and Scheirlinckx make theirs stick, for a while at least.
Up front Lefevre leaps away unapposed to take the full KoM points to close the gap on Ortega who does not take many.
Hendersen is dropped! As are practically all of the other sprinters including Casper, Traksel, van Heeswijk and the rest. The only top 10 rider left in the peleton is Fabian Wegmann. Tinkoff will need to chase the break down though if they want Wegmann in Orange.
Une Orbitel hit the front to chase down Scheirlinckx, Proni and Glomser, Ben Swift is also with them having tried and failed to get into the lead breakaway group. They are caught and HealthNet's Moldovan rider, Sambris tries an attack which is also chased down by Une Orbitel.
Lefevre takes the next mountain points, with Ortega only crossing 6th and Danish rider Michael Reihs takes the intermediate sprint. Could Reihs win today's stage? With 30km to go, the peleton are 3'40 behind the 7 with Hutchings and Riblon soon to be caught as they have just 40 seconds on the pack.
They are caught with 19km to go but the lead group still has a huge lead of 3'28. Reihs takes the final KoM points as Hendersen and Van Heeswijk are dropped from the 2nd peleton.
The break is going to make it, and the weakest sprinter, Ghader Mizbani is forced to lead out.
Reihs makes his move with 1km to go:
And....
Bezt Zberg wins the peleton's sprint for 8th and Hendersen loses over 6 minutes to the breakaway.
Mizbani and Lefevre will remain outside the top 50 overall having lost time on Stage 1, but their 5 companions now lead the way in the Tour Down Under.
1 | Michael Reihs | DESIGNA KØKKEN | 3h47'44 |
2 | Didac Ortega | BENFICA | s.t. |
3 | Ivan Rovny | MAXBO BIANCHI | s.t. |
4 | Tom Stamsnijder | WIESENHOF - FELT | s.t. |
5 | Eduardo Gonzalo | AGRITUBEL | s.t. |
6 | Ghader Mizbani | DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM | s.t. |
7 | Laurent Lefèvre | DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED | s.t. |
8 | Markus Zberg | DESIGNA KØKKEN | + 2'58 |
9 | Bert De Waele | LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER | s.t. |
10 | Tom Leezer | UNE ORBITEL | s.t. |
11 | Santo Anza | DESIGNA KØKKEN | s.t. |
12 | Gerrit Glomser | VOLKSBANK | s.t. |
13 | Markus Eichler | DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED | s.t. |
14 | Fabian Wegmann | TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS | s.t. |
15 | José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios | AGRITUBEL | s.t. |
16 | Ronny Scholz | WIESENHOF - FELT | s.t. |
17 | Grégory Rast | UNE ORBITEL | s.t. |
18 | Constantino Zaballa | AGRITUBEL | s.t. |
19 | Kurt-Asle Arvesen | VOLKSBANK | s.t. |
20 | Roman Kilun | HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS | s.t. |
21 | Julián Rodas | UNE ORBITEL | s.t. |
22 | Ruslan Sambris | HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS | s.t. |
23 | Ruslan Grychenko | SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS | s.t. |
24 | Fortunato Baliani | CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE | s.t. |
25 | Dmitri Grabovski | SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS | s.t. |
26 | Edvald Boasson Hagen | MAXBO BIANCHI | s.t. |
27 | Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez | CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE | s.t. |
28 | Chris Horner | TEAM SLIPSTREAM | s.t. |
29 | Maarten Tjallingii | BARLOWORLD | s.t. |
30 | Iker Camaño | NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA | s.t. |
31 | Matthew Lloyd | PCMDAILY - JOBS.COM | s.t. |
32 | Alessandro Proni | LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER | s.t. |
33 | Christophe Riblon | CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE | s.t. |
34 | Egoitz Murgoitio | BENFICA | s.t. |
35 | Tadej Valjavec | UNE ORBITEL | s.t. |
36 | Niels Albert | DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED | s.t. |
37 | Chris Froome | HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS | s.t. |
38 | Alexandre Moos | LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER | s.t. |
39 | Axel Merckx | TEAM SLIPSTREAM | s.t. |
40 | Koos Moerenhout | TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS | s.t. |
41 | Pablo Lastras | DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM | s.t. |
42 | Luis Perez Rodriguez | LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER | s.t. |
43 | Iñigo Landaluze | LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER | s.t. |
44 | William Walker | PCMDAILY - JOBS.COM | s.t. |
45 | Aldrin Salamanca | CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE | s.t. |
46 | Adam Hansen | TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS | s.t. |
47 | Shaun Lewis | SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS | s.t. |
48 | Angel Vicioso | HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS | s.t. |
49 | Pieter Mertens | NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA | s.t. |
50 | Staf Scheirlinckx | TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS | s.t. |
51 | Diego Gallego | BENFICA | s.t. |
52 | Christian Pfannberger | VOLKSBANK | s.t. |
53 | Salvatore Commesso | BARLOWORLD | s.t. |
54 | Rui Costa | BENFICA | s.t. |
55 | Benoît Salmon | AGRITUBEL | s.t. |
56 | Logan Hutchings | PCMDAILY - JOBS.COM | s.t. |
The Second Peleton + 4'55
Group Hendersen/Van Heeswijk + 6'36
1 | Michael Reihs | DESIGNA KØKKEN | 7h46'42 |
2 | Didac Ortega | BENFICA | + 10 |
3 | Ivan Rovny | MAXBO BIANCHI | + 18 |
4 | Tom Stamsnijder | WIESENHOF - FELT | + 24 |
5 | Eduardo Gonzalo | AGRITUBEL | + 26 |
6 | Fabian Wegmann | TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS | + 3'24 |
7 | Gerrit Glomser | VOLKSBANK | s.t. |
8 | Tom Leezer | UNE ORBITEL | s.t. |
9 | Markus Zberg | DESIGNA KØKKEN | s.t. |
10 | Markus Eichler | DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED | s.t. |
11 | Santo Anza | DESIGNA KØKKEN | s.t. |
12 | José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios | AGRITUBEL | s.t. |
13 | Angel Vicioso | HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS | s.t. |
14 | Adam Hansen | TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS | s.t. |
15 | Grégory Rast | UNE ORBITEL | s.t. |
16 | Ruslan Grychenko | SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS | s.t. |
17 | Ruslan Sambris | HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS | s.t. |
18 | Roman Kilun | HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS | s.t. |
19 | Niels Albert | DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED | s.t. |
20 | Julián Rodas | UNE ORBITEL | s.t. |
Rank | Name | Team | Points | General |
1 | Michael Reihs | DESIGNA KØKKEN | 31 | 31 |
2 | Gregory Henderson | SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS | 0 | 25 |
3 | Didac Ortega | BENFICA | 24 | 24 |
4 | Crescenzo D'Amore | DESIGNA KØKKEN | 6 | 20 |
5 | Bobbie Traksel | DESIGNA KØKKEN | 0 | 20 |
6 | Laurent Lefèvre | DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED | 9 | 19 |
7 | Tom Stamsnijder | WIESENHOF - FELT | 16 | 16 |
8 | Rui Costa | BENFICA | 0 | 16 |
9 | Max Van Heeswijk | DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM | 0 | 16 |
10 | Ivan Rovny | MAXBO BIANCHI | 16 | 16 |
Rank | Name | Team | Mountain | General |
1 | Laurent Lefèvre | DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED | 20 | 26 |
2 | Michael Reihs | DESIGNA KØKKEN | 22 | 22 |
3 | Didac Ortega | BENFICA | 20 | 20 |
4 | Tom Stamsnijder | WIESENHOF - FELT | 18 | 18 |
5 | Ghader Mizbani | DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM | 14 | 14 |
6 | Ivan Rovny | MAXBO BIANCHI | 14 | 14 |
7 | Rui Costa | BENFICA | 0 | 10 |
8 | Mike Friedman | TEAM SLIPSTREAM | 0 | 8 |
9 | Eduardo Gonzalo | AGRITUBEL | 4 | 4 |
10 | Ben Swift | BARLOWORLD | 2 | 2 |
Ortega is the best young rider and Designa Kokken lead the teams.