Not quite a pan flat stage but the sprinters should no doubt have their say.



Nathan Haas gets out front to pad his KoM lead.



And also picks up a few bonus seconds to jump up a few GC spots.



But today has always going to be decided by the sprinters.



Although the roads are wide, they don't seem wide enough.
A lot of blocking and pushing, surprisingly nobody hits the pavement.



And out of the clump of riders comes Haussler to give Garmin their first win of the season. A superb leadout by Koldo Fernández gets the job done!

Haussler looks for back-to-back stage wins.



A huge crash with 25kms to go doesn't help his cause however as teammates
Hunter and Fischer go down and can't get back up. Both have to abandon.
Doctors have yet to release their condition.



But life moves on as the breakaway is picked up and we head to the sprint,



Garmin takes control of the front,
but there a few team lurking back wait to take over.



And just as soon as Fernandez loses a pedal stroke, XBox-Microsoft take over.



And that's all the time they need as Aussie sprinter Matthews is able to seal the deal and hold off Haussler to get the win. It's not fun to lose...
even worse when you come in 2nd behind your rival.

One of the earliest biggest stages of the PT season, Old Willunga Hill.



So let's just skip right to it...
there was this breakaway but it got caught so who really cares?



Jack Bauer tried everything in his power to sneak away to try and pull back a few minutes, but the peloton has having none of it.



So the final climb featured everyone for themselves.



Quickly Vasil Kiryienka jumped out from the pack.
Few were reluctant to follow since he poised no threat to GC due to being apart of that crash that occurred yesterday. So most riders didn't want to give up their hand to chase due to GC leader
and notable teammate Giovanni Visconti lurked on...



So everyone held back and just let Kiryienka take the win.



Picking up the remaining bonus seconds were Hincapie and Lofkvist.
Haussler struggled to keep up on the steep hill slipping to 7th,
but remains just 2 seconds behind Visconti overall.

Haussler needs to pick up 2 seconds to jump over Giovanni Visconti
and win the opening PT race of the season.



Nathan Haas gets out in the breakaway looking to win the KoM contest,
but he is joined by Dirk Bellemakers also looking to do the same.



They go 1-2, with both recording a win and 2nd on both climbs, leaving both on 52 points giving us two winners for the KoM competition.



Now with that out of the way it's on to the sprint.



Haussler does a great job hugging Koldo Fernandez, who is linked up to Kristoff.



Waiting...Waiting... And there he goes!



He does it! He wins the stage and the race. What a way to start our season!



Giovanni Visconti got stuck in traffic or something,
none the less has to give up his jersey.