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.
