Melbourne plays host to the start of the season. Its a short race, but the sprinters won't mind as they battle each other for the first time. Double defending champion Allan Davis (Hollister) is here, with competition from Danilo Napolitano (Evian), Maxime Vantomme (Rothaus), Mark Cavendish (airBaltic), Nolan Hoffman (Metinvest), and Andre Greipel (WWE) amongst various others. And of course Theo Bos (Bouygues)
Fittingly it is an Australian who attacks first: Michael Hepburn (Cisco)
Three follow and we quickly have our breakaway. Dyrnes (Risa Ergon), Adams (Bouygues Telecom) and Lindgren (Vattenfall) link up with Hepburn.
AirBaltic, Rothaus and WWE take responsibility for the peloton - its interesting to note that the teams of defending champion Davis and the best sprinter in the race Napolitano, are not helping out.
Possibly because they dont need to. A breakaway may have won the race back in 2009, but its always a big ask, and the 4 only lead by 2 minutes with 25km still remaining.
Smukulis (Sram), Kwok (Meiji) and Vitoria (Metinvest) all attack the peloton as we enter the final 20km. Smukulis and Vitoria reach the break, but just sit on, and allow themselves to be brought back as the peloton close in.
Hepburn, Adams and Dyrnes extended their stay at the front slightly, but with 2 laps to go (11.6km) they are caught as Tendero (Rothaus) leads the peloton over the finish line.
The sprint trains are starting to form and it is the same 3 teams who have been leading the peloton all race.
AirBaltic (Docker, Rowe, Cavendish)
WWE (Veilleux, Vingerling, Greipel)
Rothaus (Iglinski, Cucinotta, Vantomme)
The Australian champion having to work for Brits in his home race at AirBaltic! And there is some surprise that Evian are not here creating a train for Napolitano - widespread speculation pre-race suggested that they would be, while nobody thought that we would be seeing WWE take such a prominent role.
And at the moment we can see Davis (Hollister) tracking AirBaltic, Haussler (Sram-Riboxx) following WWE and Dekkers (Allianz-BMW) over at Rothaus - Napolitano and Hoffman are here, but yet to commit to a train.
It looks like Napolitano is choosing to follow Haussler, while Manan is following Dekkers, and there is a heavy presence from UPC also.
Nolan Hoffman seems quite lost, moving ahead of the sprint trains, meanwhile Rothaus have a trick up their sleeves. Dropping back from the relay train, Michiel Van Aelbroeck forces himself into the AirBaltic train!
Van Aelbroeck then continues his slowing down process, blocking Matt Rowe, but worse off is Cavendish who drops some way back approaching the final lap. He is alongside Napolitano, sure, but his mindset was all about following Rowe - and now he needs to find him again.
Rothaus' next move is less fortunate for them ... Cucinotta crashes!
Fortunately none of the riders near the front hit him, those who follow him down werent going to affect the results anyway.
Lucky escape for Vantomme to dodge his leadout man, and its worked out perfectly - he finds himself on Greipel's wheel now in the sole remaining strong leadout train.
Haussler, Napolitano, Manan and Davis follow Vantomme.
Vaitkus adds himself onto that train, as the other AirBaltic riders finally seem to have reconnected.
And another crash near the front! Bespalov (Lukoil) this time.
Klostergaard and Guardini follow him down - along with much talked about future prospect Dombrowski, in his first race. Also the train disrupter Van Aelbroeck is down. The two crashes have also forced 3 riders to quit the race: Aguilar (Hollister), Grosu (Metinvest) and Averin (Evian)
Up front we are inside the final 2km and Vingerling opens the sprint
Dekkers, Hopman and Sutton are now on the end of the long sprint train, while for AirBaltic Docker has gone and it is up to Rowe to bring Cavendish back - but he has left a gap.
And ahead, Haussler is ready to pounce.
The Sram rider is not the fastest so is trying for a slightly early move - but this suits Napolitano perfectly as a launch pad
Its a twisty final kilometre and the race is wide open. Greipel makes his move to the outside of Vingerling while Vantomme and Napolitano both aim for the inside.
Its a small gap and not enough room for 2 riders - Napolitano jostles Vantomme out of the way and the Belgian has to briefly stop pedalling. Victory chances surely over for him as Manan also overtakes.
The finish line moves in to view as Napolitano chases after Greipel. Davis has given himself a lot of work to do if he wants to win 3 in a row.
And it is looking like a two horse race now: Greipel vs Napolitano
But Davis is putting on a late charge on the left. A fading Haussler sees Manan take 4th as Vantomme tries to salvage something.
Its mighty close between Greipel and Napolitano now. They lunge for the line, who is going to take it?
Photo finish!
Allan Davis must settle for 3rd as Manan holds on for a surprise 4th against the fast finishes of Vantomme and Vaitkus.
Haussler ran out of gas and also sees Dekkers pass him, while all Cavendish and Rowe can do today is round out the Top 10.
Next are Hopman, Sutton, Eichler, Vingerling, Ciocan and the best Oz rider William Ford. Further down some poor results for sprinters such as Hoffman (29th), Kip (39th), Haddou (44th), Bos (49th), Rasmussen (53rd) and Kreder (96th) amongst others.
But who won? Well the results are in, and the winner is ... Andre Greipel!
