Round up of the Santos Tour Down Under 2012
Part 2
The fourth stage of the Santos Tour Down Under belonged to the Spanish cycling sensation Oscar Freire.
The cyclist opened his 2012 winning account at the 130 kilometre stage between Norwood to Tanunda.
Freire finished the race in an impressive time of 3 hours, 8 minutes and 34 seconds with Gerald Ciolek and Daniele Bennati occupying the second and the third positions.
Martin Kohler regained the overall position after the stage 4 classifications with a lead of 2 seconds over Michael Matthew and Oscar Freire.
Gerald Ciolek of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Simon Gerrans of Team GreenEdge finished 6 and 8 seconds behind at the fourth and the fifth positions respectively.
Simon Gerrans fired his legs on the longest stage of the race. He rode brilliantly throughout the 151.5 kilometre stage 5 of the race and finished moments behind Alejandro Valverde.
He failed to grab the stage win but the second place finish earned him the first spot at the overall classifications. Alejandro Valverde and Tiago Machado achieved the second and the third positions.
It all came down to the 90 kilometre final stage of the race held at the Adelaide City Council Street Circuit.
Andre Greipel of Team Lotto-Belisol registered his third win of the race and finished the race in a quickest time of 1 hour, 56 minutes and 48 seconds.
Gerrans kept a close eye on his main rivals and despite his 27th place finish he managed to grab the top podium spot after the final general classifications.
Simon Gerrans earned 100 UCI points after grabbing the overall victory at the first World Tour race of the season.
Alejandro Valverde and Tiago Machado occupied the second and the third positions with 80 and 70 points respectively.
The 31-year old was delighted after marking the first ever victory for the new side, Team GreenEdge. He thanked all his team mates for their endless support throughout the six-staged race.
He noted, "It’s just fantastic. I can’t thank my team mates enough. I was pleasantly surprised when I was told I had the lead [yesterday]”.
“It’s such a fantastic victory for GreenEdge. We couldn’t ask for a more perfect way to start the season".
The Australian claimed his first victory at the Santos Tour Under during the 2006 version of the race.
The cyclist believes that his 2012 victory is far important than the one he claimed in 2006 because of the fact that the competition level was much higher this year.
Gerrans explained, "It’s an even sweeter victory than my first one here in 2006. It gives me the opportunity to thank for the first time the Ryan family and Shayne Bannan for putting this team together. It couldn’t be a better start for us", he noted.
He has provided a perfect start for the Australian team and is now looking ahead to capitalise on his current form for the remaining part of the season.
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