Australia’s Santos Tour Down Under is the first race of WorldTour cycling season, where all the big European teams come out to show their strengths. It seems fitting that an Australian team riding its first international race should beat Europe’s best.
Australia’s Simon Gerrans won the six-stage event for GreenEdge, beating two-time winner André Greipel, who won three stages this year for Lotto-Belisol, and Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde, back from a two-year suspension and already in winning form, as he showed in Stage Five.
Gerrans didn’t win a stage; in fact, his winning time was identical to that of second-placed Valverde, however Gerrans had a better average finish in six stages and prologue, giving him his second overall TDU win. The support of his team, driving the peloton, and riding in breakaways to capture bonus points, which otherwise might have gone to rivals, kept the 2006 winner up front where he could seize the 2012 win.
