Big Twin Cycling

Success Down Under Beckons For Griepel

The German cyclist Andre Griepel looks set to claim the Tour Down Under as Australia’s most prestigious and demanding cycle race enters its final day.

Much of the talk prior to the event was on how Team Sky would perform in their first event, and how Lance Armstrong would compete, but Griepel has taken the race by the scruff of the neck from start to finish.

The German rider is part of the HTC Columbia team and has already won three stages of the week long Tour Down Under. Despite finishing 17th in the penultimate stage, Griepel was only nine seconds behind stage winner Luis Leon Sanchez and takes an 11 second lead over Spaniard Sanchez going into today’s stage.

The final stage is a 90km street race around Adelaide, and the predominantly flat camber will suit the relentless cycling style of Griepel. There are other challengers lurking dangerously near the top of the classification, notably Australian home heroes Robbie McEwan in fourth and Cadel Evans in fifth, but Griepel believes that it is the strong team performance of HTC Columbia that will see him over the finishing line:

“It was just awesome from the guys”, said Griepel after stage five,”Tomorrow I just want to go with the guys in front. Hopefully there will be not so many attacks but I think with a strong team like I have we can hold on to the jersey.”

Team Sky will be delighted with their overall performance in their debut event but the puncture suffered by Sky rider Matthew Hayman on stage four damaged their hopes of victory, and their leading rider Greg Henderson is currently sixth with little chance of overturning a 24 second deficit around Adelaide.

Lance Armstrong finds himself 33rd going into the tour finale, but as so often throughout his career he is focusing all of his efforts on the Tour De France and using events such as The Tour Down Under to gain fitness and confidence.

A very high quality field in Australia has seen leading names such as Tour Of Spain champion Alejandro Valverde compete alongside World Champion Cadel Evans, but it is the likeble German that seems set to take the thunder down under.

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