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RACE REPORTS: CANCER COUNCIL HELPLINE CLASSIC: SKY STORMS TO VICTORY
Road Bike Action & AFP
January 17, 2010
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(Photo: Yuzuru Sunada)
Cycling legend Lance Armstrong showed strong form in the Cancer Council Helpline Classic on Sunday before Britain's all-new Team Sky stormed to a one-two finish in their debut race. Armstrong and fellow Tour de France winner Oscar Pereiro's breakaway was reeled in with just three laps to go as Sky's Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton took the honors in the pre-Tour Down Under street event.
Sky obliterated HTC-Columbia on the last lap, leaving Germany's Andre Greipel in third, to send out an ominous warning to their UCI ProTour rivals in front of 108,000 Adelaide fans. The team aims to build on Britain's 2008 Olympics success by producing the country's first ever Tour de France winner.
"It doesn't get any better," New Zealand's Henderson said. "We were joking about it in the room, we said the best way that Team Sky could put themselves on the map is the very, very first race we get together we end up winning the bike race. That happened tonight, it was just unbelievable. The lead-out was so fast, I don't think I've been on the back of anything faster. In the end my job was pretty easy. What an amazing feeling."
Meanwhile, Armstrong said he felt a vast improvement from the 2009 Classic, which was his first official race in three and a half years. The American is in the second year of his comeback from retirement and is aiming for an eighth Tour de France crown, which would also make him its oldest winner at 38.
"It was not pretty last year, this year was a little more comfortable." Australia's Robbie McEwen finished fourth for Katusha while reigning Tour Down Under champion Allan Davis of Australia was seventh in the 30-lap, 51-kilometer (32 miles) event.
Armstrong crossed eight seconds off the pace in 62nd with Australia's world road race champion Cadel Evans 78th and Pereiro 99th. The American is hopeful of improving on last year's third place in the Tour de France behind his fierce rival, Alberto Contador of Spain.
"I feel good, I've been training hard and training with some intensity, so I feel swell," he said. "One thing I'd like to try to do more this year is be at a higher level for more of the year. Obviously the Tour (de France) is the main goal but if I can have some condition throughout the spring and early summer, at least you're knocking on the door of victory sometimes," said Armstrong
The Classic is a separate prelude to the six-stage, 800 kilometer (500 mile) Tour Down Under, which starts on Tuesday.
Cancer Council Helpline Classic, 51-km
1. Greg Henderson (NZL/Team Sky) 1.04.33
2. Chris Sutton (AUS/Team Sky)
3. Andre Greipel (GER/HTC-Columbia)
4. Robbie McEwen (AUS/Katusha)
5. Baden Cooke (AUS/Saxo Bank)
6. Graeme Brown (AUS/Rabobank)
7. Allan Davis (AUS/Katusha)
8. Jose Rojas (ESP/Caisse D'Epargne)
9. Anthony Ravard (FRA/AG2R La Mondiale)
10. Manuel Cardoso (ITA/Footon-Servetto-Fuji)
Selected:
55. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/Caisse D'Epargne) @ .08
62. Lance Armstrong (USA/Team RadioShack) s.t.
78. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) @ .23 |
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