Tour Down Under - Cat. 2.3Australia, January 18 - 23, 2000Stage 6 - January 23, Adelaide City Circuit, 96 kmExciting finaleCourtesy of John Doggett-Williams The final day of the Tour Down Under was a comparatively short stage - a 20 lap, 96 km circuit race around Adelaide's city centre. While there was a cool breeze blowing, the sun was out and it was going to be quite a warm finish in front of an estimated crowd of 50,000. There were two riders in with a chance to threaten the overall lead of Gilles Maignan (Fra, Ag2R) - last year's winner, Stuart O'Grady (CA) and Telekom's Steffen Wesemann. O'Grady was showing a little more confidence than yesterday, when an "average" day had prevented him from making any significant dent in Maignan's lead. However, a 14 second margin was going to be hard to close. The race began with a disaster for stage 2 winner, and one-time leader of the race, Mick Rogers of the United Water-AIS team. At the beginning of lap 2, he and two others were involved in a crash that destroyed Rogers' bike when he slid into the barriers. The other two unfortunates were Rogers' teammate, Graham Brown and Gerben Loewik (Ned) of the Farm Frites team. The force of the crash actually split Rogers' frame in two. By lap 6, a relatively serious break had formed containing six riders, two of whom were from the Sunsmart team: Cadel Evans and Sean Sullivan (Aus), along with Mateos Perez (Spa, Polti), Alessandro Guerra (Ita, Saeco), Guillaume Auger (Fra, Big Mat) and Tristan Hoffman (Ned, MC J&J). The six had established a sizable gap on the main peloton which grew to around two minutes by the eighth lap. However, not all of the riders made it this far: Evans and Hoffman crashed on the seventh lap and were out of the lead. This left four in front who were being chased by a group of eight some 30 seconds behind. The peloton, still containing tour leader Maignan, as well as O'Grady and Wesemann was being led by Maignan's Ag2R teammates. The first sprint, on lap 8 was won by Auger from Perez, with Sullivan taking third. This meant that Auger took out the overall Sprint King competition. After this, the chasing eight were caught by the bunch who had picked up the pace. They managed to get the gap down to 1:13 by lap 12 but did not completely nail it and the four leaders extended their break again. O'Grady and Wesemann were still in the bunch and had essentially conceded defeat to the Maignan and his Ag2R teammates who were still controlling the race. On the bell lap, the break was down to three - Sullivan had been dropped and was left to fend for himself in front of a bunch that was chasing hard. The break had only 30 seconds and were losing time over the final 5 km. With the finish line in sight, they were finally swallowed up and it came down to a bunch finish. The result: a stage victory for Australia's Robbie McEwen (Farm Frites) who bested two former yellow jersey wearers in the Tour de France - Jan Kirsipuu (Est, Ag2R) and Stuart O'Grady (CA) taking a valiant third. Apparently, McEwen's and O'Grady's teams had started to work together in the closing laps to set up one of them for the win, and it certainly paid off for them. This was partial recompense for O'Grady who wanted to win his home tour for the second time, however Frenchman Gilles Maignan was a worthy winner. The sprint competition was won by Guillaume Auger (Big Mat) after his efforts today, with Sandy Casar (FDJ) as the best young rider. The French riders and teams certainly enjoyed considerable success in this tour, with Ag2R and Credit Agricole taking out the top two team prizes. *Note: yesterday we reported on the photo finish malfunction at the end of Stage 4. The comment was that the judges were not in line to observe the winner. This was not strictly correct, as according to our correspondent John Doggett-Williams, two of the four judges were in place and did indeed pick the correct winner, whereas the other two did not. It was the chief commissaire who called for the photo finish but the Omega finishing software had failed for the first 16 riders (two groups) of the race. A representative of Omega software - which will be used for the Olympic Games - said that there will be three or four backups to avoid any possible recurrence of this problem. Only one was used in this race. 1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Farm Frites 2.05.17 2 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R - Prevoyance 0.01 3 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 4 Bradley McGee (Aus) Francaise Des Jeux 5 Tortsen Nitsche (Ger) Saeco - Gaggia 6 David McKenzie (Aus) Linda McCartney 7 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Big Mat-Auber93 8 Tayeb Braikia (Den) Linda McCartney 9 Gian Matteo Fagnini (Ita) Telekom 10 Jacob Moe Rasmussen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 11 Alexandre Chouffe (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 12 Steffen Wesemann (Ger) Telekom 13 Baden Cooke (Aus) United Water - AIS 14 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 15 Scott Sunderland (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 16 Nick Gates (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 17 Pascal Richard (Swi) Linda McCartney 18 Gilles Maignan (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 19 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 20 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom 21 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 22 Bart Voskamp (Ned) Polti 23 Jamie Drew (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 24 Maurizio De Pascale (Ita) Linda McCartney 25 Mathew Stephens (GBr) Linda McCartney 26 Dominique Rault (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 27 Andre Kivilev (Kaz) Ag2R - Prevoyance 28 Bjarke Nielsen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 29 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 30 Yvon Ledanois (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 31 Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 32 Rene Jorgensen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 33 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 34 Bjornar Vestol (Nor) Linda McCartney 35 Kai Hundertmarck (Ger) Telekom 36 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Polti 37 Maximilian Sciandri (GBr) Linda McCartney 38 Christopher Jenner (NZ) Credit Agricole 39 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 40 Joeg Ludewig (Ger) Saeco - Gaggia 41 Rassano Brasi (Ita) Polti 42 Franck Pencole (Fra) Credit Agricole 43 Jan Schaffrath (Ger) Telekom 44 Allan Johansen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 45 Ben Brooks (Aus) Linda McCartney 46 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 47 Tristan Hoffman (Ned) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 48 Mikael Kyneb (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 49 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Telekom 50 Pascal Herve (Fra) Polti 51 Philippe Bordenave (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 52 Brad Davidson (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 53 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Saeco - Gaggia 0.06 54 Nic Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS 55 Andrei Mizourov (Kaz) Telekom 0.10 56 Steven Kleynen (Bel) Farm Frites 57 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 0.14 58 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 0.33 59 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Credit Agricole 0.41 60 Cyril Saugrain (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 0.53 61 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom 2.01 62 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 63 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 64 Jerome Neuville (Fra) Credit Agricole 65 Mirko Crepaldi (Ita) Polti 66 Michele Colleoni (Ita) Polti 67 Stephane Berges (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 68 Brett Lancaster (Aus) United Water - AIS 69 Scott Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 70 Allan Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 71 Marcel Gono (Aus) Credit Agricole 72 Jay Sweet (Aus) Big Mat-Auber93 73 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Farm Frites 74 Martin Van Steen (Ned) Farm Frites 75 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Farm Frites 76 Anthony Langella (Fra) Credit Agricole 77 Frederic Finot (Fra) Credit Agricole 78 Thierry Bourguignon (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 79 Luke Roberts (Aus) United Water - AIS 80 Innar Mandoja (Est) Ag2R - Prevoyance 81 Laurent Estadieu (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 6.15 82 Gerben Loewik (Ned) Farm Frites 12.30 83 Cadel Evans (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi DNF 84 Corey Sweet (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi DNF 85 Brett Aitken (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi DNF 86 Jesper Skibby (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones DNF 87 Graham Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS DNF 88 Michael Rogers (Aus) United Water - AIS DNF 1st TAB Sprint (Lap 8) - 38.4 km 1 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 6 pts 2 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 4 3 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 2 2nd TAB Sprint (Lap 12) - 57.6 km 1 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 6 pts 2 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 4 3 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 2 1st Motrex KOM (Lap 10) - 48 km 1 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 16 pts 2 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 12 3 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 8 4 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 4 5 Rassano Brasi (Ita) Polti 2 2nd Motrex KOM (Lap 15) - 72 km 1 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 16 pts 2 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 12 3 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 8 4 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 4 5 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Farm Frites 2 Century 21 Most aggressive rider: Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia Final general classification: 1 Gilles Maignan (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 19.02.02 2 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 00.12 3 Steffen Wesemann (Ger) Telekom 0.14 4 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 0.18 5 Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 0.24 6 Dominique Rault (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 0.25 7 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom 0.28 8 Mathew Stephens (GBr) Linda McCartney 4.11 9 Rene Jorgensen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 5.46 10 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 10.58 11 Franck Pencole (Fra) Credit Agricole 17.19 12 Christopher Jenner (NZ) Credit Agricole 21.46 13 Pascal Herve (Fra) Polti 26.40 14 Brad Davidson (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 26.44 15 Joeg Ludewig (Ger) Saeco - Gaggia 28.03 16 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Farm Frites 31.37 17 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Polti 34.35 18 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 37.12 19 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 37.13 20 Scott Sunderland (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 37.24 21 Maurizio De Pascale (Ita) Linda McCartney 22 Allan Johansen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 23 Philippe Bordenave (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 37.39 24 Jamie Drew (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 38.50 25 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Saeco - Gaggia 26 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom 39.04 27 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Farm Frites 39.49 28 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 40.21 29 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 42.22 30 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 42.27 31 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Farm Frites 43.17 32 Allan Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 43.29 33 Nic Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS 43.34 34 Jacob Moe Rasmussen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 46.39 35 Ben Brooks (Aus) Linda McCartney 46.54 36 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Big Mat-Auber93 47.39 37 Bart Voskamp (Ned) Polti 48.12 38 Bradley McGee (Aus) Francaise Des Jeux 48.14 39 Andre Kivilev (Kaz) Ag2R - Prevoyance 40 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 48.46 41 Marcel Gono (Aus) Credit Agricole 50.14 42 Tortsen Nitsche (Ger) Saeco - Gaggia 50.36 43 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Telekom 50.36 44 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 52.34 45 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Credit Agricole 53.27 46 Mikael Kyneb (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 54.44 47 Alexandre Chouffe (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 57.25 48 Yvon Ledanois (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 1.00.52 49 Jan Schaffrath (Ger) Telekom 50 Tristan Hoffman (Ned) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 1.02.29 51 Tayeb Braikia (Den) Linda McCartney 1.02.31 52 David McKenzie (Aus) Linda McCartney 1.02.32 53 Pascal Richard (Swi) Linda McCartney 54 Bjornar Vestol (Nor) Linda McCartney 55 Kai Hundertmarck (Ger) Telekom 56 Maximilian Sciandri (GBr) Linda McCartney 57 Stephane Berges (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 1.02.37 58 Andrei Mizourov (Kaz) Telekom 1.02.41 59 Steven Kleynen (Bel) Farm Frites 60 Cyril Saugrain (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 1.03.24 61 Martin Van Steen (Ned) Farm Frites 1.04.32 62 Anthony Langella (Fra) Credit Agricole 63 Innar Mandoja (Est) Ag2R - Prevoyance 64 Baden Cooke (Aus) United Water - AIS 1.06.40 65 Bjarke Nielsen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 66 Thierry Bourguignon (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 1.08.40 67 Rassano Brasi (Ita) Polti 1.08.52 68 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R - Prevoyance 1.11.45 69 Gian Matteo Fagnini (Ita) Telekom 70 Nick Gates (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 71 Laurent Estadieu (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 1.12.54 72 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 1.13.49 73 Jerome Neuville (Fra) Credit Agricole 74 Michele Colleoni (Ita) Polti 75 Scott Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 76 Frederic Finot (Fra) Credit Agricole 1.13.49 77 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 1.16.30 78 Gerben Loewik (Ned) Farm Frites 1.19.09 79 Mirko Crepaldi (Ita) Polti 1.20.44 80 Jay Sweet (Aus) Big Mat-Auber93 81 Luke Roberts (Aus) United Water - AIS 82 Brett Lancaster (Aus) United Water - AIS 1.36.24 83 Michael Rogers (Aus) United Water - AIS DNF 84 Cadel Evans (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi DNF 85 Jesper Skibby (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones DNF 86 Corey Sweet (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi DNF 87 Brett Aitken (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi DNF 88 Graham Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS DNF Final under 23 classification: 1 Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 19.02.51 2 Brad Davidson (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 26.20 3 Allan Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 43.05 4 Nic Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS 43.10 5 Ben Brooks (Aus) Linda McCartney 46.30 6 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 48.22 7 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 52.10 8 Innar Mandoja (Est) Ag2R - Prevoyance 1.04.08 9 Baden Cooke (Aus) United Water - AIS 1.06.16 10 Scott Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 1.13.25 11 Brett Lancaster (Aus) United Water - AIS 1.36.00 12 Michael Rogers (Aus) United Water - AIS DNF 13 Graham Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS DNF 14 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux DNF Final TAB Sprint king: 1 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 22 pts 2 Stephane Berges (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 20 3 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 16 4 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom 14 5 Rene Jorgensen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 14 6 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 10 7 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Farm Frites 10 8 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Farm Frites 8 9 Steffen Wesemann (Ger) Telekom 8 10 Scott Sunderland (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 6 11 Tristan Hoffman (Ned) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 6 12 Allan Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 6 13 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R - Prevoyance 6 14 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 6 15 Pascal Herve (Fra) Polti 6 16 Bradley McGee (Aus) Francaise Des Jeux 6 17 Jacob Moe Rasmussen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 4 18 Gilles Maignan (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 4 19 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 4 20 Bart Voskamp (Ned) Polti 4 21 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 4 22 Joeg Ludewig (Ger) Saeco - Gaggia 4 23 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 4 24 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 4 25 Nic Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS 4 26 Jay Sweet (Aus) Big Mat-Auber93 4 27 Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 2 28 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 2 29 Tayeb Braikia (Den) Linda McCartney 2 30 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Credit Agricole 2 31 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Saeco - Gaggia 2 Final Motrex King of the Mountains: 1 Rene Jorgensen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 38 pts 2 Stephane Berges (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 32 3 Dominique Rault (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 32 4 Mateos Perez (Spa) Polti 32 5 Guillaume Auger (Fra) Big Mat-Auber93 28 6 Alessandro Guerra (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 22 7 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom 20 8 Sean Sullivan (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 20 9 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom 16 10 Allan Johansen (Den) Memory Card-Jack & Jones 16 11 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Farm Frites 16 12 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Saeco - Gaggia 16 13 Luke Roberts (Aus) United Water - AIS 16 14 Pascal Herve (Fra) Polti 14 15 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 12 16 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 12 17 Joeg Ludewig (Ger) Saeco - Gaggia 12 18 Andre Kivilev (Kaz) Ag2R - Prevoyance 12 19 Nic Brown (Aus) United Water - AIS 12 20 Gilles Maignan (Fra) Ag2R - Prevoyance 8 21 Scott Sunderland (Aus) Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 8 22 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Farm Frites 8 23 Christopher Jenner (NZ) Credit Agricole 6 24 Allan Davis (Aus) United Water - AIS 6 25 Steffen Wesemann (Ger) Telekom 4 26 Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 4 27 Franck Pencole (Fra) Credit Agricole 4 28 Rassano Brasi (Ita) Polti 4 Final teams classification: 1 Ag2R - Prevoyance 77.36.06 2 Credit Agricole 3.21 3 Team Deutsche Telekom 4.20 4 La Francaise Des Jeux 15.44 5 Big Mat - Auber93 56.35 6 Memory Card - Jack & Jones 58.25 7 Saeco - Gaggia 1.00.21 8 Polti 1.03.38 9 Team Linda Mccartney 1.04.43 10 Sunsmart - Mitsubishi 1.09.16 11 Farm Frites 1.31.13 12 United Water - AIS 2.21.19 |