Andre Greipel continues his winning ways in Adelaide, Australia, taking the second stage of the Tour Down Under.

The stage started with Stirling Yoann Offredo (Francaise des Jeux) quickly pulling away from the peloton, securing a 1 minute gap in the opening kilometres.

He stretched out the lead to over 2 minutes in no time at all, but fellow Frenchmen Nicolas Crosbie (Bouygues Telecom) and Stephane Poulhies (Ag2r-La Mondiale) gave chase. By the 18th kilometer, Offredo lead by over a 6 minute margin, but his chasers were only a little over a minute behind.

As the day’s first sprint points fast approaching, Crosbie and Poulhies closed the gap down to just 200 metres before finally catching Offredo. Offredo held them long enough to win the sprint, however.

The three riders managed to hold onto their lead as the race headed toward the day’s only King of the Mountain climb. This time, it was Poulhies who made it across the line first, ahead of Offredo and Crosbie.

On the back side of the mountain, the peloton managed to make up a minute on the break group, but this didn’t last for long. The break regained their 5 minute gap heading into the second sprint points of the day, which were won by Crosbie.

The race concluded in a circuit format, and it was there that the peloton ramped up their pace, eating up 2 minutes of the break’s lead over 20 kilometers. The blistering speeds continued and the escapees were caught with 28 km to go.

Javier Aramendia Lorenti (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jeremy Roy (Francaise des Jeux) and Kasper Klostergaard Larsen (Team CSC) tried to break away, but the peloton would have no part of that, so Dmytro Grabovskyy (Quick Step) and Bernhard Eisel (Team High Road) pushed the peloton up to a pace that would see the attack naturalized.

On the final lap, France’s Pierre Rolland (Credit Agricole) launched an ill-fated attempt at victory on the final lap. As the peloton entered the long finishing straight, Rolland’s attack was overrun as the peloton’s top sprinters massed for the run the finish line.

The furious sprint saw several riders burn out early leaving one man, Sunday night’s Down Under Classic winner Andre Gripel (Team High Road) in the lead, claiming his first ProTour stage victory. Graeme Brown settled for second place and the leader’s jersey, while Allan Davis (Unisa - Australia) took third for the second day.

Results 

1. Andre Greipel (Ger) Team High Road                                3.46.55

2. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank                                                  

3. Allan Davis (Aus) Unisa - Australia

General Classification: 

1. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank                                       7.00.18

2. Mark Renshaw (Aus) Credit Agricole

3. Andre Greipel (Ger) Team High Road

4. Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse D'Epargne                       0.04

5. Mickael Buffaz (Fra) Cofidis Le Credit Par Telephone

6. Yoann Offredo (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux                              0.05

7. Allan Davis (Aus) Unisa - Australia                                 0.06

8. Dimitri Champion (Fra) Bouygues Telecom

9. Richie Porte (Aus) Unisa - Australia                                0.08

10. Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Team Csc                                       0.10