Armée and Vanendert involved in a crash

After the People’s Choice Classic as a warm up the season has really begun with the first stage at the Tour de San Luis and Tour Down Under. Unfortunately there was a crash of about thirty riders in Argentina in which Lotto Belisol riders Sander Armée and Jelle Vanendert were involved. Armée only lost time, he doesn’t have any physical complaints. Jelle Vanendert has a sore elbow. Tests in hospital didn’t show any fractures. The final decision if he will continue the race will be taken just before the start of stage two, that is at 17:45 CET. The victory in Argentina was for escapee Philip Gaimon. Kenny Dehaes became second in the group sprint behind the seven escapees, that way he was ninth in the stage classification.

In Australia the riders had a flat first part of the stage, with a feisty climb with top at 11,6 km from the finish. The peloton got split in half but Lotto Belisol was strongly represented with six riders in a group of over sixty riders. On the sloping finish André Greipel got second behind Australian champion Simon Gerrans. Adam Hansen arrived first at the top of Merglers Hill in the final and so he is the first leader in the mountain classification.