Blog - UCI ProTour

André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) wins the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010, Chris Sutton (Team Sky) the last stage

Without too much surprise the German sprinter of the HTC-Columbia team, André Greipel, has won the 2010 Tour Down Under today. After his 3 stage victories he thus took his second overall victory of the Tour Down Under, after the 2008 edition of the Tour Down Under.

Today's stage took place on a 4.5 kilometer circuit for a total distance of 90 km and has been won by Chris Sutton of Team Sky.

A summary of the stage on the Adelaide City Council Street Circuit

Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) shows big forces for his stage win at the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010

Today's stage was the queen stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010 with two climbs of Willunga Hill.
The Australian World Champion, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), ticked this stage to show his rainbow jersey to his public. Unfortunately for him he was finally not the strongest: the Spanish rider Luis Léon Sanchez of the Caisse d'Epargne team showed how strong he was to win this stage ahead of Luke Roberts (Team Milram) and Sanchez' team mate, Alejandro Valverde. Evans finally finished 4th and consoled with the prize of most aggressive rider in this stage; Sanchez makes a big jump in the general classification.

The summary of the stage Snapper Point > Willunga

André Greipel's third stage win in the 4th stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under (Norwood-Goolwa)

For the third time we saw a bunch sprint at the finish of today's Tour Down Under stage and for the third time it was the German sprinter, always in top form at the start of the season, André Greipel of the HTC-Columbia team who won it. He and his team show some very good performances under the South-Australian sun!

The summary of the stage Norwood > Goolwa

Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) surprises everyone by winning the third stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under

Today's stage was on a more hilly route and the temperatures weren't helping the riders to sit down and relax either.

Many attacks marked today's stage and in the end, for a chance, it was not a bunch sprint but a sole attack at 200 meters from the finish which saw Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) win the stage. Only the King of the Mountains jersey changed shoulders after this stage.

With even warmer temperatures than before (up to 40°C!) the riders went from Unley to Stirling today over 132.5 km. When they first crossed the finish line in Stirling they just did the first part of the loop which started at Mylor and continued through Aldgate and Stirling back to Mylor via Heathfield and Bradbury. They did this loop twice (the first from Mylor to Stirling three times) before finishing uphill at the Stirling Oval.

Since Pieter Weening (Rabobank) didn't start today, a field of 131 riders started in Unley. Numerous attacks at the start of the stage were all neutralised ...

André Greipel takes a two in row by winning the second stage of the 2010 Tour Down Under 2010 (Gawler - Hahndorf)

Second bunch sprint, second stage victory for André Greipel (HTC-Columbia). Could he be working towards a performance similar to what he did in the Tour Down Under 2008? That year he won 4 stages after having won the Down Under Classic just before.

A summary of the stage Gawler > Hahndorf

First stage 2010 Tour Down Under (Clare - Tanunda): André Greipel sprints to victory

After having run in Team Sky's trap last Sunday during the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, the HTC-Columbia train could correctly do its work today to put André Greipel in a perfect position for the stage win and thus the first leaders jersey of this Tour Down Under 2010!

A summary of the stage

Santos Tour Down Under 2010: list of participants / start list with their numbers and a few short movies

On paris.thover.com you have already discovered the 2010 Santos Tour Down Under route on Google Maps / Google Earth. In only a few hours from now the criterium which announces the upcoming start of the Tour Down Under, the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, will take place on a closed circuit of 1,7 kilometers around Rymill Park in Adelaide.

From Tuesday the first race of the UCI ProTour 2010 will take place in South-Australia.

In this article you can discover the start list for the Tour Down Under 2010 including the numbers of the participants*. At the end of the article you can also discover some short videos about the Tour Down Under! ...

The Santos Tour Down Under 2010 route on Google Maps & Google Earth

From 17 till 24 January 2010 the 12th Tour Down Under will take place in South Australia under the name Santos Tour Down Under.
In this article you can find the details of the 6 stages and of the Down Under Classic (Cancer Council Helpline Classic). You also find the route of the 794,5 kilometers of this Tour Down Under 2010 on Google Maps -exclusively on paris.thover.com- with the possibility to download all stages in a KML file to open it in Google Earth, so you can discover the area where this first race of the UCI ProTour 2010 will take place. It even allows you to do a virtual fly-over of the stages in Google Earth. For the very first time you can also find the profiles of all stages based on the routes I've drawn in Google Maps.

In another article you can find the list of participating riders for the Tour Down Und ...

The UCI ProTour teams in 2010

In September I announced here that Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis will no longer be part of the ProTour in 2010. In the same article you could also discover two new Canadian races which are now part of the ProTour calendar. Several teams were still waiting the final decision on their UCI ProTour license.

This week the UCI finally published the list of the 17 teams which will be part of the UCI ProTour in 2010.

In addition the renewal of expiring UCI ProTour licenses and the attribution of new licenses the UCI analyses the registration of each of the UCI ProTour teams every year. The UCI checks for each team whether it meets the rules, especially from an administration and finance point of view.

The 17 UCI ProTour teams in 2010

Bbox Bouygues Telecom & Cofidis no longer in the UCI ProTour

The UCI ProTour licences for the cycling teams and races are to be renewed regularly. When a licence expires it's sometimes renewed, new licences are rewarded and some requests for renewal are refused ...

The last decision published by the UCI indicates that the Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis, le crédit en ligne teams will no longer be part of the UCI ProTour in 2010.

The teams