Cycling - Tour down under

[ogii55]

Here we comes at the new cycling season. It will be opened with the Sprinters bounty at Tour of Australia, which starts from 18th January Six Stages are coming, all about them, including start lists, profiles, stages descriptions here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/santos-tour-down-under-upt-1 History of the race in the last few years here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_down_under There will be some very interesting battles among the best sprinters in the world including Cavendish, Farrar, Greipel, Robbie Mcewen, Graeam Brown, Allan Davis... It's maybe the strongest field in the last ten years. I have two ideas here for Overal winner. Simon Gerrans Blue Square 41.00 Former 2006 winner here. Managed to use some of the hilly stages to get some seconds margin against the sprinters. Now the stages are almost the same, including the first one to Angaston, that was won by him in 2006 and bring him the final victory. Gerrans made very strong season in 2008 and 2009, winning stages at Tour and Giro. He broke his arm in 2010 Tour and missed almost entire season until the end, participating in Vuelta, where rode for just 6-7 stages. 30-years old Australian is in very capable team here, that would help him a lot, including former winner Michael Rogers and capable sprinters as Matthew Hayman,Greg Henderson, Chris Sutton and Ben Swift, adding also Geraint Tomas. He may be able to capitalize on the pure sprinters battle if he managed to get some margin on the first or fifth stage (which also includes some very hilly sections) Gerald Ciolek 101 Blue Square The young German is mentioned as a replacement for long time top sprinter of the team Tom Boonen. He will make his debt at Tour down Under and is on a team with typical sprinter as Italian Francesco Chicci. Ciolek is a very strong time trialist and showed some nice qualities on small climbs. Capable to fight for points in the sprints finishers and will be far fresher then Greipel and Cav on some of the tougher stages. I am sure he will probably attack in the fifth stage in order to cut the best sprinters. Has common style as world champ Thor Hushovd, who won his title few months back here in Australia in common profile as the fifth Stage.

[ogii55]

Re: Cycling - Tour down under Stage 2 Head 2 Head Baden Cooke - Inaki Isasi 2.30 bet24.com Cooke is Australian and knows perfectly the stages here. He has some wins and a lot of nice placing in recent years. Finished 12-th in 1st stage, while Isasi was 8-th. Baden is far better sprinter then Spaniard if we look at his career results. He is a place contender in every stage, while it's tough to belive that Isasi may finish in Top 3 with such big bunch of classy sprinters!