Henderson helps Greipel to more glory

Henderson delivered Greipel into position for success today ©Ben Christian

Jan 19th, 11. Greg Henderson was an integral part in Andre Greipel's sprint win at Stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under from Unley to Victor Harbour today.

The Lotto Belisol team had plenty to celebrate - Greipel earned his second win of the tour and took back the leader's Ochre jersey which was taken from him yesterday by Martin Kohler (BMC).

The victory was Greipel's third success in Adelaide this week. He also won the criterium warmup race to this tour, when Henderson was his last lead out man.

Although today's leadout was not text book perfect, it had the perfect result.

In the technical run to the finish, Henderson and Greipel lost contact with each other just as Team Sky took control of the head of the race with 2km left to ride.

Through great teamwork, Lotto Belisol pulled themselves back into the mix.

Adam Hansen brought Greipel back to Henderson who then adjusted his tactics and used his powerful sprint strength to pull his leader up from 20th position.

The Kiwi dropped the German off on Edvald Boasson Hagen's wheel at the back of the Team Sky train with 1km to go.

Henderson's former teammates had a solid leadout, but Greipel had a burst of speed which saw him overtake Boasson Hagen and take another sprint win!

"Great ride guys, proud to be a part of it," Henderson twittered post race.

Greipel does it again ©Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

The win puts Greipel back into the ochre leader's jersey with an 8sec margin over rider Kohler.

Michael Matthews (Rabobank) finished with the bunch and remains in third place overall at 12 seconds

"I'm happy to get back into the lead but the time bonus (10sec for the stage win) I got again isn't important in my mind," said Greipel who has twice won overall honours but concedes he is unlikely to win a third.

"The Willunga stage (Saturday) is too hard for me to win GC this year. With two stage wins, we've already reached our goal. We can't have everything and we just take it day by day."

At the start line today, Henderson was not with his teammates when RoadCycling.co.nz went past. After crashing twice during Stage 1 and suffering for it in yesterday's stage, we checked with his team whether he would be racing. 

His team manager confirmed he would be starting, but said he was definitely sore. Obviously Henderson put that behind him at the end of the race when it mattered most!

How the stage panned out

A group of three went down the road in the first 5km made up of Russian Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and Belgians Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) and Thomas De Gendt (Vaconsoleil-DCM). They were soon joined by Ireland's Matthew Brammeier (Omega Pharma - Quickstep).

The break stretched to a lead of around 5min but the peloton, after failing to catch Clarke yesterday, judged today's chase to perfection.

The two Jayco intermediate sprints were hotly contested by the top three placed riders with a maximum of six bonus seconds up for grabs and all within 12 seconds of the race lead. De Gendt proved the swiftest of the trio battling for the points and won the dash for the line at both Mt Compass (65km) and Goolwa (89.4km). By then the margin had shrunk to less than 2min.

After the sprint at Goolwa, Brammeier tried a solo attack off the front as the peloton reeled in his there fellow escapees and although he held on for a few more kilometres it wasn't too be his day for victory.

Results

1. Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol)
2. Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ)
3. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky)

• full results ...

Thanks to ABC Adelaide 891 radio station, the race commentary can be followed live here in New Zealand.

Huge crowds salute Andre Greipel ©Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo