Bobridge wins Tour Down Under opening stage

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Jack Bobridge (UniSA) took the first win of the 2015 Santos Tour Down Under Tuesday in Campbelltown after surviving in a four-rider breakaway that just held off the charging peloton.

Bobridge timed his move perfectly, jumping in the final 200 meters and holding off day-long breakaway mates Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) and Maxim Belkov (Katusha). Niccolò Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida) won the field sprint for fifth.

"I’ve always been aggressive...but to take out the first stage and wear the leader’s jersey tomorrow - I’m speechless," Bobridge said after the win. "To be honest, coming through Williamstown half way was, I think it was down to 30 seconds or 40 seconds and we thought, all the guys had pretty much given up out there. Again it's always games you know, breakaway vs bunch. All day a game. We planned it perfect. We kept our cool when they were playing games with us and then we played the big game at the end and stayed away."

As it happened

A four-rider breakaway that escaped in the opening kilometres animated the day's racing. With no neutral start to the 133km stage from Tanunda to Campbelltown, the attacks started from the opening gun until Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge), Westra (Astana) and Belkov (Katusha) peeled off the front just a few kilometres into the race. The leaders were quickly joined by Bobridge (UniSA) to form the group of four that would be off the front most of the day.

The quartet pressed the pace early and opened a gap of one minute less than 10km into the race. The advantage had ballooned to 2:30 just 5km later before Team Sky and Giant-Alpecin decided the peloton had given the escapees enough leash, going to the front and limiting the advantage there. With 50km remaining the gap was down to 2:05 as BMC threw several riders into the chase.

By the team the leaders reached the second sprint of the day 60.4km into the race the chase had pulled the gap down to 1:45, and the advantage continued to shrink from there. The gap hovered at just about a minute before it shrunk to 35 seconds as the breakaway approached the day's only KOM on Checker Hill 104.1km into the race.

With the breakaway in sight, the peloton stretched across the road and eased back, but the riders at the front punched it one more time up the hill and opened the gap back up to more than minute. Bobridge took the honours over the climb, but as the leaders crested Checker Hill their gap had shrunk once again to 30 seconds.

The bunch as mostly intact over the top of the climb, and the sprinters' teams started to think about the 29km mostly downhill run to the finale in Campbelltown. The descent off the climb hit 100km/h as the four leaders pressed their chances to stay away, but the speed in the bunch behind continued to eat into their advantage.

With just 10km remaining, the escapees still had a 25 second gap on the chase, which seemed to lack a single team willing to take control. Etixx-QuickStep lined out on the front, but the gap grew to 40 seconds with 5km remaining. Giant-Alpecin moved forward, but Marcel Kittel's Dutch squad left it too late.

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