January 17/06 9:33 am - Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under Prologue

Posted by Editor on 01/17/06
 

Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under - Australia
Report courtesy organizer

An estimated 70,000 fans turned out on a glorious summer's night in the East End of Adelaide to cheer on a world class field in the inaugural Jacob's Creek Down Under Classic and were treated to a spectacular sprint finish won by Davitamon-Lotto's Robbie McEwen.

McEwen held off a fast-finishing Allan Davis to take the victory ahead of Italian riders Daniele Colli (Liquigas) and Simone Cadamuro (Milram).

"It was the Italian from Milram ,Cadamuro, who's a very fast guy who took over the lead from the Credit Agricole boys," said McEwen. "You saw (Thor) Hushovd pulling the sprint from Mark Renshaw and I was in a bit of a battle with Allan Davis for the wheel of Cadamuro because we could see that was the place to be.

"I was able to out manoeuvre Alby (Davis) to get on the wheel then I waited for the moment and down the finish straight, slightly downhill, no wind, you just get up to enormous speeds down there," he said. "I had a look behind and no-one caught my slipstream and I could just enjoy those last 25 metres."

McEwen stayed hidden in the peloton for most of the race appearing at the decisive moment to stamp his authority when it counted.

Credit Agricole's gun sprinting squad looked like the team to beat going into the final lap with Julian Dean and Thor Hushovd working hard for in-form Australian Mark Renshaw to make a run for the finale, but McEwen put paid to that. After strong leadout work from his Liberty Seguros teammates, Allan Davis also challenged McEwen but the master sprinter played it perfectly.

"I think I've won four of the last five [races in Adelaide] - I love this little circuit, it's a great start to the week here in Adelaide," he said. "Now I can just move on from tonight - this is a separate race, and I've won my first one-day race of the season, so I'm going to move on and try and win stages of the Tour Down Under."

Prologue - Adelaide Criterium 50km

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 1:01:06
2 Daniele Colli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
3 Simone Cadamuro (Ita) Milram
4 Dimitri De Fauw (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-T Interim
5 Allan Davis (Aus) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team
6 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Credit Agricole
7 Luca Paolini (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
8 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
9 Matthew Goss (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS
10 Alexandre Usov (Blr) Ag2r Prevoyance all s.t.

Note: field not placed (after top-20) and all given same time.