Santos Tour Down Under 2015 – People’s Choice Classic Preview

By David Hunter

Let’s get the party started!

We start with a 51km dash around the streets of Adelaide. 30 laps of the 1.7km circuit and watch as the pace increases every time around the circuit. It’s sad to say it, but this year we don’t have Andre Greipel. Mr TDU is staying in Europe and won’t add to his 16 stage wins and 3 wins in this criterium. This opens the door to some other riders.

It doesn’t actually open too far though as Marcel Kittel is here. The fastest sprinter in the world returns to Australia and is looking for some good training and the odd win. This race is perfect for him, winning it in 2014. Last year, he positioned himself poorly but managed to have the power to make up for his mistake. No one else would have beaten Greipel from that position.

In 2014, Giant and Lotto had a battle to control this race. Don’t expect the same battle. Without Greipel, Lotto don’t have the same sense of purpose and the will to boss the whole race. They do have the brilliant Greg Henderson, a criterium expert who won here in 2010, but they don’t arrive with any sort of sprint train.

Is there any competition for the German giant?

First up is CJ Sutton of Team Sky. It’s been a long time since a good performance from Suttton but he does love this race. His positioning skills are very good and in Geraint Thomas, he has a rider that can deliver him to the head of the race. Due to his other strengths, people often forget that Thomas is an outstanding lead-out man.

Another Aussie who’ll fancy his chances is Mark Renshaw. He couldn’t get near to Kittel in the Tour de France, but Rens is a very clever sprinter and will relish the chance to try and outmuscle the big man.

Lampre arrive with 2 options: Ferrari and Bonifazio. This is Ferrari’s 3rd consecutive Classic and he hasn’t been close yet. A lack of teammates leaves him hanging around 10th position and he misses out on the action. Bonifazio is a rising star of the Italian team. He ended the season in great form, winning 3 stages in the Tour of Hainan. It will be interesting to see which rider gets the nod.

Australian team, Drapac, have their own fast man in Wouter Wippert. He also won a stage in the Tour of Hainan and now has one of the best lead-out men, Graeme Brown. Now 35 years old, Brown still has plenty of miles left in the legs. Wippert needs to be brave and just follow the wheel of Brown. If he does that, he’ll end up in a good position for the final kilometre.

Steele Von Hoff is another Aussie with a chance. After being discarded by Garmin, he rides for UniSA-Australia, before returning to the UK to ride with NFTO. He retained his national criterium title and he’s in fine form. A podium spot is well within the reach of Von Hoff.

Trek Factory Racing have the speed of Giacomo Nizzolo. Often the nearly man, I’m looking forward to seeing how he operates with new signing, Marco Coledan. The Italian is a good lead-out man, capable of reaching high speed in the finale of races. Nizzolo should be looking forward to this race.

Movistar arrive with JJ Lobato. The Spaniard favours hard sprints, so I can’t see him getting involved. The same goes for Samuel Dumoulin of AG2R.

Prediction Time

Team Giant – Alpecin will dominate the end of the race and set Kittel up for an easy win.

David Hunter

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