No big surprises were expected during today’s 150 kilometer long second stage of Tour Down Under as the course seemed like a delicious treat for the big sprinters. The slightly undulating route brought the peloton from Prospect to Stirling around Adelaide in the Southern part of Australia.
Orica-GreenEdge took control of the pace making in front of the pack to protect the overall lead. But in the furious bunch sprint, Diego Ulissi (Lampre) threw his bike ahead of Gerrans and took the stage win while Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rory Sutherland climbed to 15th overall.
Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) still leads the race.
“As a team, we took the lead of the bunch with 15 kilometers to go in order to keep our leader our of trouble. And it was really nice to see the yellow front line front of the pack and Rory finished the stage with the group on that small uphill finish. It was a demonstration of dedicated team work,” says DS, Fabrizio Guidi after the stage.