The longest stage of the Tour Down Under has seen victory to Sky rider Ben Swift, ahead of Australians Robbie McEwen and Graeme Brown. But McEwen's third placing in stage one means he is now in the Ochre jersey as overall race leader.
Swift said after the race he was not meant to be sprinting until 500 metres to go but when main team rider Greg Henderson was not there for the lead-out, he got the order to go.
The day's first sprint stage went to David Tanner, ahead of Yuriy Krivstov and Mitchell Docker.
Docker, Krivstov and Tanner went over first for the King of the Mountain (KOM) climb, and Luke Roberts picked up valuable points for fourth to lead the KOM standings overall.
The second sprint was taken out by Simon Zahner, ahead of Docker and Tanner.
A five-rider breakaway group had a small lead with about 50 kilometres to go, but four fell back into the peloton to leave Tim Roe alone at the front.
He was hauled in just a few kilometres from the end of the 146km stage from Tailem Bend to Mannum.
Sprint star Mark Cavendish, Australian Matthew Goss and several other cyclists were involved in crashes in the final minutes of the stage.
So was defending champion Andre Greipel but he got back on his bike.
Uni SA rider Bernard Sulzberger suffered a broken collarbone.
Thursday's stage three covers 129 kilometres from the Adelaide suburb of Unley to Stirling in the Adelaide Hills.
Source http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/01/19/3116681.htm
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