Team RadioShack officially started racing today in Adelaide at the Tour Down Under with Lance Armstrong making a statement, with a powerful ride where he joined a group of five that led the race for 10 laps and only chased down with three laps to go.
The Team began the day with a short spin around Adelaide and a pre race meeting, Johan Bruyneel later tweeted “to say the boys are super motivated is an understatement”. Then came the Armstrong tweet complete with an image of how he had just pinned on his first race number for 2010.
Team RadioShack were introduced to the crowd before the race got underway at a cracking pace, they worked the early part of the race as a tight group before Lance Armstrong exploded off the front of the peloton to join Oscar Pereiro in the breakaway that held the relaxed bunch for around 10 laps of the 1.7 k circuit.
In a pre race press conference Armstrong said he wouldn’t be looking to lead today, but would be near the safety of the rear of the peloton. But the Texan wasn’t true to his word later saying “sometimes it’s better to be up on those small groups than to be back fighting with 100 guys for every wheel and every corner”
The 100,000 strong crowd gathered around Rymill Park cheered on the Texan as he powered around the tight circuit.
“I felt like I tested them a little bit, I felt better than last year and certainly more comfortable in the race. “We had a few good weeks in Hawaii so I know I’ve got a bit of power, but It’s harder up there, but a little safer” “It ended up being tough – I want to go back and look at the effort on the computer, it was a tough half hour (in the lead group) but you need a lot of gap (to win), the last two laps they go 25 per cent faster”
The race was closed down with two laps to go when Columbia HTC and Team Sky took control and deliver Greg Henderson, Chris Sutton (Sky) and Andre Greipel (Columbia HTC) to the line 1, 2 & 3.
Team RadioShack completed the race with five riders Daryl Impey, Tomas Vaitkus, Gert Steegmansm and Sebastien Rosseler in the first group of 30 with Yaroslav Popovtch, Lance Armstrong and Jason McCartney close behind.
By Chris Cameron, staff writer
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Wow! Talk about turning the cranks early on. You guys were flying out there. Nice break while it lasted.
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great effort …it sets the tone for the season…go hard or go home!!
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The Boss was making a statement: look out!
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Drop the hammer on ‘em Lance!!
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