He didn’t win the Tour Down Under or accomplish the stated goal set by team leader Lance Armstrong, but Gert Steegmans put in a solid effort in his debut with Team RadioShack in Adelaide.
Stage 1 proved to be the closest Gert Steegmans would get to a stage win, coming within a bike length of beating eventual TDU winner Andrei Greipel. In the end, however, HTC-Columbia’s experience at sprint lead-outs proved to be too much for Steegmans and Team RadioShack.
HTC-Columbia is based around winning sprints, primarily with Mark Cavendish. However, anyone on Cavendish’s train–such as Greipel–is capable of taking a stage win when their man is not in the race. RadioShack, on the other hand, is built for one-day classics and grand tour victories. To come in second place on the first sprinting stage of the year says a lot about the determination of the new American team.
The closest Steegmans would get to another stage win was Stage 4, where he took fourth place. At that point, Gert was fourth overall, 24 seconds behind Greipel. His spot in the overall top five wouldn’t last another day, though, as stage 5 took the riders over Willunga Hill. Traversing over the hill twice would expose Steegmans’ lack of racing legs and push him out of the top ten for good. He crossed the line in 68th place, over two minutes behind the stage winners and Greipel.
The final stage was a 20-lap circuit in the city of Adeleide, and the last chance for Team RadioShack to grab a victory. But another team making their cycling debut, English Team Sky, took first and second on the stage. Steegmans finished ninth and ended up 36th on the final General Classification.
Greipel seemed to be most people’s pick to win the overall–including myself–but I thought Gert Steegmans would get at least one stage win and end up in the top five overall. Because of that, I would say the Tour Down Under was a bit of a disappointment for Team RadioShack. On the positive side, the second place in stage 1, and the cohesiveness of the team throughout the race, showed promise of good things to come. The team’s training camp starts next week in Spain. Perhaps they will spend a little time practicing lead-outs for Steegmans?
Gert Steegmans TDU 2010 results:
Stage 1: 2nd
Stage 2: 30th
Stage 3: 22nd
Stage 4: 4th
Stage 5: 68th
Stage 6: 9th
Overall: 36th (2:36 behind)
By David Mullin, staff writer
Since this site is new, I was wondering a bit about the author of this article. Are you paid for by teamshack? Is the website independent? Who has influence on the writing? Radio Shack? Lance? Etc? Will articles have independence or will they represent the interests of the team?
Based on this article I would guess that you have some independence. You didn’t pull many punches here but didn’t go for the kill either. That might make for some difficult times with the team. I hope not. I like the honesty.
My only beef is the line “However, anyone on Cavendish’s train–such as Greipel–is capable of taking a stage win when their man is not in the race.” Anyone? Really?
Keep up the good work.
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Hi David, thank you for reading. The site is 100% independent, and because it is a Team Radioshack fan site the content will represent the interest of the team. This does not mean that we will not write something more critical if that is what the authors feel like expressing. We are not being paid by anyone, nor does anyone from the official team have a say on what we write.
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