Cyclingflash
Tobias Lund Andresen stays ahead of Matthew Brennan in Tour Down Under stage one

Tobias Lund Andresen stays ahead of Matthew Brennan in Tour Down Under stage one

Tobias Lund Andresen immediately made his mark for his new team Decathlon CMA CGM. The Dane stayed ahead of Matthew Brennan and Sam Welsford in the first stage of the Tour Down Under and is also the new race leader.

A day after the prologue won by Samuel Watson, the Tour Down Under continued with a sprint stage in and around Tanunda. Along the way, the Mengler Hill climb appeared three times (2.1 kilometers at 3.5%), but it was not expected that this climb would create differences.

Three riders formed the early break in the short 120-kilometer stage on Wednesday. Enzo Paleni was seen up front for a long time along with Guillaume Martin and Martin Urianstad, but apart from collecting mountain points and intermediate sprint points, the trio had little chance of winning the day. Paleni did manage to hold on until six kilometers before the finish.

With teams like Ineos Grenadiers (Welsford), Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe (Danny van Poppel), Visma | Lease a Bike (Brennan), and Decathlon CMA CGM (Lund Andresen), there was going to be a sprint in Tanunda. In the finish town, the Dane Lund Andresen received the perfect lead-out from his team, after which he was able to throw his wheel over the line first.

Brennan and Welsford came close to the Dane in the final meters but had to settle for second and third place. Top-10 finishes were also secured by Van Poppel (4th) and Casper van Uden (8th).