The Tour Down Under is Under Way!!

And with that, so is the 2009 Professional Road Cycling Season!!

Robbie "The Rocket" McKewen started the season out with a win in the '09 Cancer Classic. The Cancer Classic is kind of like the prologue to a Grand Tour, except is does not count in the final time or final general Classification (GC). It is more to 'place' riders for the official start, stage 1 of the Tour Down Under. With the win today (or tomorrow if you're an Aussie), McKewen will ride in the ochre jersey tomorrow during stage 1.


"Big George" Hincapie could be seen on the front of the peloton, keeping Columbia in contention for a stage win. Still weird to see him in "Columbia Yellow". I was just getting used to "Columbia Blue".

Lance Armstrong stayed safely in the back of the pack. This is not his kind of race. Best to stay out of the sprinters way lest you get run down!

Here are the results (as posted on www.cyclingnews.com):

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha 1.04.32
2 Wim Stroetinga (Ned) Team Milram
3 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
4 Andre Greipel (Ger) Team Columbia-High Road
5 Jose Rojas (Spa) Caisse D'Epargne
6 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step
7 Baden Cooke (Aus) UniSA
8 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Liquigas
9 Hilton Clarke (Aus) Fuji-Servetto 0.01
10 Chris Sutton (Aus) Garmin-Slipstream

Other Noteables:
55 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse D'Epargne
56 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxobank
57 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia-High Road
63 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse D'Epargne
64 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
94 Ivan Dominquez (USA) Fuji-Servetto
131 Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin-Slipstream
DNF Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia-High Road (have no idea what happened here).