Tour Down Under 2001

Tour Down Under 2001
Host country	Australia
Competition period	January 16-21, 2001
Stages	6 stages
overall length	757 kilometers
Starting field	96 in 12 teams (81 of which arrived at the finish)
← Tour Down Under 2000	Tour Down Under 2002 →

Final score

First	Stuart O'Grady	18:34:20 h
Second	Kai Hundertmark	+ 0:02 min
Third	Fabio Sacchi	+ 0:03 min
Fourth	Daniele Nardello	+ 0:08 min
fifth	Chris Jenner	+ 0:08 min
Sixth	Alexander Bocharov	+ 0:10 min
seventh	Patrick Jonker	+ 0:10 min
Eighth	Benoît Poilvet	+ 0:10 min
Ninth	Glenn D'Hollander	+ 0:21 min
Tenth	Cadel Evans	+ 0:24 min
Sprint scoring	Graeme Brown	26 p.
Second	Alessio Galletti	20 p.
Third	Trent Wilson	14 p.
Mountain scoring	Robert Tighello	72 P.
Second	Russell Van Hout	50 p.
Third	Ben Day	48 p.
Young talent evaluation	Gene Bates	18:40:26 h
Second	Nic Brown	+ 0:06 min
Third	Simon Gerrans	+ 13:23 min
Team evaluation	Crédit Agricole	55:42:51 h
Second	SunSmart-Mitsubishi	+ 1:15 min
Third	Mapei Quickstep	+ 5:15 min

The 3rd Tour Down Under took place from January 16-21, 2001. The cycle race consisted of six stages, starting in the South Australian city of Glenelg and ending in the provincial capital Adelaide . The total distance of the race was 757 kilometers. The Tour Down Under was classified in the international category 2.3.

The participants

The organizing South Australian Tourism Commission invited the three Australian teams Sun-Smart-Mitsubishi , United Water-AIS and the University of South Australia , which started an Australian national selection, to participate. A total of twelve teams were again at the start, with the Deutsche Telekom , Big Mat-Auber 93 , Crédit Agricole , Mapei-Quickstep and Saeco or Lotto-Adecco team, some of the most famous teams in the world being invited. Each team consisted of eight drivers.

The Australian drivers who were in the middle of their season were once again considered to be the favorites for overall victory, while the European professionals used the tour primarily to prepare for the season that started in March.

SunSmart - Mitsubishi United Water AIS University of South Australia

BigMat Auber 93 AG2R Decathlon Crédit Agricole

Mapei Quickstep Saeco Lotto Adecco

Team Deutsche Telekom CSC-World Online Linda McCartney Racing-Jacob's Creek

The stages

The highlight of the week-long festival of cycling in Adelaide was the Tour Down Under through the province of South Australia for the third time since 1999. The six-stage tour started for the first time in the Adelaid suburb of Glenelg and ended, as in the first editions, in the provincial capital. At times, the route was heavily based on last year's edition.

1st stage, Glenelg Street Race

The Tour Down Under began on Tuesday, January 16, 2001 with a 47 kilometer circuit in Glenelg. Each of the 25 laps covered 1.88 kilometers. An intermediate sprint was carried out after 10 and 20 laps. After a few breakaway attempts, there was a mass sprint, which Graeme Brown from United Water-AIS won.

Result Glenelg Street Race

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Graeme Brown		United Water AIS	1:00:02 h
2.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	same time
3.	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	same time
4th	Ciaran Power		Linda McCartney Racing-Jacob's Creek	same time
5.	Fabien De Waele		Lotto Adecco	same time

Stage 2, Norwood - Murray Bridge

The second stage led from the Adelaid suburb of Norwood in a south-west direction to Murray Bridge. The first inclines were on the agenda for the drivers. After a first breakaway group had formed, 22 men later caught up from the field. Last year's third Steffen Wesemann from Germany missed this decisive attack . From the top group, Jörg Ludewig ( Saeco ) and Daniele Nardello ( Mapei-Quickstep ) attacked, but were caught again by 13 other members of the former top group, so that there was a sprint in which Ludewig's Italian teammate Fabio Sacchi secured victory .

Result 2nd stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	3:26:34 h
2.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	same time
3.	Kai Hundertmarck		Team Deutsche Telekom	same time
4th	Nick Gates		SunSmart - Mitsubishi	same time
5.	Glenn D'Hollander		Lotto Adecco	same time

Overall ranking after the 2nd stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	4:26:30 h
2.	Jörg Ludewig		Saeco	same time
3.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	+ 0:02 min
4th	Kai Hundertmarck		Team Deutsche Telekom	+ 0:04 min
5.	Daniele Nardello		Mapei Quickstep	same time

Stage 3, McLaren Vale - Victor Harbor

On the third day of the race, the 165 kilometer route and a mountain classification led through the south of the province of South Australia. Steve Cunningham from the University of South Australia and Alessio Galletti from Saeco formed the breakaway group of the day in a consistently strong headwind, which was at times more than 15 minutes ahead of the field. Finally Galletti pulled away and won the stage, while Cunningham was caught ten kilometers from the finish. In front of a large crowd on the track, Stuart O'Grady finished third on the day behind his compatriot Graeme Brown and, thanks to the time credit and two seconds gap to the rest of the field, took over the yellow jersey.

Result 3rd stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Alessio Galletti		Saeco	4:18:12 h
2.	Graeme Brown		United Water AIS	+ 3:18 min
3.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	same time
4th	Hendrick Van Dijk		Lotto Adecco	same time
5.	David McKenzie		Linda McCartney Racing-Jacob's Creek	same time

Overall ranking after the 3rd stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	8:48:00 h
2.	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	+ 0:02 min
3.	Jörg Ludewig		Saeco	same time
4th	Kai Hundertmarck		Team Deutsche Telekom	+ 0:06 min
5.	Daniele Nardello		Mapei Quickstep	same time

4th stage, Unley - Strathalbyn

The fourth section ran from the suburb of Unley, south of Adelaide, over 157 kilometers south-east to Strathalbyn , with Willunga Hill also the most difficult climb of the Tour Down Under. On a very hot and windless day, a nine-man lead group pulled away, but was put back from the field after passing Willunga Hill. This was followed by numerous attacks on the yellow jersey of leader Stuart O'Grady , which his team Crédit Agricole was able to repel. But five kilometers from the finish, a group of five around the Dane Nicolai Bo Larsen pulled away on flat terrain , who secured the overall lead because the field let the quintet go by 17 seconds. An Australian won the stage in Luke Roberts ( Uni SA ).

Result 4th stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Luke Roberts		University of South Australia	3:44:07 h
2.	Marcel Gono		Linda McCartney Racing-Jacob's Creek	same time
3.	Nicolai Bo Larsen		CSC-World Online	same time
4th	Trent Wilson		SunSmart - Mitsubishi	+ 0:04 min
5.	Nicolas Jalabert		CSC-World Online	+ 0:08 min

Overall ranking after the 4th stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Nicolai Bo Larsen		CSC-World Online	12:32:11 h
2.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	+ 0:13 min
3.	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	+ 0:15 min
4th	Jörg Ludewig		Saeco	same time
5.	Kai Hundertmarck		Team Deutsche Telekom	+ 0:19 min

5th stage, Gawler - Tanunda

The fifth stage led over the same route as the fifth day section of the previous year. Again there were high temperatures and strong winds. A breakaway group of nine drivers formed early on, but the last member was overtaken by the field 15 kilometers before the finish line. Shortly afterwards, however, the overall leader Nicolai Bo Larsen had to tear down on the second crossing of the only climb of the day when a new top group of 22 formed. The German Kai Hundertmark from Team Deutsche Telekom repeated the victory of his teammate Erik Zabel from the previous year in the sprint and took over the yellow jersey thanks to the time credit. At the same time as Stuart O'Grady , he was now at the top of the overall standings.

Result 5th stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Kai Hundertmark		Team Deutsche Telekom	4:00:28 h
2.	Peter Rogers		SunSmart - Mitsubishi	same time
3.	Allan Davis		United Water AIS	same time
4th	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	same time
5.	Glenn D'Hollander		Lotto Adecco	same time

Overall ranking after the 5th stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Kai Hundertmark		Team Deutsche Telekom	16:32:52 h
2.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	same time
3.	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	+ 0:02 min
4th	Chris Jenner		Crédit Agricole	+ 0:06 min
5.	Daniele Nardello		Mapei Quickstep	same time

6th stage, Adelaide Street Race

The last stage traditionally took place in the provincial capital Adelaide on a circuit. A total of 20 laps of 4.5 kilometers each (90 kilometers in total) were held on flat terrain. With a time bonus on the first intermediate sprint, the Australian Stuart O'Grady virtually took over the leader's jersey from the German Kai Hundertmark and brought the victory to the finish line. After that, a top group of twenty without a driver formed with ambitions in the overall standings, which worked out to be up to three minutes ahead. About 25 kilometers from the finish line, nine drivers broke away from the leading group. On the only short climb of the race, Montafiore Hill, David McKenzie ( Linda McCartney Racing-Jacob's Creek ) took a decisive lead and secured the day's victory. Stuart O'Grady became the first rider to secure his second success in the Tour Down Under after 1999.

Result 6th stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	David McKenzie		Linda McCartney Racing-Jacob's Creek	1:58:48 h
2.	Ben Day		SunSmart - Mitsubishi	+ 0:17 min
3.	Luca Paolini		Mapei Quickstep	+ 0:20 min
4th	Torsten Nitsche		Saeco	+ 0:32 min
5.	Kurt Van Lancker		Lotto Adecco	same time

Overall ranking after the 6th stage

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Stuart O'Grady		Crédit Agricole	18:34:20 h
2.	Kai Hundertmark		Team Deutsche Telekom	+ 0:02 min
3.	Fabio Sacchi		Saeco	+ 0:03 min
4th	Daniele Nardello		Mapei Quickstep	+ 0:08 min
5.	Chris Jenner		Crédit Agricole	same time

Stage overview

stage	date	Start finish	km	Stage winner	Leader
1st stage	January 16	Glenelg	47	Graeme Brown	Graeme Brown
2nd stage	January 17th	Norwood - Murray Bridge	142	Fabio Sacchi	Fabio Sacchi
3rd stage	January 18th	McLaren Vale - Victor Harbor	165	Alessio Galletti	Stuart O'Grady
4th stage	January 19th	Unley - Strathalbyn	157	Luke Roberts	Nicolas Bo Larsen
5th stage	January 20th	Gawler - Tanunda	156	Kai Hundertmark	Kai Hundertmark
6th stage	21th January	Adelaide	90	David McKenzie	Stuart O'Grady

Ratings

The point distribution was as follows:

2 intermediate sprints on each stage

1: 6 points, 3 seconds time bonus

2: 4 points, 2 seconds

3: 2 points, 1 second

Finish sprint

1: 8 points, 6 seconds

2: 6 points, 4 seconds

3: 4 points, 2 seconds

Mountain ratings

1: 16 points

2: 12 points

3: 8 points

4: 6 points

5: 4 points

Ratings in the course of the tour

The table shows the leader in the respective classification after the respective stage.

	Overall rating	Sprint scoring	Mountain scoring	Young talent evaluation	Team evaluation
1st stage	Graeme Brown	Graeme Brown	Dominic Rault	Graeme Brown	-
2nd stage	Fabio Sacchi	Jörg Ludewig	Robert Tighello	Nic Brown	Crédit Agricole
3rd stage	Stuart O'Grady	Alessio Galletti		Crescenzo D'Amore
4th stage	Nicolai Bo Larsen	Graeme Brown		Gene Bates
5th stage	Kai Hundertmarck
6th stage	Stuart O'Grady

Final score

The Tour Down Under 2001 was very close overall. Six different stage winners on six days, plus a new overall leader every day, shaped the image of the race. It was only on the last stage that Stuart O'Grady was the first driver since 1999 to secure his second overall victory in the Tour Down Under thanks to a time bonus. The Deutsche Telekom team was also able to celebrate a stage win and second place overall thanks to Kai Hundertmarck . The Italian Saeco team was ahead in two stages. As expected, in addition to O'Grady, the local professionals were also in good shape: Australians won three parts of the day, Gene Bates was also successful in the junior class, Graeme Brown in the sprint and Robert Tighello in the mountain classification. Only the team classification was won by a foreign team, Crédit Agricole ( France ). It was surprising that outliers were able to prevail three times, even on flat sections.

Web links

• Official website
• Results on Radsportseiten.net
• Reports and results on cyclingnews.com

Individual evidence