At the 2008 Tour Down Under, the German sprinter took the first of what would become a record 18 stage wins at the race
Words Giles Belbin
A moment in time
Nestled amidst rolling hills some 28km southeast of Adelaide lies the town of Hahndorf. Dating from early 1839 when 187 German Lutheran immigrants disembarked in Port Adelaide and negotiated the purchase of land in the Adelaide Hills, Hahndorf is recognised as Australia’s oldest surviving German settlement. How fitting that some 169 years later it was to be the scene of German sprinter André Greipel’s first official stage win at the Tour Down Under, a race he would come to dominate.
In 2008 the event was celebrating its tenth edition as well as its newly acquired UCI ProTour status (the equivalent of a WorldTour race today). Officials were hoping the benchmark and an increasingly international peloton racing alongside the stars of Australian cycling would attract more than half a million spectators to the roadsides during the six-stage event.
‘It would be the best possible tenth birthday present and just reward for an event that has grown in stature every year to now become the first stop in world cycling,’ Michael Rann, South Australia’s Premier at the time, commented before the race. ‘We are joining the world stage of cycling and this is our chance to show the world that our own Tour Down Under is up there with the best races in the world.’
After an event-opening criterium won by Greipel – a 50km affair dubbed the Down Under Classic but not considered part of the race proper – and a 129km first stage into Angaston claimed by Mark Renshaw, Stage 2 was 148 rolling kilometres among the Adelaide Hills. The route headed south from the town of Stirling, some 15km from the centre of Adelaide, switching east and north before diving back south for four laps of a 20km finishing circuit around Hahndorf.
A look at the stage profile confirms that there was barely a stretch of flat the entire stage, opening with a sharp descent from Stirling before tackling the lumpy terrain south and east of Adelaide. Yet this was still a day marked by most as one for the sprinters, as indeed was much of the race.
‘With shorter than normal stages and the majority of the riders having not raced this season yet, breakaways and big gaps may be e
