German sprinter Andre Greipel wins opening stage of Tour Down Under, Armstrong back in bunch

Greipel wins opening stage of Tour Down Under

ADELAIDE, Australia — German sprinter Andre Greipel won the 88-mile first stage of the Tour Down Under, while Lance Armstrong finished among the bunch on what he called a “fairly uneventful day.”

Greipel, the 2008 champion, led the field of 132 riders across the finish line at Tanunda in rural South Australia state on Tuesday with a time of 3 hours, 15 minutes, 30 seconds

Armstrong raced among the peleton throughout the stage and finished in 46th place, credited with the same time as Greipel.

“I feel pretty good, but it was not an easy day. It was very up and down,” said Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who made his competitive return to racing after three years in retirement in last year’s Adelaide race.

Greipel’s promising 2009 campaign ended after only three of the race’s six stages when he was seriously injured in a collision with a parked police motorbike. The worst of his various injuries was a broken collarbone which kept him out of competition for four months, severely damaging his season.

Greipel said he no longer thinks about the crash after he broke from a bunched sprint Tuesday.

He later praised the work of fellow riders in his U.S.-based Team Columbia for his win, which left him with the tour leader’s orange jersey and a four-second advantage overall.

“It was a good finish and a good warmup for the team,” Greipel said. “We took responsibility for the whole stage. The team made the difference. We started as a team and finished as a team.”

Gert Steegmans took second place for Armstrong’s new Radioshack Team — which made its official ProTour debut Tuesday — while Steegman’s Belgian compatriot Jurgen Roelandts was third.

Tens of thousands of spectators watched the stage, lining the streets of small townships or waiting patiently outside remote homesteads for riders to pass through some of Australia’s richest wine-growing country.

Armstrong dodged a crash only 300 yards after the start which brought down almost 60 of the 132 riders, among them two-time Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans of Australia who had to replace a broken shoe.

Much of the stage was dominated by a breakaway involving young Australian Timothy Roe, a member of Armstrong’s development squad, Switzerland’s Martin Kohler and France’s Biel Kadri.

The breakaway group led by as much as 9:45 seconds, but was caught by the peleton less than 12 miles from the finish.

Kohler won the two intermediate sprints Tuesday to lead the sprint classification while Roe was first over the top of steep Menglers Hill to win the King of the Mountain jersey.

The second stage of the six-day race will be held Wednesday.