 AFP photo |
Britain's Ben Swift won the second stage of the Tour Down Under cycle race on Wednesday, avoiding three crashes in the last 4 kilometers which felled British sprint star Mark Cavendish and overnight leader Matthew Goss.
Cavendish, riding for the U.S.-based team HTC-Highroad, suffered a serious cut above his right eye, deep lacerations and abrasions to his shoulder, side and knee but will contest the race's third stage on Thursday.
Australia's Goss, also racing for HTC-Highroad, fell but finished among the peleton, conceding the overall lead to compatriot Robbie McEwen who was second on the stage.
Graeme Brown of Australia was third in a chaotic finish, ahead of Romain Feillu of France and Jurgens Roelandts of Belgium.
Lance Armstrong, who finished 81st in the opening stage, was 42nd on day two and was credited with the same time as the winner to lie 60th among 133 riders on general classification in his last race outside the U.S..
McEwen, of Armstrong's Radio Shack team, heads the overall standings ahead of Goss and Swift who share his accumulated time for two stages of 6 hours, 44 minutes, 42 seconds. Defending champion Andre Greipel, who was second overnight, fell back to fourth on general classification, 4 seconds behind McEwen.
McEwen avoided the worst of the carnage to take over the tour leader's ochre jersey.
"I'm very happy, I have the jersey through consistency ... unfortunately guys crashed, that also influenced things," he said.
"I'm sure otherwise, (Andre) Greipel and Matt Goss would have been up there in contention for the win, but that's part of bike racing.
"You have to actually get to the finish and bad luck is a part of racing. I was fortunate not to get caught up in it and it's delivered me the jersey."
Cavendish, riding for the U.S.-based team HTC-Highroad, suffered a serious cut above his right eye, deep lacerations and abrasions to his shoulder, side and knee but will contest the race's third stage on Thursday.
Australia's Goss, also racing for HTC-Highroad, fell but finished among the peleton, conceding the overall lead to compatriot Robbie McEwen who was second on the stage.
Graeme Brown of Australia was third in a chaotic finish, ahead of Romain Feillu of France and Jurgens Roelandts of Belgium.
Lance Armstrong, who finished 81st in the opening stage, was 42nd on day two and was credited with the same time as the winner to lie 60th among 133 riders on general classification in his last race outside the U.S..
McEwen, of Armstrong's Radio Shack team, heads the overall standings ahead of Goss and Swift who share his accumulated time for two stages of 6 hours, 44 minutes, 42 seconds. Defending champion Andre Greipel, who was second overnight, fell back to fourth on general classification, 4 seconds behind McEwen.
McEwen avoided the worst of the carnage to take over the tour leader's ochre jersey.
"I'm very happy, I have the jersey through consistency ... unfortunately guys crashed, that also influenced things," he said.
"I'm sure otherwise, (Andre) Greipel and Matt Goss would have been up there in contention for the win, but that's part of bike racing.
"You have to actually get to the finish and bad luck is a part of racing. I was fortunate not to get caught up in it and it's delivered me the jersey."
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