Live Race Coverage

Bookmark this page for live updates of the Tour Down Under 16 – 21 January 2007.

Latest Coverage

15:18 CST    80km/1km to go
The Barloworld boys of Robbie Hunter lead while the field dodge red trsaffic cones.

15:19 CST    80.5km/0.5km to go
Barloworld have saved everything - impressive - they still have two riders on the front.

15:20 CST    81km/0km to go
As the field rounds the corner for the sprint to the line, Alby Davis cranks it up and McEwen is on his wheel, with Renshaw from Credit Agricole coming up closely on the inside, but McEwen holds him out and gets it. Renshaw protests but it looked OK.

15:25 CST    81km/0km to go
So Martin Elmiger from AG2R takes the overall win in the 9th Tour Down Under by only three seconds, due largely to his all-round sprinting capability, as it was his throw at the line in yesterday's stage that claimed a precious two seconds, and again in the very competitive first intermediate sprint, he showed his class and finished speed with a fine burst that secured another three seconds.

This also gives his French team two of the main jerseys on offer, as Dumoulin will take out the KOM jersey for AG2R.

15:34 CST    81km/0km to go
Correction - Dumoulin did not win the KOM competition as on a countback, it is Serge Pauwels of the Chocolade Jacques team who takes out the climber's competition. In the points competition, it is the 39-year old Frenchman, Laurent Brochard, from Bouygues Telecom, who takes the sprinter's jersey.

So in the overall classification, it is Elmiger from Menzies by three seconds, and then Lars Bak from Team CSC is at 11 seconds, while Simon Clarke (South Australia.com-AIS) won the best young rider and his young team-mates also took out the teams classification, an excellent result for what is arguably a development squad that lost Matthew Goss to Team CSC, and Matthew Lloyd to Predictor-Lotto, at the end of last year. Lloyd showed his potential for the future by finishing in fourth overall.

15:47 CST    81km/0km to go
So as the winners receive their flowers and kisses, in front of a very large and enthusiastic crowd that has remained for the presentations, we bid you farewell from the Tour Down Under.

The 9th TDU was held in starkly different conditions to last year, where the field battled its way through a heat-wave. This year, it was cooler, milder and then quite a lot of rain fell on the Friday and Saturday, which brought smiles to the faces of the local farmers, as well as the Belgians in the race.

If anything, the racing was more aggressive as the conditions allowed the riders to go deeper at this time of year. It also showed how the TDU is evolving into a race that even the top professionals have to be in very good form to not just win, but even secure a minr placing. Until today, it looked like even McEwen would go away without a win, but he pulled one out of the bag on today's final stage.

Thanks again for joining us in the Hindenburg V-2; we saved a great deal of energy as we were able to switch off the air-con for this year, which will allow us to re-stock the mini-bar.

'Til next time, in the balmy climate of a Belgian spring, and thanks for reading.