Once again the peloton timed its charge perfectly to catch the day’s breakaway inside the final five kilometres of stage one from Prospect to Clare.

A photo was required the separate Greipel from sprint legend Alessandro Petacchi (ITA) - Lampre-ISD but it was the powerful German who prevailed for his ninth STDU win.

The finish was disrupted by a crash that eliminated several protaganists from the finale, with some of the affected riders from GreeEDGE.

Yauheni Hutarovich (BLR) - FDJ-Big MAT finished third in a stage that ended almost an hour behind race schedule and was the slowest since stage 3 2000. That stage took five hours and seven minutes to complete, todays's was 4:33.30. In extremely hot and windy conditions, the peloton headed north from Prospect, but despite the conditions three riders broke away and were soon joined by a fourth.

Eduard Vorganov (RUS) - Katusha Team bridged across to Rohan Dennis (AUS - SA) - UniSA Australia, Marcello Pavarin (ITA) - Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team and Martin Kohler (SUI) - BMC Racing Team after about 6kms of racing and after 16kms of racing had built a lead of 10 mins. The peloton let that stretch to nearly 12 before beginning the long task to drag the gap back down to a manageable level.

The escape group was able to contest both the Jayco Sprints and the Skoda KOM, with Martin Kohler (SUI) - BMC Racing Team winning the first Jayco sprint and Marcello Pavarin (ITA) - Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team the Skoda KOM. Rohan Dennis (AUS - SA) - UniSA Australia was the last of the escapees to be reeled in but once the race regrouped just past the town of Sevenhill William Clarke (AUS - Tas) - UniSA Australia was one of many to try a late dash for glory.

Clarke was caught with less than 2kms to go and then it was down to the team “trains.” And, as he showed on Sunday, Greipel has the strongest lead-out and despite Petacchi’s lunge, the powerful German claimed another STDU scalp.