Santos Tour Down Under Stage 2: Uni-SA's Will Clarke takes surprise solo win

Will Clarke of Uni-SA is the surprise winner of Stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under, attacking early and staying away to win by more than a minute from a chasing peloton led by Rabobank’s Michael Matthews and GreenEdge’s Simon Gerrans. Martin Kohler of BMC Racing is the new overall leader.

The 26-year-old Clarke and Kohler had gone off the front of the peloton early on in the 148km stage from Lobethal to Stirling as the race headed through the Adelaide Hills in cooler temperatures than those experienced on yesterday’s opening stage.

"This is unbelievable really," said Clarke afterwards. "This is the biggest win of my career. It's my first win in the WorldTour. I knew my form was good."

The Tasmanian only took up cycling four years ago after injury forced the Olympic athlete to give up on his career as a 400m and 800m runner, and last year rode with Leopard Trek.

At one point the pair had established a lead of 11 minutes over the peloton before the Swiss rider Kohler, who had picked up enough bonus seconds to take over from André Greipe at the top of the general classification, dropped back.

That left Clarke, who had started the day 1 minute 50 seconds behind Greipel, on his own, and he managed to hang on for a fine solo victory.

"He [Kohler] probably thought it was not worth keeping going but the peloton gave me more time and I thought 'you guys have to chase me hard to catch me'," reflected Clarke.

"I was dying in the last ten kilometres. It's amazing that a breakaway rider can stay away for so long. It's sort of my speciality to keep going."

Besides the stage win, Clarke also has the reward of leading the sprints and mountain classifications.

The new overall leader, Kohler, had been involved in a breakaway on the opening stage too, the bonus seconds he accrued there putting him third on the general classification.

"We had this little funny plan this morning, just go for it, and I am close on the GC and I tried again and the first attack was the successful one,” explained Kohler.

"It was a little bit surprising and if no-one was following - why not?" he added.

"It means a lot, because it is my first leader's jersey and it is one of my favourite days here in Australia, but it is early in the season, so for sure it's good to be already in good shape, but I know it's going to be hard for the next stage which is a longer stage, with an uphill finish, which is different and more tough than other years.

“It’s going to be really hard for me to defend the jersey because I think the last two days I have lost a little bit of energy."

Tomorrow’s Stage 3 covers 134.5km from Unley to Victor Harbor.

Santos Tour Down Under Stage 2 result

1  William CLARKE        AUS 3:58:35
2  Michael MATTHEWS      RAB   +1:02
3  Simon GERRANS         GEC   +1:02
4  Alejandro VALVERDE    MOV   +1:02
5  Edvald BOASSON HAGEN  SKY   +1:02
6  Oscar FREIRE GOMEZ    KAT   +1:02
7  Greg VAN AVERMAET     BMC   +1:02
8  Luke ROBERTS          SAX   +1:02
9  Gerald CIOLEK         OPQ   +1:02
10 Heinrich HAUSSLER     GRM   +1:02
11 Cameron MEYER         GEC   +1:02
12 Sergey LAGUTIN        VCD   +1:02
13 Jan BAKELANTS         RSH   +1:02
14 Linus GERDEMANN       RSH   +1:02
15 Tiago MACHADO         RSH   +1:02
16 Bernard SULZBERGER    AUS   +1:02
17 Michael ROGERS        SKY   +1:02
18 Xavier FLORENCIO      KAT   +1:02
19 Kristijan KOREN       LIQ   +1:02
20 Gorka IZAGIRRE        EUS   +1:02

Tour Down Under Overall Standings after Stage 2

1  Martin KOHLER         BMC 8:33:05
2  André GREIPEL         LTB    at 2 secs
3  Michael MATTHEWS      RAB       4
4  Simon GERRANS         GEC       8
5  Rohan DENNIS          AUS       9
6  Eduard VORGANOV       KAT      10
7  Xavier FLORENCIO      KAT      12
8  Jonathan CANTWELL     SAX      12
9  Jan BAKELANTS         RSH      12
10 Luke ROBERTS          SAX      12