Therefore their training started in November with lots of endurance kilometers and later on high intensity intervals.
As important as the personal fitness is the support of the team to control the peloton and catch back attacks. In the final a well attuned "train" can deliver the sprinter with 100 m to go at the highest speed and catapult him out for the win. This is very difficult especially at the beginning of the season, and even more so in a newly assembled team.

No wonder Team HTC-Highroad and Team Sky were the dominating teams in the race - like last year.
For André Greipel, Germany's cyclist of the year 2010 and winner of last years Tour Down Under it was significantly more difficult this time - being the favorite sprinter in his new team, Omega Pharma-Lotto. They performed well, working on the front to catch back breakaways, but for the last few kilometers the synchronicity was not there to deliver André in a perfect position.
Nevertheless André was able to get second place twice - in the first and third stage.

Thanks a lot to André who sent us his SRM Data of these two stages.

The first stage from Mawson Lake to Angaston with a pretty flat profile (about 1000 altitude meters) was covered in 3:16 hours for 138 kilometers.
André burned about 2664 calories riding an average of 226 watts.

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Right after the start a lot of riders attacked and the speed was high. André had to ride 465 watts average (5.8 W/kg) for 3.4 kilometers with 5.4% incline to keep his position in the peloton in these 7 minutes. That showed the high level the riders have already in the earliest part of the season.

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In the final it was Team Sky and HTC-Highroad who made the race and guaranteed a bunch sprint.
The SRM data show a lot of changes in intensity in the last two kilometers. Short hard stomps up to 1,300 watts kept André in a good spot to get on a perfectly positioned wheel.
On the last 300 meters he accelerated up to 121 rpm and had to change gears - maybe one gear too hard as the cadence of 88 rpm was a little too low to gain momentum again. Watch the youtube video and you'll see that Matthew Goss (Team HTC-Highroad) finished with a significantly higher cadence.
Anyhow André's power is incredible and impressive - 300 meters, 1,047 watts for 20 seconds with a max power of 1,353 watts!

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Stage 3

The profile of the third stage was more demanding. From Unley to Stirling the riders had to cover 129 kilometers and 1,477 altitude meters. No problem for André, his average power was 237 watts, burning 2,730 calories. The heat was on, 38°C in the Australian summer.

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Again the race was on from the beginning - 4 kilometers of high intensity riding with 423 watts average (5.3 W/kg) in 7 minutes including 4 minutes with 542 watts (6.7 w/kg) on short climb with 5% incline - André's heart rate peaked at 170 bpm.
Then four riders had made the breakaway, but their advantage was never dangerous to the teams of the sprinters and the break was caught 20 kilometers from the finish.

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The last 300 meters André had a perfect position just following the young Rabobank sprinter Michael Matthews. But when Matthews was able to pass on the left close to the barrier André was a little jammed for a moment. Michael Matthews, advantage was the perfect team support and his lower body weight which helps on a slightly ascending road (max. speed of André: 49.9 km/h). André's data in the sprint are once again impressive: 300 meters in 24 seconds pushing 917 watts average and peaking up to 1,397 watts.

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Even though the outcome at Tour Down Under was not as good as André had hoped for, his level of performance is high and with his team getting more experienced he will win a significant amount of races.

All the best for the season for him and the whole Team Omega Pharma-Lotto!