The 25-year-old Frenchman took two confident wins over Perkins in the final, and said afterwards that he was both elated and relieved.

“I’m very happy. This year, all the main riders were here. I was nervous, but I didn’t think that it was finished when I won the first sprint [against Perkins]. I had a taste for the jersey from last year, I had to get it again,” he told cyclingnews.com.

In both of their sprints, Perkins and Bauge followed essentially the same pattern.

It was a gut wrenching finish for the Australian.

They have been around a bit longer, they have been racing a bit longer and they handle the nerves better,” he said. “They know what to expect, whereas I am just starting to learn that now. Hopefully everything keeps going forward and I keep progressing,” he told cyclingnews.com

The 37-year-old took out the Trofeo Palma, race one of the Challenge Majorca series in Spain.

McEwen launched his sprint with 300m left and beat Spaniards Koldo Fernandez and former world champion Oscar Freire.

The Australian suffered serious leg injuries last May in a collision during the Tour of Belgium.

“I’m really happy for this victory, it’s my second career after the injury I had last season … (it) is a very important victory for me,” he said on the cyclingnews website.

“For me, the most important thing is that I have no discomfort in my leg, I feel fine and I can compete again with the best”

He was impressive at Adelaide’s Tour Down Under, steadily regaining some form.

He was the best-placed Australian at fourth overall in the Tour.

McEwen has said he wants to keep racing next year, but he will wait until after the Tour de France before deciding on his future.

McEwen is one of Australia’s most talented cyclists, many regard him as one of the most consistent.

- with AAP

Torckler held onto a five second lead over Drapac Porsche’s Lachlan Norris and South Africa’s Jay Thompson (Fly V Australia).

Results

The 27-year-old German crushed the competition in the opening two stages before using his prowess along with his team to defend that lead. 

Australian Allan Peiper was there to enjoy the victory.

“We came here and knew André was on a mission after winning two years ago and crashing out last year,” Peiper told cyclingnews.com

“Grabschy [Bert Grabsch] wasn’t in the original selection for the Tour Down Under so he sent me a dirty email asking why he wasn’t riding and that he wanted to be in the team… So when you get guys at you to ride the race that’s really good as well.”

“André never would have won without them and the efforts they’ve made during the last few days. Even the stage to Goolwa was epic – an epic battle. Yesterday it was the same again but we had a tickle of luck and got some help from Katusha and Saxo Bank to lead their guys out for the sprint. That turned the tide.

“You’ve always got to have luck with you anyway, so it couldn’t have been more successful.”

Stage 6 – Adelaide City Council Street Circuit 4.5km:   
Christopher Sutton 1h53m20s 1, Greg Henderson st 2, Graeme Brown st 3, Robbie McEwen st 4, Andre Greipel st 5, Allan Davis st 6, Matthew Goss st 7, Yauheni Hutarovich st 8, Gert Steegmans st 9, Jose Rojas st 10.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION:    Andre Greipel 18h47m5s 1, Luis Leon Sanchez at 11s 2, Greg Henderson at 15s 3, Robbie McEwen at 17s 4, Luke Roberts at 17s 5, Cadel Evans at 21s 6, Eduard Vorganov at 25s 7, Jurgen Roelandts at 26s 8, Robbie Hunter at 26s 9, Markus Fothen at 27s 10, Baden Cooke at 29s 11, George Hincapie at 29s 12, Andriy Grivko at 29s 13, Jurgen Van De Walle at 30s 14, Julian Dean at 30s 15, Martin Elmiger at 30s 16, Rene Mandri at 30s 17, Ivan Velasco at 30s 18, Alejandro Valverde at 32s 19, Aitor Perez Arrieta at 39s 20, Wesley Sulzberger at 39s 21, Jose Alberto Benitez Roman at 39s 22, Jose Rojas at 46s 23, Michael Rogers at 58s 24, Lance Armstrong at 1m3s 25, Fabio Sabatini at 1m24s 26, Serguei Klimov at 1m27s 27, Gorka Izagirre at 1m35s 28, Peter Sagan at 1m38s 29, Peter McDonald at 1m47s 30, Daryl Impey at 1m49s 31, Cameron Meyer at 2m10s 32, Hayden Roulston at 2m11s 33, Matthew Lloyd at 2m29s 34, Graeme Brown at 2m34s 35, Gert Steegmans at 2m36s 36, Ivan Gutierrez at 2m36s 37, Stijn Vandenbergh at 2m42s 38, Christopher Sutton at 2m48s 39, Josep Jufre Pou at 2m57s 40, Jesus Hernandez Blazquez at 3m5s 41, Sebastien Rosseler at 3m7s 42, Tomas Vaitkus at 3m11s 43, Bernhard Eisel at 3m14s 44, Gorazd Stangelj at 3m18s 45, Thibaut Pinot at 3m26s 46, Mikel Nieve at 3m33s 47, Arthur Vichot at 3m36s 48, Yaroslav Popovych at 3m38s 49, Thomas Rohregger at 3m48s 50, Romain Sicard at 3m59s 51, Thomas Frei at 4m50s 52, Koos Moerenhout at 4m53s 53, Christian Meier at 4m58s 54, Cyril Dessel at 5m15s 55, Juan Ripoll Horrach at 5m24s 56, Mathieu Perget at 5m30s 57, Timothy Roe at 5m53s 58, Yuriy Krivtsov at 6m23s 59, Valeriy Dmitriyev at 7m3s 60, Mathew Hayman at 7m16s 61, Ludovic Turpin at 7m16s 62, Mauro Santambrogio at 7m32s 63, Frank Hoj at 7m36s 64, Jos Van Emden at 8m4s 65, Mauro Finetto at 8m8s 66, Rohan Dennis at 8m11s 67, Biel Kadri at 8m47s 68, Stuart O’Grady at 9m24s 69, Anthony Roux at 9m31s 70, Davide Vigano at 9m48s 71, Oscar Pereiro at 10m2s 72, Danilo Wyss at 10m16s 73, Matthew Goss at 10m53s 74, Matthew Wilson at 10m55s 75, Christopher Froome at 10m55s 76, Stef Clement at 11m8s 77, Trent Lowe at 11m33s 78, Jonathan Cantwell at 11m41s 79, David Vitoria at 11m54s 80, Jurgen Van Goolen at 12m9s 81, Michael Matthews at 13m6s 82, Marcel Sieberg at 13m21s 83, Jens Voigt at 13m29s 84, Jonas Ljungblad at 13m38s 85, Anders Lund at 13m57s 86, Addy Engels at 14m3s 87, Allan Davis at 14m42s 88, Martin Kohler at 14m50s 89, Manuel Cardoso at 15m4s 90, Nikolas Maes at 16m13s 91, Thomas Leezer at 17m34s 92, Mikael Cherel at 18m12s 93, Mickael Delage at 18m13s 94, Alexandr Pliuschin at 18m24s 95, Russell Downing at 18m41s 96, Gerben Lowik at 18m45s 97, Jack Bobridge at 19m 98, Mathieu Drujon at 19m9s 99, Ben Swift at 19m28s 100, MacIej Paterski at 20m2s 101, Pierre Cazaux at 20m5s 102, Martin Pedersen at 20m11s 103, Rick Flens at 20m16s 104, Olivier Kaisen at 21m42s 105, Yauheni Hutarovich at 22m36s 106, Denis Galimzyanov at 23m28s 107, Kasper Klostergaard at 23m35s 108, Jacopo Guarnieri at 24m17s 109, Bert Grabsch at 25m26s 110, Juan Jose Haedo at 25m51s 111, Jason McCartney at 25m53s 112, Jonathan Castroviejo at 27m12s 113, Kevin Van Impe at 27m22s 114, Simon Clarke at 27m33s 115, Robert Forster at 28m2s 116, Miguel Minguez at 28m19s 117, Kristijan Koren at 29m5s 118, David Gutierrez at 29m20s 119, Karsten Kroon at 29m26s 120, Michele Merlo at 29m51s 121, Jose Garcia at 30m47s 122, Mauro Facci at 31m20s 123, Bjorn Schroder at 33m 124, David Kemp at 33m10s 125, Dominik Roels at 36m18s 126, Daniel Sesma at 42m47s 127.AAP

The 20 year old held a 31 second margin over David Kemp after a first lap breakaway of 10 riders.

He was purely dominant but surprised after the win.

“My first ever road national title and to do it in my first race in elite men, it is an unbelievable feeling. I can’t quite describe what it feels like,” Meyer told cyclingnews.com.

 ”To win the road race after [my brother] Cam’s just won the time trial, to have two national champions in the same team and in the same family, it is just unbelievable.

“People are going to know my name in the ProTour ranks just because I have got the jersey on, to win it after guys like Robbie McEwen, Stuart O’Grady, Matt Wilson, for me to be able to do that and I am only 20 in my first year on the ProTour it hasn’t quite sunk in yet,” he added.

Results

Kemps, who represents Fly V Australia, will wear the jersey while competing in the US this year.

“I am very happy with this win and very thankful for Fly V, a new team for me this year, and very happy for the first race of the year and to get a win for them,” Kemps told cyclingnews.com.

 ”It is a team for Australians and I’m proud to be in an Australian team and now I am proud to take this jersey overseas and represent Australia.

“If it came down to a bunch kick then obviously Jonathan Cantwell and Ben Kersten were the key, but they said to try and be as aggressive as possible,” he added. “My legs felt good today. Bernie Sulzberger did a great job leading me out, I can’t thank him enough since he was last year’s Australian criterium champion.”

Kemps won the 44km event in Ballarat ahead of Dean Windsor and Adam Clarke.

Tasmanian Ben Grenda was second and New South Wales rider Mitchell Bulleen finished third in Monday night’s race.

Van Velthooven, 21, told the ABC he was surprised of the win by the slimmest of margins.

“This morning I was really flat and thought this was going to be a long day but a few races out there, nice indoor velodrome and it’s nice and warm and a good crowd,” Velthooven said.

“The crowd always gets it so much better, gets the nerves running and it’s really great here, love the crowd, love the racing, love the riders.”

Van Velthooven scooped the pool winning the lightning handicap final earlier in the night.

“I don’t know if anyone else has done the double but its great to actually get the double here, I would never have thought that,” he said.

Tasmanian rider Emma Lawson has won the final of the women’s wheel race at the Launceston Cycling Carnival.

She beat Rebecca Werner of South Australia while fellow Tasmanian Georgia Baker finished third in last night’s race.

In a massive coup for Australian cycling fans, Valverde’s appearance is in addition to the return of Lance Armstrong and world champion Cadel Evans.

Race director Mike Turtur said:

“Caisse d’Epargne is bringing an impressively strong team with them to Adelaide.”

“With the likes of Valverde, Sánchez and Gutierrez it’s got the calibre of a Grand Tour team,” added Turtur. “There will now be three Grand Tour winners competing at the Santos Tour Down Under – Valverde, Pereiro and Armstrong.”

Caisse d’Epargne’s Santos Tour Down Under lineup: Alejandro Valverde (Spa), Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa), Jose Rojas (Spa), Ivan Gutierrez (Spa), Jose Garcia (Spa), Mathieu Drujon (Fra), Mathieu Perget (Fra).

Valverde will add an extra star factor to the event which promises to be a beauty to kick off the 2010 racing calendar.

Those taking part in the popular evening criterium include world Under 23 time trial champion and future Garmin pro Jack Bobridge, former Tour de France green jersey winner Baden Cooke, Rabobank sprinter Graeme Brown, two-time Launceston winner Matt Goss, Melbourne to Warnambool winner Zac Dempster, world omnium champion Leigh Howard, Jonathan Cantwell, Mitch Docker, Simon Clarke, national criterium champion Bernard Sulzberger and his brother Wes.

Howard has been in fine form and will be one of the favourites for the event, while Docker is a young gun on the rise and expect him to take them all on with grit and determination.

Armstrong’s Team RadioShack makes its worldwide debut at Australia’s Tour Down Under, organisers said on Thursday.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong is returning for a second attempt at the first UCI ProTour race of the 2010 season, but this time with his new team.

The line-up is expected to be a major drawcard and has now been confirmed for the Tour Down Under, to be staged around Adelaide from January 17-24.

“Lance is real legend of the sport and it?s been massive for our race that he made his cycling comeback here in 2009 and will debut Team RadioShack here in 2010,” race director Mike Turtur said in a statement.

“While much of the media focus will be on Armstrong, he will be joined by a very strong RadioShack team, who are all great riders in their own right.

“Popovych has been a loyal servant of Armstrong’s at Discovery Channel and Astana, and is a very capable rider. “Our race gives him an opportunity to do well and will also suit Steegman?s sprinting skills.”

Team RadioShack: Lance Armstrong (USA), Daryl Impey (RSA), Jason McCartney (USA), Yaroslav Popovych (UKR), Sebastien Rosseler (BEL), Gert Steegmans (BEL), Tomas Vaitkus (LTU). Australia’s world road cycling champion Cadel Evans will also be riding in the race.

With AFP