Philip Deignan has finished 26th on the 135km opening stage of the Tour Down Under in Australia today, Tuesday.
Deignan, making his stage racing debut with Team Sky, finished alongside team leaders Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas in a group of 70 riders atop Mengler’s Hill in Angaston, although a split in the field during the final sprint saw the first 12 riders, including Thomas, gain four seconds in the finale.
The stage was won by recently crowned Australian national road race champion Simon Gerrans of Orica GreenEdge, who surprised sprinters Andre Greipel of Lotto Belisol and Garmin Sharp’s Steele Van Hoff.
Gerrans also claimed the first race leader’s jersey of the eight-day WorldTour race.
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After time bonuses, Deignan is 15 seconds behind race leader Gerrans and will be happy with his current form.
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With his stated pre-race goal to ride in support of Thomas and Porte for the duration of the tour, we can expect to see the Letterkenny man on the front of the peloton on some of the tougher stages later in the week.
Ireland's Philip Deignan lines the bunch out on stage 1 of the Tour Down Under in Australia today.
Simon Gerrans takes the opening stage of the Tour Down Under in a sprint from a depleted peloton after a lumpy finale.
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