HTC-Columbia’s André Greipel took his third stage win of the Santos Tour Down Under on Friday, increasing his overall lead of the tour going into the penultimate stage of racing. On a tough day of racing from Adelaide down to the coastal town of Goolwa, a bunch sprint saw Greipel sprint to victory ahead of Robbie McEwen and Graeme Brown.

“It was a very special day of racing and one that I’ll remember for a long time,” said Team Director Allan Peiper. “It was a day that proved the strength of the team and their ability to work together.”

“They were forced to ride at the front for the first 100km chasing the break,” he added. “Then they took a small rest during the headwind and moved back to the front when RadioShack attacked towards the end. They did all that work and then came together again to do a perfect lead out.”

Greipel was very happy with his third win of the week commending his teammates for their work.

“We knew it was going to be a windy day but I had teammates at the front all day and we were well protected.”

“Before the first sprint we picked up the speed to make sure the break didn’t get too much time,” he explained. “We stopped riding at 50km to go to save some energy and some other teams did some work. RadioShack put it in the gutter with about 10km to go so we went back to the front. With 5km to go we brought them back and stayed at the front until the finish. The guys did the perfect lead out and no-one could come around us.”

“We feel good. Tomorrow will be a hard day but the guys will look after me on the hills and hopefully we can stay in the front group.”