McEwen wins Tour Down Under prelude

A record crowd of 138,000 people flocked to Adelaide's Rymill Parktonight to welcome back to the peloton, seven time Tour de Francechampion, Lance Armstrong, in the Cancer Council Classic, a prelude tothe 2009 Tour Down Under.

The introduction of the 37 year oldTexan was greeted by a deafening roar of support with fans of all agesclamouring for a glimpse of a true legend of sport.

But the 30lap criterium, which covered a total distance of 51 kilometres, wasnever going to be one in which Armstrong was expected to shine. Ratherit was a race for sprinters as three time Tour de France sprintchampion, Queensland's Robbie McEwen, proved with his first win for hisnew team Katusha.

McEwen, who had won on this course in 2004,2005 and 2006 powered over the line to claim the win ahead of WillemStroetinga (Milram) and Sydney's Graeme Brown (Rabobank). His finishingtime was 1hr04min32sec gave the event an average speed of 47.417km/h.Lance Armstrong crossed the line in 64th place at 23 seconds but washappy to have a race under his belt.

"It was tough," said Armstrong. "I think the last time I did a criterium of this style it was in 1990.

"Itwas a tough criterium and I found it safer and a little easier in theback," said Armstrong who admits he is not yet at full fitness. "It'sfun to get back in there (but) it will probably take a while and I needto get more power and do some more hills."

"I was a littlenervous in the corners, honestly the weirdest thing was the sun - thesun was going down here (points to a corner) you had the sun really inyour eyes," said Armstrong. "But after that, it was fine.

"Ifelt good, I've trained a lot for this comeback, I've trained a lot forthis race," he said. "I'm glad the first day is over and now we can getinto the race and maybe relax a little bit more.

"There was a lot of anxiety before today," admitted Armstrong. "It's not my style (of racing), but I enjoyed it.

But the tight circuit and fast pace was tailor made for McEwen.

"Ilove a crowd," said the 36 year old. "This was my first day out with my(new) team and I worked fairly hard during the summer and I wanted tobe in good shape for this race.

" I said before, if I get onewin when I’m down here this week, it will be fantastic, so we’ve got it... great start to the year, and I couldn’t be happier," he said. "Theguys (team) did a very good job, considering it's their first race ofthe season.

"They haven’t got any race fitness, but they cameout and gave it everything," he explained. "We got together and workedout a bit of a tactic. I also just said to them, ‘Listen fellas,there’s no pressure. We’ll do it, and if it works out, great, but ifyou haven’t got the legs, it’s the first race of the year, there’splenty to go.’

"We’ve got win number one so we’re the happiestteam, here at the moment," said McEwen who only arrived in Adelaide onSaturday night and took the opportunity early in the race to say hi toArmstrong with whom he shared the podium in 2002 and 2004 when he wonthe green jersey and Armstrong the yellow in the Tour de France. "Helooked OK, I went and said, ‘G’Day’ to him somewhere in the first 10laps of the race, and he was glad to be there. I said to him, ‘welcomeback’ and he was cruising, just trying to stay out of trouble. He said,I’d give you a handshake, but I don’t want to take my hands off thebars... first race back.

"My last big win was inParis-Brussels in the middle of September but there’s something specialto win in your own country, in the biggest race of the country, infront of all these people, is a really special atmosphere.

"Ilove coming to this race, and when you’ve got all these people cheeringfor you, it does give you a little bit extra," said McEwen who somemedia pundits have said is getting to the end of his career. "It’s beenwritten, ‘Getting old, this and that’... but I’ve just done my thing,done my training and here I am ... first, that’s all that matters."

Meantime19 year old Jack Bobridge, riding with the UniSA - Australian NationalTeam gave his hometown crowd something to cheer for early in the racewhen he sprinted clear to win the Skoda Sprint at the end of lap fiveand the Hindmarsh Sprint at the end of lap ten. Frenchman Jeremy Roy(Francaise de Jeux) attacked mid way through to claim the Cycle InsteadSprint at the end of lap 15 and his team mate Timothy Gudsell of NewZealand collected the SA Lotteries Sprint at the end of lap 20 beforethe teams of the favourites upped the speed to set up their fast menfor the finish.

The 133 riders will tomorrow have their finaltraining rides before lining up in the first UCI ProTour event of theseason, the Tour Down Under, which kicks off in the Adelaide suburb ofNorwood on Tuesday morning.

Results from the 51 km Cancer Classic criterium (times do not count towards race generalclassification):

1. Robbie McEwen (AUS) Katusha 1hr 04min 32sec, 2. Willem Stroetinga(NED) same time, 3. Graeme Brown (AUS) s.t., 4. Andre Greipel (GER)s.t., 5. Jose-Joaquim Rojas (ESP) s.t., 6. Allan Davis (AUS) s.t., 7.Baden Cooke (AUS) s.t., 8. Francesco Chicchi (ITA) s.t., 9. HiltonClarke (AUS) at 1sec, 10. Chris Sutton (AUS) s.t.

Selected: 64. Lance Armstrong (USA) 23