by Justin Davis

ADELAIDE, Australia, Jan 18, 2009 (AFP) – American Lance Armstrong admitted he had to overcome some pre-race nerves as he completed the first stage of his comeback from retirement here Sunday.

Australian Robbie McEwen, of the Katusha team, claimed the victory honors in the 51km inner city criterium which traditionally precedes the Tour Down Under here.

But all eyes were on the 37-year-old Texan who famously battled cancer in
1998 before going on to win a record seven yellow jerseys at the Tour de France between 1999-2005.

Although Armstrong’s official comeback will take place at the race’s first stage proper on Tuesday — the criterium here is not an International Cycling Union (UCI) sanctioned race — the American still courted plenty of attention.

An estimated crowd of over 130,000, according to organisers, turned out to watch proceedings, with crowd favourite McEwen stunning a strong Columbia team with a late surge at the finish line.

By that time Armstrong had dropped into safer realms near the back of the main bunch and afterward admitted it had been a fun but nervous experience.

“I’m glad it’s over,” said the American, who is far more suited to stage racing than hectic criteriums where the threat of crashes is ever present.

“There was a lot of anxiety today but it was good for a first day.”

Asked how he enjoyed racing back in the bunch, Armstrong added: “Yeah, it’s not my style but I enjoyed it. Honestly, I had fun today.”

Columbia appeared to be lining up one of their sprinters for a bunch finish to the race, held over 30 laps of a 1.7km circuit, until McEwen spoiled their plans.

The Belgium-based sprinter from Brisbane is a three-time winner of the Tour de France green jersey for the sprinter’s points competition and produced a cracking finish to score his first, albeit unofficial, victory for his new Russian team.

“This is our very first race together and I’ve already showed that we’re well organized,” said McEwen, who beat young Dutchman Wilem Stroetinga into second place at the finish.

“It’s the start of the season and we’re lacking race condition but the guys did a great job keeping me up near the front, out of the wind and then it was just a case of positioning.”

Armstrong’s team manager at Astana, Johan Bruyneel, admitted it was a relief finally to see the American back racing after a three and a half year break.

“It’s a special day. There’s been all this talk about the comeback and now it’s finally a fact,” said the Belgian, who said here earlier he was shocked when Armstrong announced his intention to return last September.

“This is an important moment. He’s finally a bike racer again. I could see he was really enjoying it.”

The first stage of the Tour Down Under is Tuesday’s 145km ride from Norwood to Mawson Lakes.

Armstrong has said, and Bruyneel confirmed Sunday, that he would be keen to test his racing condition on one of more challenging stages, such as stage two or five.

“It’s definitely not our ambition to win here,” added Bruyneel. “But what is sure is that if Lance feels good on a certain stage, he will want to test himself.”

Results

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha 1.04.32
2 Willem Stroetinga (Ned) Team Milram
3 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
4 Andre Greipel (Ger) Team Columbia-High Road
5 Jose Rojas (Spa) Caisse D’Epargne
6 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step
7 Baden Cooke (Aus) UniSA
8 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Liquigas
9 Hilton Clarke (Aus) Fuji-Servetto 0.01
10 Chris Sutton (Aus) Garmin-Slipstream
11 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia-High Road
12 Nicholas Roche (Irl) Ag2R La Mondiale 0.02
13 Sebastien Hinault (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale
14 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C
15 Rony Martias (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
16 Inaki Isasi (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
17 Andrea Grendene (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C 0.03
18 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Team Katusha 0.05
19 Aliaksandr Usau (Blr) Cofidis 0.06
20 Julien El Fares (Fra) Cofidis
21 Markel Irizar (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
22 Mikael Cherel (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux
23 Alexandr Pliuschin (Mda) Ag2R La Mondiale 0.07
24 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
25 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Francaise Des Jeux
26 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Garmin-Slipstream
27 Martin Elmiger (Swi) Ag2R La Mondiale 0.08
28 Matthew Goss (Aus) Team Saxobank
29 Timothy Gudsell (NZl) Francaise Des Jeux
30 Kasper Klostergaard (Den) Team Saxobank
31 Luca Barla (Ita) Team Milram
32 Aaron Kemps (Aus) UniSA 0.09
33 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick Step
34 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram
35 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Columbia-High Road
36 Josu Agirre (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
37 Jos Van Emden (Ned) Rabobank
38 Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Liquigas 0.10
39 Yoann Offredo (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux 0.11
40 Pablo Urtasun (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
41 Frank Hoj (Den) Team Saxobank 0.12
42 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Team Katusha
43 Guillaume Blot (Fra) Cofidis 0.15
44 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Quick Step 0.16
45 Cladio Corioni (Ita) Liquigas 0.17
46 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Team Saxobank
47 Olivier Kaisen (Bel) Silence-Lotto 0.18
48 Mickael Buffaz (Fra) Cofidis 0.19
49 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Slipstream
50 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Rabobank 0.21
51 Kurt Hovelijnck (Bel) Quick Step 0.22
52 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Silence-Lotto
53 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Caisse D’Epargne 0.23
54 Thomas Rohregger (Aut) Team Milram
55 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse D’Epargne
56 Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Team Saxobank
57 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia-High Road
58 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team Columbia-High Road
59 Michael Schar (Swi) Astana
60 Imanol Erviti (Spa) Caisse D’Epargne
61 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Liquigas
62 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
63 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse D’Epargne
64 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
65 Florent Brard (Fra) Cofidis
66 Jesus Hernandez (Spa) Astana
67 Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana 0.24
68 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana
69 Francesco Reda (Ita) Quick Step
70 Vitaliy Buts (Ukr) Lampre – N.G.C
71 Travis Meyer (Aus) UniSA
72 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Quick Step
73 Wesley Sulzberger (Aus) Francaise Des Jeux
74 Markus Eichler (Ger) Team Milram
75 Daniele Nardello (Ita) Fuji-Servetto
76 Vincent Jerome (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
77 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Caisse D’Epargne
78 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxobank
79 Anders Lund (Den) Team Saxobank 0.25
80 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
81 Kenny De Haes (Bel) Team Katusha
82 Juan Horrach (Spa) Team Katusha
83 Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa) Astana
84 Stef Clement (Ned) Rabobank
85 Hubert Schwab (Swi) Quick Step
86 Aitor Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
87 Ronny Scholz (Ger) Team Milram 0.26
88 Rene Mandri (Est) Ag2R La Mondiale
89 Glenn D’Hollander (Bel) Silence-Lotto
90 Vladmir Efimkin (Rus) Ag2R La Mondiale
91 Stijn Vandenbergh (Bel) Team Katusha 0.27
92 Sergio De Lis (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
93 Sergey Klimov (Rus) Team Katusha
94 Ivan Dominquez (USA) Fuji-Servetto
95 Ermanno Capelli (Ita) Fuji-Servetto
96 Rick Flens (Ned) Rabobank
97 Simon Clarke (Aus) UniSA
98 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana
99 Gianni Da Ros (Ita) Liquigas 0.28
100 Andoni Lafuente (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
101 Emanuele Bindi (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C
102 Javier Megias (Spa) Fuji-Servetto
103 Alexander Efimkin (Rus) Ag2R La Mondiale
104 Frederick Willems (Bel) Liquigas
105 Timmy Duggan (USA) Garmin-Slipstream
106 William Walker (Aus) Fuji-Servetto
107 Trent Lowe (Aus) Garmin-Slipstream
108 Martin Muller (Ger) Team Milram 0.29
109 Adam Hansen (Aus) Team Columbia-High Road
110 Mario Aerts (Bel) Silence-Lotto
111 Kai Reus (Ned) Rabobank
112 Christian Meier (Can) Garmin-Slipstream
113 Jack Bobridge (Aus) UniSA
114 Volodymyr Zagorodniy (Ukr) Lampre – N.G.C
115 Pieter Jacobs (Bel) Silence-Lotto
116 David Loosli (Swi) Lampre – N.G.C
117 Jeremy Roy (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux
118 Matteo Bono (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C
119 Matthew Lloyd (Aus) Silence-Lotto
120 Scott Davis (Aus) UniSA
121 Tom Stubbe (Bel) Silence-Lotto
122 Matthew Wilson (Aus) UniSA
123 Remy Di Gregorio (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux
124 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom 0.30
125 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Liquigas
126 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis
127 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
128 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis
129 Pablo Lastras (Spa) Caisse D’Epargne 0.31
130 Davide Vigano (Ita) Fuji-Servetto 0.43
131 Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin-Slipstream 0.45
DNF Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia-High Road
DNF Tom Leezer (Ned) Rabobank

File Photo: CorVos Pro