William Clarke gave his Drapac team a prominent role in today's opening stage of the Tour Down Under when he made it into the breakaway that dominated the stage and went on to win the award as the most aggressive rider in the race. However, the Australian had hoped to be given a bit more leeway and thought that his stage win in Stirling two years ago had played against him.

After being promoted to pro continental status, the Drapac team lines up in their home race Tour Down Under for the first time and the team has vowed to show its colours throughout the six stages. They did so right from the beginning when William Clarke made it into the daylong breakaway with Neil van der Ploeg (UniSA).

The duo was, however, never given more than a 4-minute advantage and that was too little for them to make it to the finish. Instead, all the duo could hope for was  the award for being the most aggressive rider which Clarke secured by dropping his companion as they neared the Menglers Hill inside the final 20km.

In 2012, Clarke was riding for the UniSA national team and surprised the entire world when he finished off a solo breakaway on the stage to Stirling in successful fashion. Being disappointed after today's stage, the former Argos-Shimano rider thought that that win had played against him today.

"The team’s plan was to have one of us in the breakaway. The first attempt worked, which is not really that common," he said. "It was me and Neil Van der Ploeg. It was nice to be up there. But they worked pretty well together in the peloton. They never let us go far. I was hoping for a lead of six or seven minutes but we didn’t even reached four minutes.

"Possibly some teams remembered that I won in Stirling two years ago surviving such a breakaway."

Drapac will try to show their colours again on tomorrow's second stage which actually finishes in Stirling where Clarke won two years ago. If it comes down to a sprint on the uphill finishing straight, the team will be hopeful that Jonathan Cantwell can make his presence felt.