Simon Gerrans kicked off his Tour Down Under campaign in the best possible way when he won the opening stage in a slightly uphill sprint in Angaston to become the first leader of the event. Having beaten Andre Greipel in the final dash to the line, the Australian champion admitted to have surprised himself a bit but is now intent on keeping the leader's jersey all the way to the finish in Adelaide.

Two-time former champion Simon Gerrans signalled his intentions early at the Santos Tour Down Under, taking a dominant sprint win and the Ochre leader’s jersey on stage one into Angaston. Gerrans narrowly edged out André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Steele von Hoff (Garmin-Sharp), from a 70-man bunch reduced by the challenging Menglers Hill that came with 12 kilometres to go. 

The final 2,7km climb had an average gradient of 8,1% and was expected to be a bit too much for most of the sprinters. As a good climber with a fast sprint, Gerrans had been marked as one of the favourites for the stage but when Greipel made it over the ascent as the only real sprinter, Orica-GreenEDGE sports director Matt White thought that the win had slipped away.

However, Gerrans defied expectations by beating one of the best sprinters in the world.

“It was a bigger group than I expected to make it to the finish today,” said White. “I didn’t think Greipel would get there - he was the only pure sprinter who really made it. Most people wouldn’t bet on Gerro taking out Greipel in a sprint, but it was a hard run in to the line. It was quite deceptive and a real grind of a sprint. Gerro got there fresher than André, and he was dropped off very, very well by Impey and Matthews. If the right circumstances come about, Simon is very hard to beat."

Gerrans continues his dream start to the season, taking his first WorldTour victory of 2014 just one week after he took the Australian National Road Race Championship in Buninyong, and admitted to being surprised to take the sprint win over Greipel.

“I didn’t imagine I’d be able to come past Greipel until the very end,” said Gerrans. “But in the final two kilometres all of the Lotto guys were looking tired and had been working hard and I thought maybe Greipel wouldn’t be able to do his normal sprint. So I took his wheel in the sprint, and it was only in the last 100 metres that I felt confident I would be able to come past him.

"I guess I’ve surprised a few, myself included," he added. "Obviously André (Greipel) is one of the fastest sprinters around. It was a tough finale and everyone was tired. I had to sprint really late because of the head wind (and) looking towards the end of the week, it might have been better if André had the lead but we’ve seen in the past few years that this race is won or lost by seconds, so you have to take every opportunity.

"Every second counts. I hope it’s not too early to hold the jersey but we have a fantastic squad here, so I’m optimistic for keeping the lead till the end."

Earlier in the 135 kilometre stage through the Barossa, Gerrans made his overall ambitions clear by targeting time bonuses in the intermediate sprint. He took a one second bonus for third place, with Will Clarke (Drapac) and Neil van der Ploeg (UniSA) scooping up the major sprint points from the break.

“Two years ago, we won on a count-back here,” continued White. “Seconds matter, and even those little time bonuses make a big difference to the overall at the end of the week. So if we take time bonuses when we can, it all adds up, and we’re obviously off to a great start already.”

Gerrans is a two-time winner of this event. In his first overall victory, he took out the first stage and wore the leader’s jersey from start to finish of the six day-long stage race. Despite the added pressure on the team to defend the jersey, White remains confident in Gerrans’s ability to take out the overall.

“We assumed a degree of responsibility to ride and control today, even though no one had the jersey yet,” said White. “It’s a short tour and we’ve come here with a team of guys that can control the race until the end.”

Gerrans echoed those sentiments, reiterating that the strong team around him has come prepared to race hard for the overall and will now face a tough week defending the lead.

“Taking the jersey so early on has put a heck of a lot of pressure on the whole team here,” said Gerrans. “Already leading into the race everyone knew that we were really keen to win here and I’m obviously coming off the back of the Australian championships in good shape, and now I’ve probably just confirmed that for everybody. So we’ve got a big task in front of us to defend the jersey from here on.”

With ORICA-GreenEDGE playing a predictably large part in the way the race unfolded today, Gerrans thanked his teammates for their work in delivering him to the line.

“The guys worked really well for me today,” added Gerrans. “Everybody knew what their roles were throughout the stage and it’s really nice to finish it off when everyone has done their job perfectly. Durbo did a fantastic job riding the front, Matty Hayman looked after me the entire stage and then having Bling [Michael Matthews], Daryl and Clarkey there to take me into the final 200 metres was brilliant, so my win today was just finishing off some fantastic teamwork and I’m really pleased.”

Gerrans will defend his jersey in tomorrow's second stage which ends with the traditional uphill sprint in Stirling. With Michael Matthews being a former winner of the stage, Matthew Goss finishing 2nd last year, and Gerrans keen to add a few more bonus seconds, the home team has several strong cards to play.