Santos Tour Down Under 2010 Gallery

 We haven't even finished January and the first ProTour race of the season is already done. The big teams got the chance for an early try out of their new bikes and equipment and to run the rule over some of their riders too all in the warm sunshine of a South Australian summer.

As ever when all the pre-season hype finally makes contact with reality it throws up as many questions as answers, we do know that Andre Greipel is definitely back and that HTC Columbia are as powerful a team as ever. Sky, well they looked impressive too, on occasions, the TDU confirmed that there are a lot more variables to control in a road race then there are on the track, but we're guessing they knew that already when they did get it together though - they kicked some serious arse.

The man Lance may be getting old, but he's still got something to offer it would seem, early season events were never his forte but the sponsors got their money's worth and fans of the younger generation were left to ponder on the fact that he looked in pretty good nick. Hungry even.

Next ProTour event is the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in two months time. Yep, the ProTour is back… sort of. In the meantime here's some great pics from last week's race to keep your mind off the grey skies outside.