Adelaide, Australia – Cycling legend Lance Armstrong looked comfortable Tuesday in his first stage race since the last of his seven Tour de France victories in 2005.

The 37-year-old Texan, out of retirement and at the head of the Astana Team, finished safely in the bunch in the first stage of Australia’s Tour Down Under in the south-coast city of Adelaide,

German Andre Greipel, last year’s winner of the six-day event, won a sprint finish ahead of Australians Stuart O’Grady and Baden Cooke.

Armstrong, like most of the 133 riders in the 140-kilometre stage, was content with an uneventful first day of the opening event of the 2009 professional road racing season.

The world’s most famous cancer survivor had his first taste of top-class racing Sunday in the 51-kilometre street-circuit criterium. In the curtain raiser to the 11th edition of the Tour Down Under, Armstrong also finished in the pack.

“I still go in with modest expectations – mixed with nerves and excitement,” Armstrong said before the start. “No major goals – other than to make it through and get back to the rhythm of racing.”

His fears of being the first rider dropped from the peloton were unfounded. The self-styled “old fart” looked comfortable over the first day’s easy climbs – despite the
30-degree heart.

It’s a gentle reintroduction to the rigours of road racing. The Tour Down Under, mostly over flat countryside and with stages averaging just 133 kilometres, is a world away from the savage climbs and 200-kilometre-plus stages of the Tour de France and other European majors.

Australia’s Stuart O’Grady, a two-time Tour Down Under winner, has joined others in predicting that Armstrong will show his mettle in the hilly stages on Wednesday and Saturday. The penultimate stage, Saturday, is when the riders tackle Willunga Hill – and an event-winning breakaway could be possible.

“He’s still one of the most gifted athletes to have walked the planet,” O’Grady said. “He’s a super-freak athlete, and we can’t forget that, even if he’s been out of the game for a few years.”

The Tour Down Under is unique in the 15-event ProTour calendar with all nights spent in Adelaide, with riders driven to the start of each outlying stage.

Race director Mike Turtur warned that the race had been toughened up after it earned ProTour status last year. Sprinters have dominated in previous years, with the usual ending being a bunch finish and only seconds separating those on the podium.

“It means that, in my opinion, you can be two minutes down on general classification and still win,” he said. “In the past, that wasn’t possible. It’s opened the race up.” (dpa)