Greipel claims opening stage

Lotto-Belisol's Andre Greipel has taken out stage one of the Tour Down Under in Australia ahead of Aleessandro Petacchi in a photo finish.

The German sprinter continued his strong start to the season to move into an early race lead after the 149km stage from Prospect to the country town of Clare, north of Adelaide.

The race was marred by a high-speed crash less than a kilometre from the finish line when a rider hit a female spectator which caused a mass pile-up as fewer than 20 riders finished in the front group.

Earlier, a group of four riders, including two-time Australian under-23 champion Rohan Dennis, broke away six kilometres into the stage and built their lead to 11 minutes and 40 seconds.

However, the main group chased them down in sweltering and blustery conditions to set up what would have been a bulk sprint finish.

For much of the day, temperatures exceeding 35 degrees contributed to the sluggish peloton and life was made all the more difficult with race radio down due to heavy winds.

In their world debut, the new GreenEDGE squad did much of the pacesetting with assistance from Team Sky.

Amid the chaos, Yauheni Hutarovich of FJD BigMat placed third with Greipel and Petacchi split by the barest of margins.

A number of riders, including Australian Robbie McEwen (GreenEDGE) and Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda) fell in the crash with the road subsequently blocked, as the remaining sprint contenders dashed to the downhill finish.