Robbie McEwen continued his brilliant early season form with a thrilling victory in the opening stage of the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under in Adelaide's East End Tuesday evening.

In an All Australian trifecta, McEwen beat Queenslander Allan Davis with South Australian hero Stuart O'Grady third after 25 frenetic laps of a 2.5km circuit before a crowd estimated at close to 65,000.

It was McEwen's ninth stage victory in seven years and followed closely on his win in the Australian Open road championship in Echunga on Saturday.

The Tour de France sprint champion said he didn't expect to repeat his 2004 success in the opening stage last night because he was still feeling the effects of the national championships.

“I still tried to position myself as best I could; I knew other blokes would be suffering, they rode the nationals, too, and had a hard day,” he said.

Another summer evening in Adelaide

Photo: Graham Watson

“At the end my (Davitamon Lotto) teammates did a heap of work. Basically you just have to name the whole team, they did a fantastic job. They kept the race together; they were in breakaways, they led the race in the last couple of laps.”

O'Grady attempted to steal the race with an audacious breakaway in the last lap after his Cofidis teammate Matthew White led the bunch through at the bell.

But Davis was the first to react and inadvertently gave McEwen the leadout he required to win.

“I knew Al has been riding well,” he said. “We've been racing each other pretty much since we got back on the bike in pre-season.

“We've raced crits against each other through December and in Launceston, so I've seen how well he's going.

“It was Al who closed the gap down to Stuey because he jumped me before the final bend. That, in a way was what I was hoping for _ someone else to take me across the gap and then come off the wheel because on this slight downhill sprint it's good to come late.”

With the new format of the race, McEwen gained a six-second time bonus for his win, and leads Davis by 2 seconds in the overall classification.

And while his early-season form has been without peer, McEwen said he was not about to predict an overall victory with five days and 669km still to race.

“I'd like to win the overall, but I realize it's not just as simple as just saying that,” he said. “It's a very hard race and a lot can happen. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw. Mostly the strongest rider wins, but sometimes a break will form and someone will take time and you just can't get them back any more. I'll just take it day-to-day, like I do other years. It's very early in the season, January. It's good if you can win, but it's hard to be right up there 100 percent every day and be with every move.

“I'll try, but if it doesn't work, then at least I've had a good start. I've got the national jersey, I've led the tour, won a stage, so the pressure's off us, and we can race the rest of this race and the rest of the season relaxed.”