Sydney  - Cycling great Lance Armstrong was on the pace Wednesday as Australia's Tour Down Under hit the Adelaide hills.

The 145-kilometre second stage winds up with three hilly 20-kilometre circuits and the 37-year-old Texan showed he was in his element as the gradients got steeper.

It's Armstrong's first stage race since announcing in September his three-year furlough was over and he would come back and try for an eighth Tour de France victory.

"I'm taking this day by day," Armstrong said after Germany's Andre Greipel beat other sprinters to the line to take the first stage. "All the early indications are that I'm feeling pretty good, but I'll see how the recovery is."

Armstrong finished in the bunch and was given the same time as the winner.

Greipel, last year's Tour Down Under winner, is not favoured to triumph this year because of changes intended to benefit all-rounders like Armstrong.

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.

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. (dpa)