Australian cycling star Jack Bobridge has won stage one of the Tour Down Under.

Bobridge on Tuesday outsprinted three other members of the break that dominated the 132.6km race from the Barossa town of Tanunda to suburban Campbelltown.

The peloton mistimed the catch, closing rapidly as Bobridge crossed the line.

• Stuart O’Grady emerges from cycling exile 
• Training mishap destroys Gerrans’ Aussie summer

Bobridge appeared to sit up and start celebrating too early, but he comfortably won.

It also means the UniSA rider takes the race lead.

Bobridge and fellow Australian Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE), who are former team pursuit world champions, used their horsepower to help drive the break.

It was an ideal hitout for Bobridge, who will make an attempt on the hour record at the end of this month in Melbourne.

Bobridge, Durbridge, Russian Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra (Astana) attacked inside the first 10km of the stage and quickly went away.

They led by as much as two minutes 40 seconds, but the peloton kept the gap under control as Sky and Giant-Alpecin drove the pace.

Bobridge led the lead quartet over the Checkers Hill climb with just under 30km left.

Checkers Hill was a charred landscape after the bushfires that tore through the Adelaide Hills earlier this month.

There were concerns that some parts of the Tour route might have to change because of the fire damage, but the six-day race is going ahead as planned.

The leaders only had a 15-second gap with 13km left, but that went out to 40 seconds and the peloton left its run too late.

– AAP