Caleb Ewan of Orica Scott made it two wins in three stages when he came up to snatch victory at the end of the third stage of the 19th Santos Tour Down Under.
Richie Porte of BMC was in the leader’s ochre jersey thanks to his win on Stage 2 from Stirling to Paracombe, his forth in the Tour Down Under but first outside Willunga Hill and led the riders out on a 144km stage three from Glenelg, a seaside town a tram ride away from Adelaide to Victor Harbor.
The first break on the Southern Expressway was started by Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal and saw him joined by AG2R’s Clement Chevrier, Jeremy Maison of FDJ and Vegard Laengen of the UAE Abu Dhabi team.
The quartet were quickly 2.50 ahead after twenty-two kilometres and that soon extended to 4.05 as they made their way to the day’s KOM at Selig Hill.
De Gendt took the points on the climb as expected ahead of Maison and Chevrier to join Porte on sixteen points in that competition with Maison taking the sprint at Myponga with 98kms left.
There were spots of rain as the gap went out to 4.30 but then dropped to 3.55 but back up to 4.10 after sixty kilometres to a peloton which had Porte’s BMC team on the front, setting the pace, followed by Movistar.
It was back at 3.50 when Thomas De Gendt took the three seconds on the second sprint in Inman Valley ahead of Laengen, the most combative rider of the day and Maison.
Victor Harbor, which was spelt wrong in the original surveys in the 1880’s, was the setting for four 13km closing circuits and the finish line and the break was 3.50 ahead as they started on those laps watched by big crowds.
A minute and four seconds were lopped off by the peloton as Chevrier, the former IAM Cycling rider led the escapers onto the second lap and the gap continued to fall dropping to 1.55 with thirty kilometres to go.
At the start of lap three, the gap stood at 1.15 so with 24kms left, Laengen, who stands at six foot eight, attacked the break and got a few hundred yards clear.
The peloton were not backing down. They got the gap down to 53 seconds and then swept up De Gendt, Maison and Chevrier with fourteen kilometres remaining.
Laengen went under the ten kilometres to go banner with a lead of twenty seconds but the peloton had him in their sights and with five kilometres to go, the peloton had made the catch.
The speed went up to 70kmh with Dimension Data and Quick Step leading before there was a crash which saw Jan Bakelants go down along with Gorka Izagirre who was second on GC.
Team Sky were in control going into the final corner. Sam Bennett went as did Sagan but up came Caleb Ewan of Orica Scott to win in 3.24.45 ahead of Peter Sagan and Niccolo Bonfiazio.
Richie Porte who keeps his race leader and KOM jerseys said: ‘‘It was fine today. The team played a big role and it’s another step towards the finish. If there is any wind it makes for a stressful day but I am home safe’’.
The stage winner Caleb Ewan said: ‘‘It was pretty tough and took me three quarters of the race to get back but it was a tough day. ‘‘ I lost my team mates apart from Durbridge for the last few kilometres but I got through in the end.’’
Source: DSG
