Welcome to Stage 2. As we mentioned yesterday, this is a classic Tour Down Under stage, and
looking at the record books, not one for your out-and-out sprinter. The likes of Jay McCarthy,
Juanjo Lobato, Diego Ulissi and Tom-Jelte Slagter have come out on top in Stirling in
recent years...one would think then, that today could be Peter Sagan’s day. Let’s
find out! First things first though, and the matter
of establishing the day’s breakaway. Sure enough, the same riders in yesterday’s break
all put their hands up for another day up front, but today they also had the company
of Movistar neo pro Jaime Castrillo. I will be indebted forever to the Movistar website
for that flawless pronunciation. Dimension Data’s Nicholas Dlamini leads
the King of the Mountains classification, and didn’t have to wait long for a chance
to build his advantage. He was first to the summit of Tea Tree Gully Hill, and after just
13km his involvement in the breakaway was over with his KOM points safely in the bag.
The peloton were happy to relax into the day, letting the lead expand upwards of 6 minutes.
With three men still out front, they would hoover up all the points and bonus seconds
available at the first intermediate sprint at km 45. Will Clarke of EF Education First-Drapac
performing his first actual sprint for an intermediate sprint this week - he outmuscled
Castrillo to the line. Halfway through the race, and the riders had
made their way onto the finishing circuit around Stirling. The last intermediate sprint
of the day in Mylor at km77 was taken again by Clarke, who had accrued enough bonus seconds
to take the virtual race lead at this point. Neither he, nor UNI-SA’s Scott Bowden, had
any interest in stealing a march on the peloton today - with the sprints over for the stage,
they both dropped back, with just Castrillo working away on his own.
With temperatures creeping towards 40ºC, the challenge of sustaining a long range move
was a difficult one. Bahrain Merida had set to work at the front of the pack to start
reducing the deficit - they had Jon and Gorka Izagirre hoping for a chance today at the
finish. It’s not been a great week for the FDJ team
- Daniel Hoelgard crashed out of the race on stage 1, and now Steve Morabito was on
the deck. We understand that the medics popped his shoulder back into its socket before he
got back on his bike. A candidate for Matt’s toughest riders maybe?
Meanwhile up front, the impetus from Bahrain Merida had cut our plucky Spaniard’s lead
significantly - an advantage which was once over 6 minutes was now down to just 1m20s
with 40km and 2 mini laps around Stirling to go.
By the time they came round for the final lap, Castrillo was caught, and with the hilly
circuit, it was was a reduced bunch of around 50 riders now in the front group. This notoriously
tricky uphill finish straight saw Anthony Roux light the touchpaper, and Daryl Impey
followed up, closely followed by Sagan. It looked for a moment like a formality for the
triple World Champion, but the diminutive Caleb Ewan emerged from the Slovak’s slipstream
and punched his way over the line, with Impey showing fantastic endurance to hold his teammate’s
wheel for 2nd. That victory puts him into the ochre jersey
for now. Andre Greipel found the pace a little too hot to handle today and was happy to roll
in with the Grupetto. It’s fair to say the first selection of the race has been made,
but with 47 riders still within 17 seconds of the leader, there are plenty of riders
still in contention for overall honours. Join us tomorrow for Stage 3 - more potential for
the sprinters from Glenelg to Victor Harbor