Welcome to Stage 3 of the Tour Down Under.
Today the race rolls south out of the seaside suburb of Glenelg through the Fleurieu Peninsula
and the famous McLaren Vale wine region before tackling 4 loops around the finish at Victor Harbor.
On paper, more of a Sagan day than a Porte day, however the windy, potentially rainy
conditions around Victor Harbor meant that there would be no chance for anyone to sit
back and relax.
Quick shout out to the GCN fan in the crowd there - leave a comment below if you just
spotted yourself!
A breakaway managed to establish itself on a short drag not long after the official start.
Thomas de Gendt of Lotto Soudal made the initial move, with Jeremy Maison of FDJ, Clement Chevrier
of AG2R La Mondiale, and Vegard Stake Laengen of UAE Abu Dhabi bridging over and forming
the move of the day.
The quartet established a steady rhythm over the first hour and had a lead of 4 minutes
over the peloton by the time they began the only KOM of the day at Sellicks Hill.
De Gendt was motivated to take this one, as 10 points here would leave him level with
Richie Porte at the top of the mountains classification.
The first intermediate sprint of the day was of less concern to the riders out front - Maison
nonchalantly rolling over the line in 1st.
Roughly halfway through the race, and the break reached the final intermediate sprint
of the day at Inman Valley Road - no sprint as such once again, this time de Gendt took
the points and a 3 second bonus.
By the time the quartet made it to Victor Harbor for the first time, they had maintained
the best part of a 4 minute lead over the peloton.
But it was inside the final hour of racing where the real work began back in the bunch,
with Bora-Hansgrohe collaborating with BMC to start reeling in the escapees.
With 2 laps of the finishing circuit remaining, Laengen decided his best chance of victory
was to go alone.
His breakaway companions never got back to him, and by the time we came around for the
final lap, the remnants of that break had been caught, with Laengen still 30 seconds
up the road.
The lofty Norwegian has shown himself as a good time trialist in the past, but it would
take a solo effort of Tony Martin proportions to hold off the eager peloton - in fact, the
catch was well timed with just 5km of racing remaining with Dimension Data now marshalling
the pace.
High speeds and twitchy riders often bear crashes, and we saw a nasty spill taking
out, among others, Gorka Izaguirre, lying 2nd in the overall standings.
We also saw Peter Sagan, by luck or judgement, just avoiding hitting the deck.
Into the final sprint and the main man Caleb Ewan found himself in an unfavourable position coming
out of the final corner.
However, he made the right decision in following Rudi Selig’s wheel while Sagan, safely back
at the head of affairs, elected to take the long way round.
Ewan took the slipstream for as long as he could before powering off the inside barrier
to take his 2nd victory of the race.
Ewan: I lost a few of my team mates on the downhill part cause it got really messy and I had Luke Durbridge there with me in the last kind
of 3 or 4kms and he positioned me perfectly in the end and I was a bit far back in the
last km but I was just jumping around on wheels and then luckily I got through in the end.
A quick recap of today’s top three, with Niccolo Bonifazio rounding out the podium
for Bahrain Merida.
Meanwhile, there were no major changes at the sharp end of the General Classification,
Richie Porte happy to get through another day unscathed, which is more than can be said
for Izaguirre.
The crash came inside 3km therefore he was awarded the same time as the bunch, however
we’ll have to wait and see how those injuries will affect him the rest of the week.
Join us again tomorrow for Stage 4, which could see another Ewan vs Sagan showdown.
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We’ve got a couple more videos for you now - you can catch up on the action from a crucial
Stage 2, or if you’re heading out on the bike, you can get tips on sprinting faster
for your next ride.