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Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2019

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Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the 2019 men's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

Today's race covers 163km, starting and finishing in Geelong, in Victoria, Australia, and heading down to Cadel Evans' hometown of Barwon Heads, and then following the Great Ocean Road west along the coast to Torquay and Bells Beach before heading north back to Geelong.

However, as the race approaches the Geelong suburbs, the riders face four climbs of Challambra Crescent, which is a tough sting in the tail, and should decide the race.

In Saturday's women's race – won by Astana's Arlenis Sierra – the Challambra climb indeed proved to be key, although Sierra only managed to tag on to a group of five riders who had got away on the climb when she was on the descent.

The women's race only faced the climb once on the finishing circuit, whereas today's men's race climbs it once, heads through the start/finish area, and then has three more laps.

It's currently 23C in Geelong – perfect racing weather!

We're just a couple of minutes away from the start. There are currently only gentle winds down on the coast, but currently westerly – so a headwind – but changing this afternoon to south-easterly, so there could be some crosswind action if it gets any stronger.

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McCarthy is certainly a favourite, as is Deceuninck-QuickStep sprinter Elia Viviani and Mitchelton-Scott's Daryl Impey, which just happened to be the podium at last year's race.

We're under way, and still in the neutral zone for now.

This is such an open race, and could go a climber's way, if they can get away on the Challambra climb, or a sprinter that can get over the climbs – or any kind of rider in between! And that was entirely intentional, 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans says.

Race director Scott Sunderland has dropped the flag – and we're off.

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It looks as though the peloton is happy to let this group go. It's in stark contrast to yesterday's women's race, where the race didn't really get going until the first intermediate sprint after 25km in Barwon Heads.

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Our man Stephen Farrand is currently in Argentina for the Vuelta a San Juan stage race, which also begins today – Sunday.

Laurens De Vreese – who's part of the three-man breakaway here at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race – has just given the TV camera a few lines from his Astana team's so-bad-it's-good team rap. If you haven't seen it in all its glory yet, you so should.

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The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race race director – former pro Scott Sunderland – has been announced as the new Flanders Classics general race director.

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It's still Mitchelton-Scott's Sam Bewley on the front of the bunch, but with the massed ranks of Team Sky just behind him.

Team Sky have a strong team here at this WorldTour race, of course. Wout Poels and Kenny Elissonde will be two of their riders most likely to do something. Those who watched the recent Tour Down Under will have seen the two of them go on the attack on Willunga Hill, although the stage was eventually won by Trek-Segafredo's Richie Porte.

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Sorry – that's 40km covered, not 30km. Maths fail.

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The three leaders went through the intermediate sprint in the order Elliott, De Vreese, Turnbull – without sprinting, so the earlier 'agreement' stood. We should then see the Belgian, De Vreese, take the KOM on the way out of Bells Beach.

We're heading towards the race's first real climb, which is on the way out of Bells Beach, where we leave the coast and start heading back towards the city of Geelong.

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Check out our preview – here – of this race, in which we name our favourites. They include last year's winner Jay McCarthy, Elia Viviani and Daryl Impey, plus Danny Van Poppel, Kenny Elissonde and Luis Leon Sanchez, and some climbers, too, in Richie Porte and Michael Woods.

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The bunch is now inside the last 100km of the race, and is being led by the Bora-Hansgrohe and Mitchelton-Scott teams. They've pulled the break's lead back to under four minutes.

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The breakaway has worked well together today, and the three riders are putting the hammer down now, as their lead is slowly starting to fall again.

Nathan Elliott and Carter Turnbull are the two other riders in the break, both riding here at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race for the KordaMentha Real Estate Australian national team

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The break's heading towards the first climb of Challambra Crescent on the outskirts of Geelong. The race will take it on four times in total before the end of this race.

What's going to happen to the break on the climb? They still have just under three minutes' lead on the peloton, so will they try to stay together for a bit longer yet?

That was a quick answer: Turnbull has hit the lower slopes of Challambra and almost come to a standstill after working so hard for his teammate Elliott in the break.

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De Vreese was first over the top of the Challambra Crescent climb, taking maximum KOM points. Elliott was second, and Turnbull, although he's dropped away from the break, will take third – although the peloton won't be far behind him.

The bunch stayed together over the Challambra Crescent climb this first time, and it's still being led by riders from Mitchelton-Scott – who are riding today for Tour Down Under winner Daryl Impey – and Bora-Hansgrohe, who are hoping that defending champion Jay McCarthy can take the win again.

Going through the finish area with 50km – three 16.6km laps – to go, our leaders, Nathan Elliott (KordaMentha Real Estate Australian national team) and Laurens De Vreese (Astana) go through with a 2:40 lead over the bunch.

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Inside three laps to go of this finishing circuit, we're seeing Trek-Segafredo up near the front of the bunch as we approach the second climb of Challambra Crescent.

Elliott and De Vreese still have a 2:41 lead with 43.5km to go, and will get over this second, upcoming climb of Challambra at the head of the race.

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De Vreese goes over the top of Challambra ahead of Elliott. That's two of the climbs done, and two to go.

There's a bit of daylight between De Vreese and Elliott on the descent, but the Belgian appears to still be waiting for the Australian.

Mitchelton-Scott's Rob Stannard is pushing the pace on Challambra at the front of the bunch, with EF Education First's Jimmy Whelan on his wheel. The bunch is still together going over the top, but the pace is being pushed now, and next time around we could start seeing some gaps.

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Nic Dlamini (Dimension Data) and Astana's Davide Ballerini have come out of the bunch on a bit of a descent on this 16.6km finishing circuit.

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De Vreese still leads the race, with two chasers – De Vreese's Astana teammate Davide Balerini and Dimension Data's Nic Dlamini – closing fast, and KordaMentha's Nathan Elliott between them, in no man's land, and about to be caught.

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Still over a minute's lead for the lone leader, Astana's Davide Ballerini, with just over 12km to go. He's heading towards the final climb of Challambra Crescent, where his lead will surely tumble.

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Ballerini's lead is coming down quickly on the last climb of Challambra.

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EF's Mitchell Docker is leading the bunch onto the climb.

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1km to go!

EF, UAE and Deceuninck are at the front.

Morkov leads it out for Viviani, and Ewan is there. Viviani wins!

Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) wins, ahead of Lotto Soudal's Caleb Ewan.

1. Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep

1. Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 3:54:35

Race winner Viviani praised his Deceuninck-QuickStep team for helping him during today's race, with particular praise for lead-out man Michael Mørkøv.

Head over to Cyclingnews for a brief report and brief results of today's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race – as well as all the latest pro cycling news – with a full report and full results to follow.

Thanks for joining us for today's race. We'll be back with plenty more live coverage during the 2019 season.

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