Peter Sagan wins People's Choice Classic

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Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed his first win of the season with victory in the People's Choice Classics in Adelaide. The world champion beat Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) to win the race and get off the mark for 2018.

"I am very happy," said Sagan. "I was ok but after some guys came from the back they closed me a little bit but in the end it went very well. I am very happy for that and I didn’t expect I could win today."

There was a heavy fall for Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Sky) with the rider crashing in the sprint. He was taken to hospital for checks on his right side and suffered numerous cuts.

The 22-lap race, which totalled 50.6km in distance, saw the WorldTour teams assemble for the first time this season with the Tour Down Under proper starting in two days’ time.

It didn’t take long for the attacks to start, with Bahrain-Merida the first squad to fire a rider up the road. EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale chased the move down but by the start of the third lap a group of three had move clear.

At the front of the , Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek Segafredo), Tom Bohli (BMC Racing) and Zak Dempster (Uni-S-Ausrtralia) slipped clear, and they were soon joined by Timothy Roe ((Uni-S-Ausrtralia), Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha-Alpecin), Lachlan Morton (Dimension Data) and Manuele Boara (Bahrain-Merida). This group steadily built up a lead of around 45 seconds in the opening half of the race as Quick-Step Floors, Mitcheton Scott, Sunweb and Lotto Soudal monitored the front of the main field.

Although the break made an instant impression, their lack of cohesion soon cost them. They fought over the intermediate sprints and Restrepo’s eagerness to push on and split the group caused instant problems. With 16 laps remaining, the Katusha Alpecin rider broke the group, skipping clear with veteran Boara and BMC Racing’s Bohli, but even that level of cooperation was short-lived. Restrepo soon sat up and when Quick-Step intensified their chase with around 6 laps to go, the two remaining leaders were slowly pulled back.

On lap 18, with the race back together, the sprinters’ teams began to vie for position. This caused the briefest of lulls and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) soloed off the front. The move proved to be as futile as the host broadcaster’s attempts of streaming the event live – it cut out with two laps to go – but Bora showed their dominance to draw first blood. Sagan, who came into the race calling for calm and stating that he was racing without pressure, has hit the ground running. It’s only January and the rest of the peloton have been put on notice.

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