Tour Down Under: Viviani wins stage 3 in Victor Harbor

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Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) won stage 3 at the Santos Tour Down Under with a late burst of speed that pushed him past overall race leader Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott), who settled for third. Team Sunweb's Phil Bauhaus was second.

Ewan's team took control in the final kilometres and set the race leader up well for a second consecutive win, but as he appeared to hesitate in the closing 200 metres Viviani sailed past for the win and Bauhaus stopped up second. The win is Viviani's first of 2018 and his first for Quick-Step since moving to the Belgian team from Team Sky in the off-season.

"It's the fourth sprint we do, and it's not easy to come in January in good condition, so I think I never win in the early season like that," Viviani said. "That's a good thing. I feel really, really lucky to be here and to take this win."

The Italian said he beat the day's heat, which soared past 40 degrees, by drinking a lot and staying as fresh as possible for the finale.

"I just tried to be in good position," Viviani said after the stage. "The guys did another perfect job. The feeling was good with the team. I have an amazing team. I really thank all of my mates."

Viviani can also thank Ewan, who admitted he botched the finale badly after his teammates set him up so well. Commentators speculated that Ewan saw a gap behind himself and lead-out man Alexander Edmondson and Ewan eased up to let his domestique take the win, but Ewan said it was just a simple mistake of starting his sprint too late.

"I'm pretty disappointed actually," Ewan said. "My team gave me an absolutely perfect lead-out, but I really stuffed it up the end. "It was a bit of a head wind and I didn't want to go too early. I waited a little bit too long, and Elia got the jump on me. He was too quick to bring him back.

"I think in hindsight with that finish you are better off coming from behind as I did last year. But like I said, I cannot fault my team. They were absolutely perfect. They did exactly what I asked them to do, and it was my stuff up in the end."

The stage from Glenelg to Victor Harbor was supposed to be 146.km long and include three 13km circuits around Victor Harbor. But forecasts for high heat caused organisers to remove two of the finishing circuit laps and shorten the stage to 120.5km. 

After a 7km neutral roll out, two riders escaped the bunch. The names will be familiar to people following the race, as KOM leader Nicholas Dlamini (Dimension Data) and Scott Bowden (UniSA-Australia) each made the move for the third-consecutive day.

With the heat in play, the peloton was confident in letting the gap go out, and the duo quickly had an advantage that approached six minutes. Dlamini took the maximum points on the first KOM 38km into the day, but then dropped off the pace with more than 50km to go.

Bowden continued on solo, taking top points in the intermediate sprints at 61.6km and 88.3km, leaving the GC contenders to fight for the remaining bonus seconds up for grabs. Bowden's day off the front ended just inside 20km to go.

With all the escapees scooped up, the race reshuffled slightly at the front, and Katusha-Alpecin's Tiago Machado took advantage to sneak away. The Portuguese rider got little reaction from the field, and he built a gap of 17 seconds over the ensuing kilometres before the sprinters' teams got serious and brought him back with 8km to go.

From there the battle for position intensified, with Mitchelton-Scott eventually taking control and lining things up for Ewan, only to be disappointed. 

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