Tour Down Under: Peter Sagan wins stage 3 in Uraidla

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) reprised his role from 2018 during stage 3 at the Tour Down Under on Thursday, taking the stage win again in Uraidla after following Daryl Impey's initial jump to the line on the slightly uphill finish. Unlike 2018, however, when Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) came in second to Sagan on his way to winning the overall, the South African was beaten to the line by Astana's Luis Leon Sanchez, who claimed the runner-up spot this time.

Overnight leader Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) finished fifth on the same time as Sagan and held onto his race lead by one second over the former world champion. Sanchez is now third, nine seconds back, with Impey in fifth at 11 seconds.

"I'm very happy to win, and very grateful to my teammates," Sagan told the media after stepping down off the podium. "They did a great job and took care of me, keeping me at the front, which meant that I was able to save a lot of energy for the final lap.

"So I won – only by a little bit – but I won, and I'm very happy about that."

Sagan also took control of the points competition, relieving stage 1 winner Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) of his blue jersey, despite the Italian champion's day out in the early breakaway, from which he grabbed maximum points at both intermediate sprints.

The move, which went clear with the momentum of the first sprint, also temporarily gave Viviani back the race lead from Bevin thanks to six seconds' worth of time bonuses, but Viviani would later fall back from the break to the bunch, and was subsequently dropped, trailing home more than 12 minutes down on stage winner Sagan.

Tour Down Under stage 3 race highlights

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With Viviani in the initial move were Nicholas Dlamini (Dimension Data), James Whelan (EF Education First), Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale), Astana's Manuele Boaro, Leo Vincent (Groupama-FDJ) and UniSA-Australia's Michael Potter, and the septet quickly built up a healthy lead, which had reached almost three minutes as they approached the day's only KOM at Fox Creek, just under 40km into the stage.

Here, Boaro revealed his interest in having made the break, powering over the climb to take the maximum 10 points, which would move him up to second place in the mountains classification behind Jason Lea (UniSA-Australia), who holds on to the polka-dot jersey with an eight-point buffer.

The bunch, controlled for most of the day by race leader Bevin's CCC Team, was content to let the seven riders have their fun, but as the distance and the day's intense heat began to take its toll, first Viviani and, later, Denz, Boaro and Vincent dropped off the pace, leaving only Whelan, Dlamini and Potter at the head of affairs.

A crash in the bunch with just under 40km to go brought down a number of riders, but, with no serious injuries, there was little interruption to what had become a chase by CCC.

Two riders – EF Education First's Alberto Bettiol and Astana's Davide Ballerini – nevertheless took the opportunity to jump away from the peloton, linking up first with Boaro, who was in turn able to stick with the duo and come back up to the leading trio, making a leading group of six made up of two Astana riders, two EF riders and one each from Dimension Data and UniSA-Australia with 30km left of the stage to race.

As riders continued to drop out of the back of the peloton, the seven laps of the 14km finish circuit around Uraidla continued to take their toll at the front of the race, too, and it was the EF duo of Whelan and Bettiol left alone in the lead with just two circuits to go.

Whelan – in his first year with the WorldTour team – had been out front all day, and unselfishly buried himself for Bettiol to try to help his teammate win the stage. But with 20km left to race, the effort became too much for the young Australian, leaving Bettiol to battle on alone. The Italian made it to just inside the final lap before being swept up by what was left of the peloton, led by a Mitchelton-Scott team intent on dragging defending champion Daryl Impey to the line.

However, it was another EF rider – Lachlan Morton – who came to the front to set an infernal pace on the short climbs for his team leader Michael Woods with 8km to go, before Mitchelton once again took control thanks to 2018 Australian road race champion Alex Edmondson.

Bevin was still in the ever-decreasing group, as was 2017 Tour Down Under champion Richie Porte and, more surprisingly, Sagan, but inside 3km to go, it was Team Sky's Kenny Elissonde who put in the first meaningful attack, gaining a considerable gap with Jumbo-Visma's Robert Gesink stuck in no man's land as the Dutchman tried to respond.

EF went yet again, and this time it was Woods, who swept up first Gesink and then Elissonde, and went into the final two kilometres with nothing but a stage victory on his mind. But despite the Canadian's evident strength, he, too, was reined in, and it was Mitchelton's Lucas Hamilton – with Impey glued to his back wheel – that took the race under the kilometre-to-go banner, with Impey able to open his sprint at the 500-metre mark.

Sagan, however, was right on his wheel, with Sanchez behind the Slovakian. It was a three-horse race, and, as Impey faded, Sanchez and Sagan were left to fight it out, with the nod going to Sagan by the smallest of margins.

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