The battle of the general classification contenders of the Tour Down Under started in earnest on stage 3 from Norwood to Uraidla with a testing climb with 5.6km to go separating the top men. Defending champion Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), however, was not among them.
The 28-year-old crashed in the feed zone with around 60 kilometres remaining, which didn't help his case. He sustained only some contusions but no major injuries and was able to quickly get up and rejoin the peloton.
However, his crash came 10km before a fast, technical descent that led into the key climb of Knotts Hill - a 2.6km climb averaging 8% and kicking up to a maximum of 13.4% - a key point for positioning and had him on the back foot.
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"It was a bit of a shit fight all day," Williams said, according to his team. "I came down in a crash just before the climb. It was just a touch of wheels and I came down.
"Then I tried to recompose and come back and I was alright. But I just didn't have the minerals on the climb and I fell behind. It's not ideal but so is life and we have three more days to try and be good."
Williams sits in 23rd place in the general classification after stage 3, losing 20 seconds to the main group and 35 seconds to new race leader Javier Romo (Movistar) after being paced to the line by Corbin Strong and Michael Woods.
Last year, Williams made the difference not only by keeping his rivals close on the summit finishes in the finals of two stages but by snatching time bonuses, too. This year, there is likely only Willunga Hill on stage 5 left as a major opportunity to move up the standings, but Williams isn't giving up yet.
"Hopefully we can jump back from this and try and be good for the rest of the race," he concluded.
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