Coming into the queen stage of the Tour Down Under, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team had one goal - get Finn Fisher-Black onto the podium. Following the 23-year-old's solid performance on Willunga Hill, where he finished third on the stage, the team achieved their stated goal.
Fisher-Black had been sitting in fourth place after the strenuous climbing stage to Uraidla on Thursday, and with Lidl-Trek's Patrick Konrad suffering, the podium was his for the taking on Saturday.
The Kiwi chased up to the leaders in the final five hundred metres of the climb, trying to get to overnight leader Javier Romo (Movistar), who had made his move at the very start of the ascent and the other attackers.
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"Romo attacked pretty early on the climb, and I asked Ben [Zwiehoff] to set a good pace for me. It was ideal because then I could sit right in front and not miss the moves," Fisher-Black explained.
He chased after last year's Willunga stage winner Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNl), eventual stage winner Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates XRG) and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), managing to get around Plapp to take third.
"I was feeling pretty good and put in a couple of moves, but when the trio of those guys went up the road I couldn't follow their pace," Fisher-Black said.
"I always know I have a pretty good kick at the end. I was just thinking if I could just hold them 20-30 metres in front of me, I could follow them in the last 500 metres. When I saw 500 metres to go, I tried to catch them. For a moment I thought I could come around them, but they kicked at the same time."
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sports director Bernhard Eisel was pleased with the results, especially considering that the team were caught out with six kilometres to go when Ineos Grenadiers pulled away in the crosswinds with several of the favourites in tow, and Fisher-Black was on the wrong end of the split.
"They got a bit surprised there," Eisel told Cyclingnews. "They knew there was a crosswind there, and they will not forget that one. It's always at the beginning of the season, in the first races, that small, little mistakes happen, but they made it up quickly with a team effort. I think the strength we showed here as a team, we can get ourselves sometimes in trouble, but also out of trouble quickly."
Fortunately, Fisher-Black had an impressive Ben Zwiehoff and Laurence Pithie to usher him back into position on the climb.
"Ben was incredible - all the boys - even Danny van Poppel getting over the climb with Laurence [Pithie - on the first of two ascents of Willunga Hill]. We had literally this goal - we wanted three riders around Finn getting over the first time up the climb, and we managed to do so. So it worked out."
The team didn't get involved in the early breakaway like Jayco-AlUla and Ineos, who sent helpers into the move to relieve their team's pressure to chase. They also didn't try to toss a rider high up in the GC into the move, like UAE Team Emirates' Pablo Torres or Lidl-Trek's Juan Pedro Lopez, both of whom were drummed out of the attack.
"We had the plan - we knew it's up to other teams to really do the work. And we said [to Finn] save everything you have for pretty much one shot, and that's what he did," Eisel said.
"He probably could have won, but at the same time, Narvaez was extremely strong, so respect and well-deserved win. Romo was also absolutely stomping. We are more than happy - when we came here, we said top three in GC - and we're on course for top three, and third on the stage. So happy days."
The stage didn't go entirely to plan, however, as a crash on the descent from Willunga Hill that came early in the day took down points classification leader Sam Welsford in a touch of wheels.
"He bounced pretty well, but for the morale, it's never good to crash," Eisel said.
"It was his second crash now, so it's not perfect. But at the same time, sprinters are made differently, but it was absolutely not a necessary crash."
Welsford, winner of stages 1 and 2, is tied with Narvaez in the points classification but leads on the tie-breaker. He'll look to the short and fast final stage in Adelaide on Sunday to win again, seal the jersey and join Fisher-Black in the podium festivities.
