Stage 3 had been billed as potentially the toughest stage in the history of the Tour Down Under - but while it gave a clearer picture of the overall contenders, it still couldn't cause major gaps at the top of the standings, with at least 18 riders remaining in contention.
Javier Romo (Movistar) carved out a five-second gap at the line with his solo winning attack, and together with a 10-second time bonus, shot to the top of the overall standings and into the ochre jersey. However, Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) remains a close threat and is just behind at eight seconds.
Narvaez, second overall in the 2024 Tour Down Under, proved his climbing prowess when he was second to Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNl) atop Willunga Hill in last year's edition. After this year's stage 3, he has teammate Jay Vine sitting only seven more seconds down on Romo, giving UAE yet another card to play in the final three stages.
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"Obviously, everyone's come here with some good form and it was really, really tough to make a difference," Vine told Cyclingnews in Uraidla. "I think we had 15 to 20, guys in the end."
"[It's] a bit different to two years ago when we went over Corkscrew [stage 3 in 2023], which was roughly the same amount of time, and we had three of us."
That year Vine went clear with eventual winner Simon Yates and Pello Bilbao, but this time on Knotts Hill the race came back together after a flurry of attacks before the summit, and Romo then made his winning move on the rolling plateau after the KOM.
"It was an interesting one," Vin added. "It was frustrating in the race - when you have that many riders, it's hard to get cooperation, and also, everyone wants not to miss the move, so it just comes down to a big group sprint."
Aside from the climb, the kilometre before a technical descent with 12.5km to go saw a huge push from teams to put their contenders into position, adding stress to an up-and-down stage that kept riders on their toes.
"It was hectic all day today, but I think we've all got our bark [skin] on us still, so that's good."
Behind third-placed Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R) and Magnus Sheffield (Ineos) is best young rider leader Albert Philipsen - one of four other Lidl-Trek riders in the top 18.
Philipsen is in his first WorldTour race fresh out of the junior ranks but already has high expectations for himself in the Tour Down Under. He was disappointed to finish fourth and outside of the time bonuses in Uraidla.
"I didn't quite get in the right moves and had to close a bit too much," Philipsen said. "Then in the sprint, I got close to the barriers and had to settle for fourth place."
Fisher-Black remarked on the tactics of Lidl-Trek, who had the most riders in the group, but did not do more at the front of the group to bring back Romol. But Philipsen explained, "It was quite hectic in the final and hard to talk together, so it didn't really play out in our favour this time."
The Danish rider was learning WorldTour racing in real time, in particular the importance of positioning in key moments. "It was really scary going into the descent [before Knotts Hill] because everybody wanted to be in first position. It was an all-out sprint to get there. I didn't quite make it in the first lap but in the second lap, I was able to place myself good with help from a lot of teammates."
Philipsen had teammates Konrad, Andrea Bagioli, Juan Pedro Lopez and Bauke Mollema in the group, but was kicking himself for not getting a better result.
"I'm really happy to grab the white jersey [of best young rider] for now, but I'm a bit disappointed with the stage. I think I could have done more."
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