Sterling performance from Matthews

Stirling normally throws up some classic finishes during the Tour Down Under and today was no exception. While it was one world champion, Cadel Evans, who showed his mettle in the Adelaide Hills town last year it was another, Michael Matthews, who demonstrated how an U23 world champ can serve it to the big boys.

The 20-year-old Rabobank neo-pro comfortably out-kicked André Greipel and fellow Australian Matthew Goss in the tough uphill finish and he was understandably ecstatic at taking a win in his first outing at a World Tour event - and on home soil, too.

"It's one of the most difficult races in this tour so it's really great to win this one and thanks to my team," said Matthews after the finish.

"With about a kilometre to go I felt pretty good and I had a look around and there was only a couple of sprinters there. I was a bit worried about Gossy because he's really fast and he's won a stage already but I just had the legs in the end I guess."

While Graeme Brown is Rabobank's captain for the event, the Dutch squad had to change tack given that the elder Australian was caught up behind a crash again today and it may have hurt his chances of being up there for the sprint.

"In the last three kilometres Tom [Leezer] was leading me all the way to the front. I was like 50th wheel with four kilometres to go and then he put me in perfect position for the sprint," said Matthews.

"Tom basically got me from about halfway down the bunch up the front and all the other boys were just behind me yelling at me making sure I had food and water. I couldn't have done it without them.

"With about a lap to go I wasn't feeling that good but my team came back and geed me up and they were just amazing the whole race, getting me motivated for the sprint and saying, 'You can do it' so I pulled it off for them at the end."

Time to lick the wounds

After the drama of yesterday's crashes there were two non-starters this morning in the suburb of Unley: owing to injuries sustained during stage two, Chris Sutton (Team Sky) and Bernard Sulzberger (UNiSA-Australia) were forced to withdraw from this year's race.

And for the same reason - yesterday's carnage - the peloton wasn't too keen to offer much resistance early. Just four kilometres after the 10km neutral section, Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) successfully attacked and soon had three other riders for company, the quartet quickly establishing a lead nudging three minutes.

The break's advantage would reach the five-minute mark as Aleksandr Kuschynski (Katusha), Luis Pasamontes (Movistar), Luke Durbridge (UniSA) and De Gendt contested the intermediate sprints at McLaren FLat and Echunga. Kuschynski prevailed in both but Durbridge took maximum points in the KOM on Germantown Hill after 80 clicks, netting the most aggressive rider prize in the process.

"I had a go. It was a solid day and you never know if it's going to come back or not," said Durbridge after the finish. "We had a good try and saw how we could go but unfortunately we got caught.

"It was good we kept the KOM in the team and the most aggressive is just a good jersey to wear for tomorrow as a reward for being in the breakaway today."

After catching the break with 20km remaining in the stage it was time for the likes of Saxo Bank's Richie Porte and RadioShack's Ben Hermans to have a dig on the finishing circuits around Stirling late in the stage but to no avail; with the sprinters' teams controlling the day they weren't going to let any plucky moves succeed and eventually it was a plucky young neo-pro, Matthews, who prevailed.

"It's parallel with the world championships because the guys you are racing against are the best in the world so under 23 is under 23's but this is the elite level and it's basically the world championships again," explained Matthews.

"Coming into one of the biggest pro teams in the world puts a bit of pressure on you to get some results but I was just here to work and help the team so it's good to get the result in the end.

"I kept an eye out for them [Goss and McEwen] because they're all brilliant riders they all could have won today so I kept an eye out for them just to see how they were. We had the DS on the radio and everything so we knew where they were all the time. I just had the legs in the end to get it."

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