Slagter takes tough victory into Stirling

This year's leader of the young rider classification Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco) has shown he means business by winning the third stage from Unley to Stirling at the Santos Tour Down Under. Slagter opened his sprint on the tough uphill run to the finish line and held off Matt Goss (Orica GreenEdge) and world road race champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC) to take his first professional victory. 

Slagter rode strongly in yesterday's difficult stage into Rostrevor - which included the steep Corkscrew Road climb - and finished fourth in the stage. His ride put him in fifth-overall coming into Stage 3 to Stirling but with the winner's time bonus today, he is now just 4 seconds behind race leader Geraint Thomas (Sky).

The stage win marked the first professional victory for the third-year professional who's most recent results in 2012 included top-10 placings at Tour of Beijing and a 5th-place at GP Québec. The 23-year-old was in a state of disbelief at the finish and was highly grateful for the work of his team during the stage.

"It's incredible! I can't believe it," said Slagter at the finish. "I saw on the [television] screen that I was the first one and I was looking around me. I thought they were coming but I was the strongest. It's incredible.

"Tanner was incredible. He told me he would drop me in the last few hundred metres and he did in the perfect way. The team is really, really good."

The win pushed Slagter up the overall standings and now lies in second overall heading into tomorrow's flatter stage from Modbury to Tanunda.

"We are here with a nice team with four Aussies and the win here is for the whole team and for the team who is at home - it's also really, really nice," he said.

Race leader Thomas had to utilise the full strength of his Sky team today but with just a couple of kilometres remaining, the team had done enough to keep it all together for a small bunch sprint.

"It was pretty tough out there" said Thomas. "A lot of guys started attacking us from three laps out so the boys had to ride really hard. They did an incredible job today. They set a fast tempo and I can't thank them enough.

"In the final [Mathew] Hayman was with me until about two kilometres to go and then after that I just had to follow the wheels. I couldn't manage a podium finish which would have been nice to get a few more seconds but it was a tough day so it is mission accomplished I guess.

The tightening of the general classification may have been a little bit unexpected but with the Queen stage at Old Willunga Hill still to come this Saturday, the race is be no means over.

"It's always going to be seconds in it and I think it's all going to come down to a big duel on Willunga on Sunday," said Thomas.

It was a better day for the team of Orica GreenEdge who placed a rider in the day-long breakaway with Simon Clarke before Goss captured his second podium finish of the week.

It's been an up and down few days for Goss who showed his speed during the People's Choice Classic criterium but then failed to make an impact on Stage 1 – won by André Greipel (Lotto Belisol).

"We lost all our GC hopes yesterday so we had to attack the race and attack [for] stage results.” explained Goss."

"I took the opportunity today, close but no cigar,” he added. "This is great for the start of the season compared to last year. It's great to get a top-three in a finish like this but tomorrow's another day.”

The uphill finish should have been perfect for the world road race champion Gilbert but he just missed out on taking the win. Goss beat him to second-place with Slagter out of reach having opened his sprint early.

"I was with Santaromita so it was perfect but then the guy from Movistar left a gap," said Gilbert at the finish. "Slagter had 10 or 15 meters so it was hard to come back."

How it happened

There was just one non-started for the third stage at the 2013 Santos Tour Down Under. Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) was one of the worst affected from the crash that occurred yesterday. He fell on the fast downhill run into the finish at Rostrevor and broke his collarbone.

"I visited Arnaud Courteille at the hospital this morning,” said team director Yvon Madiot. "He'll be transferred to the sports clinic for his collarbone operation today. He hasn't slept all night but he's fine.”

With the 131 riders cruising through the neutralised section, it would be just a matter of time before the accelerations began on the climb up Mount Barker.

The attacks were ruthless from the moment the flag was dropped and over the top of the climb it was Jack Bobridge (Blanco) and Daryl Impey (Orica GreenEdge) who gained a small advantage over the field.

A group in excess of twenty riders formed at the front and spread their legs while team Sky were already in control at the front of the field. Sensing the group was too big, Simon Clarke (Orica GreenEdge) and Will Clarke (Argos-Shimano) took off and promptly opened up a one-minute advantage.

That would be the day's escape with the Sky-lead peloton allowing the two Clarkes to gain a maximum advantage of 3:25. Will was looking for sprint points and took the opening sprint with Simon right behind. The two didn't fight for the points as Simon was more interested in the stage victory and regaining time on the general classification.

The battle for the final bonus second was not so gentlemanly back in the main field. Race leader Thomas was third across the line and pushed himself ever so slightly further ahead of second-place's Javier Moreno (Movistar).

Simon was happy to allow Will the maximum points at the next sprint point located at the 56.6km mark with Blanco rider Maarten Tjallingii attacking out of the field to ensure Thomas would not take any more bonus seconds.

The leading duo were slowly being reeled in and with approximately 50km remaining the bunch came to life. A group of 12 split from the field and contained a number of strong riders including the day's breakaway duo.

Serge Pauwels (Omega Pharma),Tomas Marczynski (Vancansoleil-DCM), Jack Bobridge (Blanco), Luke Dubridge (Orica GreenEdge), Jesse Sergent (RadioShack Leopard), Andrey Amador, Jose Herrada (Movistar), Simon Stortoni (Lampre-Merida), Brian Vandborg (Cannondale) and Calvin Watson (UniSA) had a brief stint away before Sky brought them back into the fold.

The moment it looked like they would be caught, another group formed off the front. An eight rider group composed of Daryl Impey, Simon Clarke (Orica GreenEdge), Steve Morabito (BMC), Andrey Amador (Movistar), Boy van Poppel (Vancansoleil-DCM), Will Clarke, Thierry Hupond (Argos-Shimano) and Brian Vandborg (Cannondale) and they hovered around the 20-second mark for nearly 40km.

Reports that U.S champion Timmy Dugan had crashed at one of the roundabouts was not good. Dugan was seen on the side of the road with a neck brace and was taken to hospital for further examination. His status will be updated when more is known

A few accelerations caused Will Clarke (Argos-Shimano) to lose contact with the break as five riders remained. Simon Clarke was still looking strong in the break and his teammate Impey was putting in huge turns to try and keep the group away.

Morabito, Impey, Clarke, Amador and Hupond resisted until approximately 6km to go when last year's third-overall Tiago Machado (RadioShack Leopard) launched out of the bunch. He pulled 10 seconds on the main field but it was too far away to survive.

Machado was reeled in by the bunch that had been reduced to less than 40 riders. With less than 2km remaining Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) gave it a dig but it seemed destined for a bunch sprint.

It was Slagter who launched his sprint early and caught the remaining riders slightly off guard. Goss and Gilbert were catching but they had left it too late. Slagter held on for the win while Thomas did enough for fourth-place and held his ocre jersey for another day.

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