Welcome to today's coverage of the Tour Down Under's second stage.
Yesterday's stage was taken out by Orica-GreenEdge sprinter Caleb Ewan with an exciting run to the line.
Here's the top 10:
# Rider Name (Country) Team Result 1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica–GreenEdge 3:24:13 2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Dimension Data 3 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale 4 Marko Kump (Slo) Lampre–Merida 5 Adam Blythe (GBr) Tinkoff 6 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek–Segafredo 7 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky 8 Steele von Hoff (Aus) UniSA-Australia 9 José Joaquin Rojas (Esp) Team Movistar 10 Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto Soudal
...And the General Classification after stage 1:
# Rider Name (Country) Team Result 1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica–GreenEdge 3:24:13 2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Dimension Data 0:00:04 3 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 4 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale 0:00:06 5 Sean Lake (Aus) UniSA-Australia 0:00:07 6 Marko Kump (Slo) Lampre–Merida 0:00:10 7 Adam Blythe (GBr) Tinkoff 8 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek–Segafredo 9 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky 10 Steele von Hoff (Aus) UniSA-Australia
Today's 132km stage from Unley to Stirling includes 1 KOM and 2 intermediate sprints.
Here's what Orica-GreenEdge sports director Matt White had to say about the stage:
"Same as stage 1, there will be an early breakaway and then it gets very fast on the Stirling circuits which makes life very hard for any break away to succeed purely from the speed of the nervous bunch. It's a stage that we will be looking to win with Simon Gerrans and I think the biggest opposition on the stage will be someone like Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida). He's won there before (2014, ed) and Lampre for me have a good team coming out and I think he will be one of our biggest competitors."
In case you missed our earlier coverage at the Tour de San Luis, Etixx-QuickStep's young sprinter Fernando Gaviria won the sprint finish ahead of Peter Sagan and Elia Viviani. You can read about he stage here.
Here's the top 10 from today:
# Rider Name (Country) Team Result 1 Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Col) Etixx - Quick-Step 4:23:54 2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 3 Elia Viviani (Ita) Italy 4 Eduard Michael Grosu (Rom) Nippo - Vini Fantini 5 Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Arg) Team Jamis 6 Mauro Abel Richeze (Arg) San Luis Somos Todos 7 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec 8 Jason Lowndes (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling 9 Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Italy 10 Marco Canola (Ita) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
And the overall after stage 2:
# Rider Name (Country) Team Result 1 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Etixx - Quick-step 4:47:37 2 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Etixx - Quick-step 0:00:10 3 Rodrigo Contreras (Col) Etixx - Quick-step 4 Lukasz Wisniowski (Pol) Etixx - Quick-step 5 Dayer Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:18 6 Adriano Malori (Ita) Movistar Team 7 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 8 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 9 Daniel Moreno (Spa) Movistar Team 10 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:27
Today's Tour Down Under stage is nearly ready to begin. Just a matter of minutes now.
Today's weather looks ideal for a bike race. Here's a brief forecast:
Stage 2 will be drier, sunnier and cooler than Stage 1 but similarly windy and similarly sheltered by trees
Summary - Dry, sunny (just a bit of high clouds) and about 30 degrees with moderate westerly winds
Start at Unley - 29-30 degrees with westerly winds 15-20km/h
Climb to Crafers - 30 degrees cooling to 25-26 degrees at the top as westerlies persist at 15-20km/h (cross-tail wind)
Looping around the Adelaide Hills to the finish at Stirling - warming to 27-30 degrees as westerlies pick up to 20-25km/h (tail wind for Crafers to Carey Gully, cross wind for most of the remainder apart from the section coming through Aldgate to Stirling)
And the race has started. Riders are on the cobbles and a Trek rider hits the deck. He's back up and in the peloton, however. We're underway.
Mark Cavendish has been impressed so far with the two young sprinters in Australia and Argentina, Tweeting this just minutes ago:
The way @FndoGaviria & @CalebEwan have destroyed their competitors so early in the season is actually quite terrifying! Young superstars!
The power struggle in cycling between the UCI and Tour de France owner ASO continues, but UCI President Brian Cookson has vowed to meet with Tour de France Director Christian Prudhomme in hopes of talking things out. Read more here.
Riders have completed the 6km neutral, and we're racing!
Adam Hansen has rebuilt his gap to two minutes at the halfway point. And we have another abandon, this time it's Team Sky's Salvatore Puccio.
50 km remaining and Hansen has 2:05 on the Orica-led peloton.
45km remaining from 132km
Hansen has 2:30 on the peloton now as he rides the fourth of five laps not he circuit.
Hansen is on the 7km climb now, sitting down and looking relatively comfortable.
Orica continues to lead the chase, followed by a pair from UniSA
39km remaining from 132km
With less than 40km remaining, Orica-GreenEdge has pulled Hansen's gap down to 1:48.
36km remaining from 132km
They've pulled back another 10 seconds on Hansen.
30km remaining from 132km
Hansen's advantage is sticking at around 1:30 now. Orica continues to lead the chase. They've got to confident they can whittle away this gap pretty quickly when the race heats up.
Hansen is in the tuck position now as he descends off a slight climb.
The peloton is spread across the road now, likely not wanting to catch Hansen too soon.
BMC have taken up the chase now.
A touch of wheels and AG2R's Pozzovivo hits the deck. He's back up and chasing.
25km remaining from 132km
BMC's chase has dropped Hansen's advantage under a minute.
21km remaining from 132km
Hansen is starting the final lap with a gap of just 31 seconds.
We're looking at about a half hour of racing left.
Orica-GreenEdge has picked up the chase from BMC.
Hansen is on the descent and pushing the pace.
19km remaining from 132km
The bunch has Hansen in their sights now. The catch is imminent.
Hansen is drinking from his bidon, and the catch is made.
Three trains in the front now, with Orica, Katusha and Tinkoff fighting for position.
American Kiel Reijnen (Trek) punctures and goes off the road but manages to keep it upright.
Poor timing for Trek's 29-year-old Neo pro
4km remaining from 132km
Sky took a turn on the front that thinned things out, and now Cannondale has taken over the lad position.
Sky may have hit the front too early, as they've been swarmed by Giant-Alpecin and LottoNL-Jumbo.
Less than 4km to go, and teams are trying to set up their climbers for the finish.
They're averaging 41 km/h up this final climb.
Daryl Impey is pacing Simon Gerrans up the climb for Orica.
2km remaining from 132km
Lampre-Merida on the front now, with Astana moving up as well.
1km remaining from 132km
A Lampre rider gets a small advantage, but they're quickly on him.
A Movistar rider on the attack now with 1km to go.
Peter Kennaugh makes a move.
There's a crash near the front and Tinkoff takes control.
It's Ulissi and McCarthy in a close finish.
Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff) gets the win!
Today's top 10
# Rider Name (Country) Team Result 1 Jay Mccarthy(Aus) Tinkoff 6:50:43 2 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - Merida 3 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bmc Racing Team 4 Patrick Bevin (Nzl) Cannondale Pro Cycling Team 5 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team Lottonl-Jumbo 6 Juan José Lobato (Spain) Movistar Team 7 Anthony Roux (Fra) Fdj 8 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Team Giant - Alpecin 9 Julián David Arredondo (Col) Trek-Segafredo 10 Patrick Shaw (Aus) Unisa-Australia
Corrected Stage results and GC:
Brief Results
# Rider Name (Country) Team Result 1 Jay McCarthy(Aus) Tinkoff 3:28:40 2 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - Merida 3 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bmc Racing Team 4 Danilo Wyss (Sui) Bmc Racing Team 5 Petr Vakoc (Cze) Etixx - Quick Step 6 Patrick Bevin (Nzl) Cannondale Pro Cycling Team 7 Juan José Lobato (Spa) Movistar Team 8 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky 9 Anthony Roux (Fra) Fdj 10 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team Lottonl-Jumbo
General Classification # Rider Name (Country) Team Result 1 Jay Mccarthy(Aus) Tinkoff 6:50:43 2 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - Merida 0:00:04 3 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bmc Racing Team 0:00:06 4 Patrick Bevin (Nzl) Cannondale Pro Cycling Team 0:00:10 5 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team Lottonl-Jumbo 6 Juan José Lobato (Spain) Movistar Team 7 Anthony Roux (Fra) Fdj 8 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Team Giant - Alpecin 9 Julián David Arredondo (Col) Trek-Segafredo 10 Patrick Shaw (Aus) Unisa-Australia
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