Tour Down Under: McCarthy wins stage 2

A bike throw was the difference between Jay McCarthy and Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) on stage 2 of the Tour Down Under with bonus seconds on the line also elevating the Tinkoff rider into the overall race lead. A crash with 500 metres to go brought down Simon Gerrans, among others, as McCarthy, Ulissi and Rohan Dennis (BMC) skipped away to battle for the win having been in the wheels just ahead of the fallers.

Despite knowing the finish courtesy of his 2014 victory, Ulissi couldn’t hold off the fast finishing McCarthy for his first in at WorldTour level.

“It’s always good to start the season here is Australia and to finish it with a victory was really good," McCarthy said. "I am glad the team gave me the chance to go for the stage and I am happy it paid off in the end.”

McCarthy now leads the race by four seconds back to Ulissi, with Gerrans at five seconds, and is looking to hold onto the ochre leader’s jersey for as long as possible.

“I was hoping for a top five overall at this race this year," McCarthy. "I know I had some good training coming in and I felt like I had some good form, so to come out with the victory today, I am not done for the week and hopefully I can keep working hard and go for goal and hopefully even be on the podium at the end of the week.”

While the late fall interrupted the chances for several riders looking for victory, as the crash occurred within the final three kilometres there was no time losses with the bonus seconds for top three contributing to the changes in the top-ten standings.

How it unfolded

A group of Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff), Yoann Offredo (FDJ) and Patrick Lane (UniSA) attacked inside the opening two kilometres to establish a 30 second lead. At the rear of the peloton, Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling), Wouter Wippert (Cannondale), Brenton Jones (Drapac) and several other sprinters were reported to be struggling in the heat on the climb up the South Eastern Highway before the KOM at Range View Road.

Boaro jumped clear to claim the KOM points ahead of Lane, who was looking to protect his teammate Sean Lake’s lead in the classification. Back in the peloton, Pelucchi called it quits, abandoning the race after less than an hour of racing.

The breakaway had splintered to just Offredo and De Gendt on approach to the 21.4km Stirling circuit with Orica-GreenEdge controlling the race. With bonus seconds on the line at the first of two intermediate sprint points in Heathfield, Simon Gerrans took the points and bonifications ahead of Ewan.

Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal) then attacked from the bunch to go solo after the 28km mark. After 10km, Hansen had extracted 1:50 minutes from the GreenEdge led peloton, increasing it to 2:30 minutes on approach to the second intermediate sprint.

Hansen took the three seconds, with Gerrans nipping in for two bonus seconds with Ewan third. At the 55km mark, Hansen’s lead dropped back down to a manageable 1:35 minutes. On the third last time though, Hansen’s lead was holding around one-and-a-half minutes seeing him continue as the virtual leader on the road.

Salvatore Puccio became the second Italian to abandon the stage with illness getting the better of the Team Sky rider a little after the halfway mark as the temperature settled on 30 degrees celsuis.

Inside the final 45km and onto the third last circuit of six, Hansen’s lead grew back out over two minutes, with Orica-GreenEdge using Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge as the workhorses. With 35km to go, the peloton had Hansen at 1:40 before BMC, with Alessandro De Marchi and Marcus Burghardt, took over to shave 30 seconds off his lead.

With 25km to go, Hansen was within one minute of the chasing peloton and when the bell was rung in Stirling, it was 40 seconds with Orica-GreenEdge resuming position on the front.

At the 18.9km mark, Hansen was absorbed by the peloton as a front trident of Orica-GreenEdge, Katusha and Tinkoff with Astana, Sky and Lampre behind them.

Kiel Reijnen got acquainted with the Australian bush, blowing a rear tyre when he found the road a little narrower than anticipated with 10km to go. At seven kilometres to go, Giant-Alpecin came forward with Trek-Segafredo and Tinkoff. A kilometre later, Team Sky took over the pace as riders dropped off the back, including Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge), due to the high pace.

Inside the final 5km, there was constant movement with riders moving up and other getting dropped, with Cannondale next to take up the pace. At 3km to race, Simon Geschke sat on the front before Lampre-Merida shuttled forward.

At the flame rouge, Rory Sutherland (Movistar) led though with Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) and Pim Ligarth (Lotto Soudal) launching an attack before a crash at 500 metres to go brought down Simon Gerrans and Orica-GreenEdge. McCarthy and Ulissi surged forward with Dennis on their wheel but it was the Queenslander nabbing his first win and with it, the leader’s jersey. Last year's winner Juan José Lobato was only good for seventh while Drapac's Brenton Jones crossed the line almost 30 minutes down on McCarthy, outside the time limit which will see 137 riders take to the start line in Glenelg tomorrow.

Watch highlights from stage 2 in the video below:

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