Tour Down Under: Ewan wins stage 3 sprint

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Caleb Ewan (Orcia-Scott) edged Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the line to take his second stage win of the 2017 Tour Down Under Thursday during stage 3 in Victor Harbor.

Once again, Ewan relied on patience and high-end speed to come past Sagan, who got the initial jump in the finishing straight but was not able to hold off the Australian as he slipped up the left side of the road. Sagan was able to hold on for second, while Bahrain-Merida's Niccolo Bonifazio was third.

“It was definitely satisfying,” Ewan said of his second victory of this year's race. “It got really really hectic in the end and I thought in the last ‘kay’ I was too far back, but luckily I made my way up before the sprint and had a good run to the finish."

Ewan and the tour sprinters also had to deal with a crash in just before the final kilometre.

“I lost my last (lead out) guy in Daryl Impey in the crash, so that was a big blow," Ewan said. "But I just held in there tight and tried to jump onto some of the other wheels and it opened up for me in the end.”

Richie Porte (BMC Racing) continues to lead the overall by 20 seconds over Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) and 22 seconds over Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott). Porte has four more stages to defend his lead.

"Of course when you get the jersey it makes you switch on a little bit more and fight a little bit more," he said after today's stage. "I am in a good position, but job’s not over yet. Just taking it day by day."

How it unfolded

The seaside suburb of Glenelg once again hosted the Tour Down Under stage depart, with riders heading south as grey clouds started to roll in.

Lotto Soudal’s Thomas de Gent is accustomed to breakaways in big races, and the Tour Down Under is no exception, as he again showed by making the first attack of the day. The Belgian was joined by the trio of Vegard Stake Laegen (UAE Abu Dhabi), Clement Chevrier (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Jeremy Masion (FDJ).

The quartet built an advantage to a tick over four minutes on the jaunt south as Maison in Myponga, and De Gent in Inman Valley scooped up the maximum points and time bonuses at the intermediate sprint points. De Gent also scored the points at the Sellicks Hill to pull level with race leader Richie Porte (BMC) in the battle for the KOM jersey.

Once onto the four finishing circuits in Victor Habor, Damien Howson of Orica-Scott and several BMC riders moved forward in the peloton to start the slow reel in of the breakaway. Bora-Hansgrohe joined in on the action as the lead was cut down to two minutes by the time the peloton rolled onto the finishing circuits. 

With 25km to go on the penultimatel lap, Leangen decided to strike out and launch the first attack from the breakaway in a bid for personal glory. The Norwegian pulled out a maximum lead of 12 seconds over his breakaway companions as the peloton closed to within one minute at 17km to go.

At 15km to race, the trio of Maison, De Gent and Chevrier were back in the peloton with Laegen in front at 24 seconds. Dimension Data and Astana took up the chase under the 10km to go banner as Leagen hovered out in front like a rabbit for a racing greyhound. Once he was reeled in with 6km to race, the bunch sprint finish was inevitable.

Teams jockeyed relentlessly for position in the closing kilometres, with Team Sky eventually establishing itself on the front for Danny Van Poppel. But as the peloton swung through a wide left-hand turn and onto the finishing straight, it was Sagan who got the initial advantage as a crash took down several riders in the middle of the field. Ewan had the last laugh, however, as he pulled past Sagan for his second stage win in three days.

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