Tour Down Under: Caleb Ewan wins stage 4 sprint in Murray Bridge

Image 1 of 35

Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) took his second stage win of the 2020 Tour Down Under on Friday in Murray Bridge, putting on another impressive display by coming past Sam Bennett and an almost flawless Deceuninck-QuickStep lead-out to beat the Irish champion by a bike length. Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) was third. 

Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) struggled in the crosswinds towards the end of the race but finished safely in the bunch and maintained his overall lead, although 2019 champion Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) scored three bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints and moved to within three seconds of the race leader. Team Sunweb's Rob Power also gained a bonus second in an intermediate sprint and moved to eight seconds down in third place.

Ewan proved himself the fastest by far in Murray Bridge after overcoming some challenges in the technical final kilometres, which saw a major pinch point at 1.6km and a severe dogleg right turn with 300 metres to go.

Deceuninck-QuickStep took over the front for Bennett with 5km to go and safely guided the Irishman through the obstacles, with Danish speedster Michael Morkov leading through the final tight turn with Bennett planted firmly on his wheel. 

The Irishman launched his sprint with 200 metres to go and had an immediate gap, but he was no match for Ewan, who came off his wheel and sprinted up the left side of the road. He easily powered past Bennett, who dropped his head as he crossed the line while his Australian rival celebrated.

"It was a very tough corner before the finish," Ewan said after his win. "But to be honest, I like it when there's a bit of a corner, a bit of a technical finish. I just told my last man to putt me on the wheel of Sam Bennett, and that's what he did. I was actually off the road a bit a few moments before that, but luckily he was still there and he dropped me on the wheel. That's exactly where I wanted to be on that last corner."

Ewan could have one more chance for a third stage victory before Sunday's finale on Willunga Hill, but he says he'll need better climbing legs than he had the last time the race finished there.

"Tomorrow is one of those days that could go either way," he said. "Last time we did that last part of the race I got dropped on the climb, so I'm hoping for better legs tomorrow."

How it unfolded

The 152.8km fourth stage from Norwood to Murray Bridge started out lumpy, traversing the Adelaide Hills, before making it's way onto the plains along the Murray River for the second part of the race.

Intermediate sprints with time bonuses at 18.1km and 40.3km animated the early going with the GC contenders and their teams hunting seconds, and a single KOM at 76.4km drew out some escape artists n the second part of the race.

Mitchelton-Scott kept the peloton intact for the first 18km for Impey, who started the day six seconds down on Porte. The 2019 champion was hoping to grab the three seconds up for grabs for the winner of the sprint, but UAE Team Emirates' Jasper Philipsen thwarted that plan by taking the sprint, and Trek-Seagredo's world champion Mads Pedersen helped out Porte by denying Impey second place, leaving the Mitchelton rider to settle for third and a single bonus second.

Impey improved his standing at the second sprint, however, finishing second to Philipsen this time and getting another two seconds, cutting his initial deficit to Porte in half. Team Sunweb's Rob Power, who started the day nine seconds down, was third and knocked a second off his gap to Porte.

With the GC fireworks mostly over for the day, a five-rider group was allowed off the front. In the move were Joey Rosskopf (CCC Team), who was wearing the mountains jersey after making the break in stages 1 and 2, James Piccoli (Israel Start-Up Nation), Laurens De Vreese (Astana), Jorge Arcas (Movistar) and Sergio Samitier (Movistar).

Rosskopf made the most of his time in the day's move, jumping away from the break about 1km ahead of the KOM and fighting off a challenge from De Vreese to take maximum points at the top of Prospect Hill.

The breakaway riders soldiered on from there, but there was never any doubt that the sprinters' teams would bring things back together for the promised bunch gallop in Murray Bridge. The peloton made the catch with 25km to go, and the teams began some nervous jockeying for position. 

George Bennett got caught up in one of several minor crashes during the run-in to the finish, but the kiwi had a Jumbo-Visma teammate nearby and was able to make it back to the bunch for the finale and save his GC position.

Results

General classification