News: Blythe 3rd in Down Under Crit

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Former British circuit race champion Adam Blythe was third in the Adelaide circuit race ahead of the Tour Down Under

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News: Blythe 3rd in Down Under Crit

Event Press Release
Classy win by Caleb Ewan to open Santos Festival of Cycling

Young Australian sprint sensation Caleb Ewan has taken out the People’s Choice Classic in Adelaide’s East End crossing the line well clear of Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Segafredo) and Adam Blythe (Tinkoff).

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The 21 year old Australian pre-race favourite delivered on the work of his Orica GreenEDGE team mates who controlled the majority of the 51km circuit race. A crowd of 95,000 flocked to Adelaide’s East End to enjoy a hot summer evening as 140 world class cyclists contested 30 laps of the 1.7km circuit, the traditional curtain raiser for this week’s Santos Tour Down Under.

Ewan went into the race having claimed five wins in races so far this year including the Australian Criterium crown at the national championships in Ballarat. “It’s always hard to go to a race as a favourite,” said Ewan after his win. “I felt more pressure here than at all the races I did so far. My team just rode perfectly, we sat back for a lot of the race and cruised around,” said Ewan paying credit to his teammates . “My confidence is pretty high at the moment (but) I knew there would be some quick guys to beat”.

“It’s a good start but it wasn’t an easy one.”

“I’m delighted with this victory but I don’t see a more relaxed approach to the Santos Tour Down Under as we have some high ambitions to win GC (overall) and I have personal ambitions to win stages myself,” said Ewan. “This is only the start of a long week.”

Astana’s Lars Boom got the action underway launching an early attack with several others joining him in the effort. There was cash on the line for four intermediate sprints during the race and it was South African Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) who grabbed the Subaru sprint at the end of lap five. The iiNet sprint after 10 laps was won by Australian Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff) with Chris Hamilton (UniSA-Australia) taking the Europcar sprint at the half way mark.

Italian Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff) outsprinted a small group in front to win the Alpecin prize at the end of lap 20 but the Classic is always one for the sprinters and his small group was reeled in soon after.

“We’re here with a great team and we want to perform on every occasion,” said Boaro. “We had Adam (Blythe) for the sprint and today was a good day to test the legs that’s why I went up the road so it was a good test. For me coming to Australia is always a pleasure so I looked at coming in the best possible form and I broke away because cycling here is a spectacle and I wanted to give something back to the crowd for their great support.”

Team SKY tried their luck in the closing laps to set up Ben Swift but they went too early as IAM Cycling, Trek-Segafredo, Orica-GreenEDGE and Cannondale jostled to position their sprinters for the finish.

“I was at the front to help Swifty [Ben Swift] and to be safe,” said SKY’s Geraint Thomas. “We hit the front early, and we knew we were never going to make it from that far out, but Swifty got an easy ride.

“That first lap was a bit of a shock to the system, but it was a great way to start the season.”

With the finish line in sight Nizzolo was the first to jump with Ewan finding a gap and latching onto his wheel before passing the Italian while Blythe repaid the work of Tinkoff with his third place.

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RESULT

1 EWAN Caleb OGE 01:02:25
2 NIZZOLO Giacomo TFR @ st
3 BLYTHE Adam TNK @ st
4 SWIFT Ben SKY @ st
5 KUMP Marko LAM @ st
6 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Reinardt DDD @ st
7 MARTINELLI Davide EQS @ st
8 PELUCCHI Matteo IAM @ st
9 WIPPERT Wouter CPT @ st
10 SHAW Patrick AUS @ st
11 HENDERSON Greg LTS @ st
12 DE KORT Koen TGA @ st
13 GIACOPPO Anthony AUS @ st
14 LOBATO DEL VALLE Juan José MOV @ st
15 BAGDONAS Gediminas ALM @ st
16 ROJAS José Joaquin MOV @ st
17 IMPEY Daryl OGE @ st
18 RENSHAW Mark DDD @ st
19 HOWARD Leigh IAM @ st
20 VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael TNK @ st
21 TSATEVITCH Alexey KAT @ st
22 JONES Brenton DPC @ st
23 REIJNEN Kiel TFR @ st
24 VON HOFF Steele AUS @ st
25 GAUTIER Cyril ALM @ st
26 SÃœTTERLIN Jascha MOV @ st
27 GATTO Oscar TNK @ st
28 MCCARTHY Jay TNK @ st
29 BEVIN Patrick CPT @ st
30 KAMYSHEV Arman AST @ st
31 KLUGE Roger IAM @ st
32 SILIN Egor KAT 8
33 HANSEN Adam LTS @ st
34 PHELAN Adam DPC @ st
35 DE VREESE Laurens AST @ st
36 BETTIOL Alberto CPT @ st
37 DENNIS Rohan BMC @ st
38 GRUZDEV Dmitriy AST @ st
39 VELITS Peter BMC @ st
40 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon AST @ st
41 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ @ st
42 OLIVEIRA Nelson MOV 11
43 BOARO Manuele TNK @ st
44 OFFREDO Yoann FDJ @ st
45 WYSS Danilo BMC @ st
46 MORABITO Steve FDJ @ st
47 LIGTHART Pim LTS @ st
48 ARREDONDO Julian TFR @ st
49 PIBERNIK Luka LAM @ st
50 DE MARCHI Alessandro BMC
51 GOGL Michael TNK @ st
52 ROVNY Ivan TNK @ st
53 WESTRA Lieuwe AST @ st
54 POZZOVIVO Domenico ALM @ st
55 ZURLO Federico LAM @ st
56 VERONA Carlos EQS @ st
57 ROUX Anthony FDJ @ st
58 VAN KEIRSBULCK Guillaume EQS @ st
59 BOOM Lars AST @ st
60 LAKE Sean AUS @ st
61 DOCKX Gert LTS @ st
62 ULISSI Diego LAM @ st
63 HAMILTON Lucas AUS @ st
64 GERRANS Simon OGE @ st
65 DE LA CRUZ David EQS @ st
66 NORRIS Lachlan DPC @ st
67 HAAS Nathan DDD @ st
68 ZEPUNTKE Ruben CPT @ st
69 HENAO Sergio Luis SKY @ st
70 SERRY Pieter EQS @ st
71 SARAMOTINS Aleksejs IAM 24
72 PREIDLER Georg TGA @ st
73 VELITS Martin EQS @ st
74 VAN POPPEL Boy TFR 28
75 HAYMAN Mathew OGE 30
76 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM @ st
77 HESJEDAL Ryder TFR @ st
78 MANNION Gavin DPC @ st
79 TANKINK Bram TLJ @ st
80 LUDVIGSSON Tobias TGA @ st
81 GERTS Floris BMC @ st
82 JONES Carter TGA @ st
83 DE BACKER Bert TGA @ st
84 ROWE Luke SKY 40
85 KEIZER Martijn TLJ 47
86 STETINA Peter TFR 53
87 BENNETT George TLJ 55
88 VAKOC Petr EQS 57
89 TJALLINGII Maarten TLJ 01:08
90 DE GENDT Thomas LTS @ st
91 MACHADO Tiago KAT @ st
92 MORI Manuele LAM @ st
93 FISCHER Murilo FDJ @ st
94 FERNANDEZ ANDUJAR Ruben MOV @ st
95 SUTHERLAND Rory MOV @ st
96 SERGENT Jesse ALM @ st
97 HAMILTON Chris AUS @ st
98 PICHON Laurent FDJ @ st
99 VAUGRENARD Benoit FDJ @ st
100 BAK Lars Ytting LTS @ st
101 LANE Patrick AUS @ st
102 LE BON Johan FDJ @ st
103 ISAYCHEV Vladimir KAT @ st
104 LAGUTIN Sergey KAT @ st
105 VENTER Jaco DDD @ st
106 GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam LAM @ st
107 PUCCIO Salvatore SKY @ st
108 VALLS FERRI Rafael LTS 01:19
109 MALACARNE Davide AST 01:20
110 MOSER Moreno CPT @ st
111 MEYER Cameron DDD @ st
112 TANNER David IAM 01:22
113 AREGGER Marcel IAM @ st
114 SPOKES Samuel DPC @ st
115 BELKOV Maxim KAT 01:25
116 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan TLJ @ st
117 PORTE Richie BMC @ st
118 HERRADA Jesús MOV @ st
119 FARRAR Tyler DDD 01:28
120 JIM Songezo DDD @ st
121 RIBLON Christophe ALM @ st
122 GOUGEARD Alexis ALM @ st
123 MEINTJES Louis LAM @ st
124 PANTANO Jarlinson IAM @ st
125 KENNAUGH Peter SKY 01:37
126 STANNARD Ian SKY @ st
127 THOMAS Geraint SKY @ st
128 TAARAMAE Rein KAT 01:39
129 EARLE Nathan DPC 01:41
130 BROWN Graeme DPC @ st
131 DURBRIDGE Luke OGE 01:43
132 CLARKE Simon CPT 01:46
133 WOODS Michael CPT @ st
134 BURGHARDT Marcus BMC 01:55
135 GESCHKE Simon TGA 02:32
136 JI Cheng TGA @ st
137 ROGLIC Primoz TLJ @ st
138 BOBRIDGE Jack TFR @ st

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