Report: Ewan wins again Down Under

Australian crit champion Caleb Ewan is showing he can outsprint the best as he beats World Champion Peter Sagan to the line on stage 3 of the Tour Down Under

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Report: Ewan wins again Down Under
Photo credit: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

Australian Caleb Ewan unleashed an unbeatable burst of speed in the final 200 metres to claim his second stage win of the 2017 Santos Tour Down Under in the coastal town of Victor Harbor.

Photo credit: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

Reigning World Champion Peter Sagan was keen to win Hansgrohe Stage 3 for his Bora-Hansgrohe team sponsor but he couldn’t match the sizzling speed of the Australian Champion. The ORICA-SCOTT star, who also took out Hostworks Stage 1 into Lyndoch on Tuesday, crossed the line at the end of 144 kilometres in a time of 3:24.45, a wheel clear of Sagan with Italy’s Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) close behind in third.

114 thousand fans flocked to support the riders who set off from the beachside Adelaide suburb of Glenelg before heading along the Fleurieu Peninsula, through the McLaren Vale wine region to contest four laps of the finishing circuit around Victor Harbor. Ewan had to fight for position after he lost his way in the frenetic pace but once he found a route through the traffic he focussed on the finish line with laser precision.

Photo credit: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

“I lost a few of my team-mates in the downhill and it was a messy sprint,” said Ewan. “Luke Durbridge took me back to the front with 3 or 4km to go and he positioned me perfectly in the end. I was jumping around the wheels and I’m delighted I made it again.”

Sagan concedes he is not in the same form as Ewan. “My legs are not bad (but) I am still not in the best shape and for that I am happy because the season is very long,” said Sagan. “You have to be positive and we still have time to get into the good shape.”

“Caleb? He is riding at home and he was all (European) winter in Australia and he was training in good weather,” explained Sagan who resumed training in December after a month off the bike for his annual holiday. I am happy with how I am racing now, and he (Ewan) is motivated to be racing here at home,” said Sagan. “He is winning a lot, because he is the best here.”

ORICA-SCOTT Team Director, Matt White, says that while Sagan is deservedly the World Champion, Ewan is doing a superb job. “Caleb made a great sprint, with great teamwork,” said White. “It was a very hectic sprint in the finale and the most promising thing is that in the last 600 metres, he read the sprint very, very well. He was on the seventh wheel and made up the last 400 metres by himself.”

“Everyone knows Peter Sagan is the best rider in the world, and we also know we are in January, so we’ll see what it means when we get back to Europe,” said White. “But winning is winning, and that’s what he’s doing here.”

Sagan was thankful he arrived at the line unscathed avoiding a crash in the peloton within three kilometres of the line. “I was lucky my team didn’t crash there, it was really fast speed and a dangerous crash,” said Sagan. “I hope the guys who crashed are OK.”

Photo credit: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

Ewan’s win was even more impressive coming after he spent yesterday’s hilly stage being a helper to support the team’s aspirations of an overall victory through his team mate Esteban Chaves. “It took me quite a lot of time during the race to recover from the efforts I did for the team yesterday,” said Ewan. “Then at the end we had to ride back a super strong breakaway and It was hard to catch the last guy up the road.”

The ‘last guy up the road’ was Norwegian Stake Vegard Laengen (UAE-Abu Dhabi) who had broken clear of a four man break away that formed soon after the flag dropped to signal the official race start. Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) launched the offensive and was soon joined by Laengen, Frenchmen Clement Chevrier (AG2R La Mondiale) and Jeremy Maison (FDJ).

The quartet set up a handy lead of more than four minutes by the time they reached the only Subaru King of the Mountain climb of the day, a category 2 climb up Sellicks Hill. Over the top at the 43 kilometre mark it was De Gendt who took the points ahead of Maison and Chevrier. Three kilometres later the leaders sprinted into Myponga to contest the first of two iiNet intermediate sprints. This time it was Maison in first place ahead of De Gendt with Chevrier again in third.

At 73 kilometres, close to the halfway mark of the stage, the four escapees competed for the iiNet points at Inman Valley. De Gendt rode across first ahead of Laengen and Maison. As the race went under the arch for the start of four laps of the finishing circuit the leaders were just under four minutes ahead of the peloton with the chase about to begin in earnest. Two laps, or 26 kilometres from the finish, the gap was under two minutes when Laengen launched a solo attack.

He made a valiant attempt but the peloton behind was in top gear and demolishing his lead. At the bell lap De Gendt, Maison and Chevrier were back in the main bunch and the lead for Laengen was down to 30 seconds. “Today’s stage was quite short so even though I was in a breakaway all day, it didn’t feel like a long day,” said Laengen who was swamped by the chasing peloton less than 10 kilometres from home. “I felt I was in quite a good shape, that’s why I attacked from the front group because I was convinced I’d go faster alone.

“I came to this race to help my leaders Diego Ulissi and Ben Swift but I was given a free role today so I took my chance.” His reward for effort was to be named the Most Competitive Rider of the day.

Photo credit: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo

Meanwhile Richie Porte remains in the Santos Ochre Leader’s jersey after his BMC Racing Team did their job to protect him throughout the day. Porte also remains in the lead in the Subaru King of the Mountain classification. “It was a quite nervous and stressful day,” said Porte. “Sometimes the flat stages are the most dangerous. I’m glad I didn’t crash. Even at the front there were crashes in the finale. There is so much to lose on a day like that and I’m relieved I’m still in the lead,” said Porte.

While Porte finished with the first twenty across the line to retain his 20 second lead over Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar), the Spaniard didn’t fare as well, crashing heavily at high speed and losing a lot of skin from his left shoulder. He has been taken to hospital as a precaution and will have x-rays to rule out any fractures. Race Doctor Mark Fisher says it totally depends on his hospital assessment as to whether he will start tomorrow and a decision is not expected until late this evening at the earliest.

He was credited with the same time as the winner because the crash happened in the final three kilometres as were AG2R – La Mondiale riders Jan Bakelandts and Francois Bidard who lost some skin in the crash. Ruben Guerreiro (Trek Segafredo) kept out of trouble to place ninth on the stage to remain in the Best Young Rider jersey.
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STAGE
1 *EWAN Caleb ORS 03:24:45
2 SAGAN Peter BOH ST
3 *BONIFAZIO Niccolo TBM ST
4 *VAN POPPEL Danny SKY ST
5 THEUNS Edward TFS ST
6 ARNDT Nikias SUN ST
7 DE BIE Sean LTS ST
8 *MANZIN Lorrenzo FDJ ST
9 *GUERREIRO Ruben TFS ST
10 PLANCKAERT Baptiste KAT ST
11 MCCARTHY Jay BOH ST
12 DENNIS Rohan BMC ST
13 BRESCHEL Matti AST ST
14 *MAS Enric QST ST
15 SUTTERLIN Jasha MOV ST
16 GONCALVES José KAT ST
17 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte CDT ST
18 HAAS Nathan DDD ST
19 PORTE Richie BMC ST
20 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon AST ST
21 WAGNER Robert TLJ ST
22 CARUSO Damiano BMC ST
23 POZZOVIVO Domenico ALM ST
24 SWIFT Ben UAD ST
25 MEYER Cameron AUS ST
26 ULISSI Diego UAD ST
27 SELIG Rudiger BOH ST
28 CHAVES Johan Esteban ORS ST
29 GESINK Robert TLJ ST
30 VAN ASBROECK Tom CDT ST
31 VALLS Rafael LTS ST
32 KELDERMAN Wilco SUN ST
33 BARBERO CUESTA Carlos MOV ST
34 HENAO Sergio Luis SKY 4
35 VAKOC Petr QST ST
36 GERRANS Simon ORS ST
37 BEVIN Patrick CDT ST
38 BYSTROM Sven Erik KAT ST
39 WOODS Michael CDT ST
40 EARLE Nathan AUS ST
41 HERRADA Jesus MOV ST
42 *STORER Michael AUS ST
43 RENSHAW Mark DDD ST
44 VISCONTI Giovanni TBM ST
45 BAK Lars Ytting LTS ST
46 *HAMILTON Chris SUN 8
47 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM ST
48 HERRADA LOPEZ Jose MOV ST
49 DE KORT Koen TFS ST
50 DE VREESE Laurens AST ST
51 ELISSONDE Kenny SKY ST
52 VENTOSO Francisco BMC ST
53 *HAMILTON Lucas AUS ST
54 ROWE Luke SKY ST
55 *HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian SKY ST
56 PANTANO Jarlinson TFS ST
57 KOLAR Michael BOH ST
58 *EIKING Odd Christian FDJ ST
59 CINK Ondrej TBM 12
60 KLUGE Roger ORS ST
61 ZAKHAROV Artyom AST ST
62 *HINDLEY Jai AUS ST
63 LAMMERTINK Maurits KAT ST
64 MARTENS Paul TLJ ST
65 ROUX Anthony FDJ ST
66 THOMAS Geraint SKY ST
67 MORI Manuele UAD ST
68 VELITS Martin QST ST
69 DIDIER Laurent TFS ST
70 GASTAUER Ben ALM ST
71 *MUHLBERGER Gregor BOH ST
72 BRAMBILLA Gianluca QST ST
73 MARCATO Marco UAD ST
74 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ ST
75 STETINA Peter TFS ST
76 GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam TBM ST
77 *SCOTSON Miles BMC ST
78 DEVENYNS Dries QST ST
79 BENNETT Sam BOH ST
80 MEINTJES Louis UAD ST
81 BERARD Julien ALM ST
82 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan TLJ ST
83 VICIOSO Angel KAT ST
84 DE LA PARTE Victor MOV ST
85 *O’CONNOR Ben DDD ST
86 TIRALONGO Paolo AST ST
87 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ ST
88 *HOFSTEDE Lennard SUN 19
89 KUMP Marko UAD ST
90 HANSEN Adam LTS ST
91 *JENNER Samuel AUS ST
92 HOWES Alex CDT 23
93 BAUER Jack QST 25
94 DURBRIDGE Luke ORS 29
95 STANNARD Ian SKY 33
96 VENTER Jaco DDD 36
97 COURTEILLE Arnaud FDJ 38
98 *BOUWMAN Koen TLJ 58
99 SCULLY Thomas CDT 01:00
100 *BAUHAUS Phil SUN 01:05
101 *VERMEULEN Alexey TLJ ST
102 *PEDERSEN Mads TFS 01:09
103 CLARKE William CDT ST
104 ARASHIRO Yukiya TBM 01:25
105 FENG Chun Kai TBM ST
106 GESCHKE Simon SUN 01:36
107 CHEVRIER Clement ALM 01:39
108 *MAISON Jeremy FDJ ST
109 FROHLINGER Johannes SUN ST
110 BRAJKOVIC Janez TBM ST
111 GATTO Oscar AST ST
112 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Jacques DDD ST
113 ARMEE Sander LTS ST
114 MOINARD Amael BMC ST
115 LAENGEN Vegard Stake UAD 01:49
116 CAPECCHI Eros QST 01:55
117 FARRAR Tyler DDD 02:13
118 MORTON Lachlan David DDD ST
119 *SCOTSON Callum AUS 02:18
120 *RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan KAT 0
121 VALGREN Michael AST ST
122 MACHADO Tiago KAT 02:41
123 IMPEY Daryl ORS 0
124 *SOLER GIMENEZ Marc MOV 02:41
125 *SHAW James LTS 02:54
126 WYSS Danilo BMC 0
127 DE GENDT Thomas LTS 04:18
128 HOWSON Damien ORS 05:21
129 POSTLBERGER Lukas BOH 05:47
130 BIDARD Francois ALM 0
131 BAKELANTS Jan ALM ST
132 IZAGUIRRE Gorka MOV ST

OVERALL
1 PORTE Richie BMC 10:34:59
2 IZAGUIRRE Gorka MOV 20
3 CHAVES Johan Esteban ORS 22
4 MCCARTHY Jay BOH 24
5 HAAS Nathan DDD 27
6 DENNIS Rohan BMC 29
7 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon AST ST
8 ULISSI Diego UAD ST
9 VALLS Rafael LTS ST
10 GESINK Robert TLJ ST
11 *GUERREIRO Ruben TFS ST
12 POZZOVIVO Domenico ALM ST
13 KELDERMAN Wilco SUN ST
14 *MAS Enric QST ST
15 *RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan KAT ST
16 EARLE Nathan AUS 33
17 HENAO Sergio Luis SKY ST
18 WOODS Michael CDT ST
19 *STORER Michael AUS ST
20 HERRADA Jesus MOV ST
21 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte CDT 45
22 BAKELANTS Jan ALM ST
23 *EIKING Odd Christian FDJ 47
24 BEVIN Patrick CDT 49
25 VAKOC Petr QST ST
26 VISCONTI Giovanni TBM ST
27 STETINA Peter TFS 52
28 *HAMILTON Chris SUN 53
29 PANTANO Jarlinson TFS ST
30 *HAMILTON Lucas AUS ST
31 *HINDLEY Jai AUS 57
32 CINK Ondrej TBM ST
33 DEVENYNS Dries QST ST
34 BYSTROM Sven Erik KAT 01:01
35 GERRANS Simon ORS 01:02
36 IMPEY Daryl ORS 01:07
37 ROUX Anthony FDJ 01:12
38 GONCALVES José KAT 01:14
39 HERRADA LOPEZ Jose MOV 01:15
40 *O’CONNOR Ben DDD 01:17
41 THOMAS Geraint SKY 01:19
42 MARTENS Paul TLJ ST
43 BRAMBILLA Gianluca QST ST
44 MEINTJES Louis UAD ST
45 BAK Lars Ytting LTS 01:20
46 VALGREN Michael AST 01:31
47 BAUER Jack QST 01:32
48 SWIFT Ben UAD 01:41
49 DE BIE Sean LTS 01:43
50 LAMMERTINK Maurits KAT ST
51 CARUSO Damiano BMC 01:44
52 DIDIER Laurent TFS 01:48
53 *JENNER Samuel AUS 02:03
54 ZAKHAROV Artyom AST 02:10
55 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM 02:36
56 ARMEE Sander LTS 02:46
57 MORTON Lachlan David DDD 02:58
58 CAPECCHI Eros QST 03:02
59 MEYER Cameron AUS 03:09
60 CHEVRIER Clement ALM 03:12
61 ARASHIRO Yukiya TBM 03:23
62 DE LA PARTE Victor MOV 03:38
63 *VERMEULEN Alexey TLJ 03:40
64 *SOLER GIMENEZ Marc MOV 03:41
65 *MUHLBERGER Gregor BOH 03:43
66 SAGAN Peter BOH 03:46
67 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ 03:50
68 HANSEN Adam LTS ST
69 GASTAUER Ben ALM 03:53
70 BRAJKOVIC Janez TBM 03:55
71 LAENGEN Vegard Stake UAD 04:03
72 WYSS Danilo BMC 04:07
73 *MAISON Jeremy FDJ 04:09
74 MACHADO Tiago KAT 04:17
75 MARCATO Marco UAD 04:21
76 MORI Manuele UAD ST
77 *SHAW James LTS 04:28
78 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ 04:38
79 GESCHKE Simon SUN ST
80 VICIOSO Angel KAT 05:12
81 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Jacques DDD 05:20
82 MOINARD Amael BMC 05:46
83 VELITS Martin QST 05:55
84 SUTTERLIN Jasha MOV 06:08
85 DE KORT Koen TFS 06:19
86 *SCOTSON Miles BMC 06:25
87 THEUNS Edward TFS 07:18
88 PLANCKAERT Baptiste KAT 07:27
89 *MANZIN Lorrenzo FDJ 07:43
90 BIDARD Francois ALM ST
91 VENTER Jaco DDD 08:13
92 *BONIFAZIO Niccolo TBM 08:33
93 ARNDT Nikias SUN 08:37
94 BARBERO CUESTA Carlos MOV ST
95 GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam TBM 08:49
96 *EWAN Caleb ORS 09:18
97 BRESCHEL Matti AST 09:33
98 *HOFSTEDE Lennard SUN 09:46
99 HOWES Alex CDT 09:56
100 DE GENDT Thomas LTS 10:24
101 *SCOTSON Callum AUS 10:55
102 SELIG Rudiger BOH 11:10
103 BENNETT Sam BOH 11:19
104 FENG Chun Kai TBM 11:26
105 SCULLY Thomas CDT 11:27
106 KOLAR Michael BOH 11:30
107 WAGNER Robert TLJ 11:33
108 VAN ASBROECK Tom CDT ST
109 CLARKE William CDT 11:36
110 RENSHAW Mark DDD 11:37
111 VENTOSO Francisco BMC 11:41
112 ELISSONDE Kenny SKY ST
113 *HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian SKY ST
114 KLUGE Roger ORS 11:45
115 TIRALONGO Paolo AST ST
116 DURBRIDGE Luke ORS 11:46
117 KUMP Marko UAD 11:52
118 COURTEILLE Arnaud FDJ 12:11
119 BERARD Julien ALM 12:13
120 *BAUHAUS Phil SUN 12:26
121 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan TLJ 12:35
122 ROWE Luke SKY 13:31
123 FARRAR Tyler DDD 14:12
124 STANNARD Ian SKY 14:28
125 *VAN POPPEL Danny SKY 14:55
126 *BOUWMAN Koen TLJ 15:49
127 POSTLBERGER Lukas BOH 17:20
128 DE VREESE Laurens AST 18:34
129 *PEDERSEN Mads TFS ST
130 FROHLINGER Johannes SUN 19:04
131 HOWSON Damien ORS 19:23
132 GATTO Oscar AST 22:39

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