Sun Tour : Stage 3 – win for McCabe

Arizona sprinter Travis McCabe made himself right at home in the heat of the Australian summer winning stage 3 of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.

Sun Tour : Stage 3 – win for McCabe

Arizona sprinter Travis McCabe made himself right at home in the heat of the Australian summer, confidently driving the UnitedHealthcare Blue Train to victory on Stage 3 of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.

Photo: Con Chronis

McCabe navigated his way through the crash-marred final kilometres to finish close to two bike lengths ahead of Mitch Docker (ORICA-Scott) and Leigh Howard (Aqua Blue Sport) with a group of just 16 riders contesting the win at Mitchelton Winery.

Overall leader Damien Howson (ORICA-Scott) was spared from having his advantaged diminish after he was caught behind the crashes, with the commissaires awarding bunch time. Howson maintains his 38 second lead over Jai Hindley (KordaMentha Australian National Team) with Kenny Elissonde (Team Sky) a further 15 seconds back.

The UnitedHealthcare sprinter had targeted the stage and had finished in the top 10 at the Prologue on Wednesday night. Adding to the pressure was the fact that the team came away with a sprint victory at the 2016 Jayco Herald Sun Tour and UnitedHealthcare was keen to double down.

Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe. Photo: Con Chronis

“Mitch attacked at 200 metres to go and I just knew I had the legs and so I went as soon as he did and held it to the line with a fairly decent gap so I’m really happy,” said McCabe, who is in his first year with the team and so was pleased to deliver a win so early in the season.

Nervousness in the peloton in the final kilometres, ahead of the technical finale, contributed to the two crashes that occurred inside the last five kilometres. The incidents also ruled out some of the pre-stage contenders even being in with a chance of attempting the win, including Danny van Poppel (Team Sky) and Brenton Jones (JLT Condor).

Photo: Con Chronis — Conor Dunne who was second on stage 2

“The crash was unfortunate,” McCabe admitted. “It came down to a sprint but a lot of guys weren’t really there for it because of that crash. It would have been nice to see how my legs hold up against the true sprinters.”

The 27-year-old, who said that today’s win was on par with his victory at last year’s Tour of Utah, paid tribute to the efforts of his team for their navigation over the latter part of the 167.7km stage.

“It was about staying safe and out of trouble,” McCabe explained. “You are so close to everyone and everyone’s head butting and everyone’s fighting. I think the heat and that little climb took a lot of energy out of the legs. I think guys weren’t fully aware of what they were doing and caused the crash. Once I made it out of that and I came into that [final] corner third wheel behind Mitch Docker I knew I had a really good chance of winning.”

For Howson, it was a second straight day of high-stress racing after his mechanical nearly put an end to his stint in the yellow jersey on Friday.

“It was another nervous day,” he said. “The sprinters had their chance today and everyone was fighting and jostling for position in that final five kilometres. It made for some dangerous, exciting racing but I’m happy to get through unscathed.”

Photo: Con Chronis

The story of the race –
A final selection for the day’s breakaway took over 25km of racing to settle, after an early attempt of 16 riders including Howson and Chris Froome (Team Sky) failed to content the peloton.

Eventually, Jeroen Meijers (Roompot – Nederlandse Loterij), Pavel Brutt (Gazprom – Rusvelo), Adrian Hegyvary (UnitedHealthcare), Aaron Gate (Aqua Blue Sport), Anthony Giacoppo (IsoWhey Sport Swisswellness), Drew Morey (Drapac Pat’s Veg), Darcy Ellerm-Norton (St George), Hamish Schreurs (New Zealand National Team) and Dylan Sunderland (NSWIS) were allowed to forge on up the road.

Meijers took both KOM primes on offer but was unable to make a dent in the classification lead of Ben Hill (Attaque Team Gusto). Likewise for the sprint primes, with none of the breakaway riders in contention to challenge the 10-point lead of Jake Kauffman (NSWIS).

After 113km of racing, the nine riders in the breakaway were given their maximum amount of rope by the peloton, with a gap of just over four-and-a-half-minutes. That gave Brutt the virtual leadership of the yellow jersey, starting the day 3min44sec behind Howson but soon after, the peloton decided enough was enough and began to reel the group in.

Chris Froome. Photo: Con Chronis

Cross winds buffeted the peloton with 30km remaining, with some riders struggling to hold on. Soon after, the breakaway’s game was up with Team Sky and JLT Condor leading the chase. With the race back together, and the technical finish looming, a touch of wheels brought down swathes of riders. Craig Evers (7 Eleven – Sava RBP) was taken to hospital for a suspected broken collarbone while many riders suffered grazing.

Photo: Con Chronis

Howson will have to battle to stay in yellow at the end of tomorrow’s finale at Kinglake. It’s a battle that he’s ready for with the chance for his name to join the likes of Tour de France winners Brad Wiggins and Froome as a Jayco Herald Sun Tour winner.

“I’ve seen that honour roll and it’s an extensive list of quality bike riders,” Howson said. “I can’t jump ahead of myself. I still have an epic day tomorrow to conquer and after that hopefully it’s champagne showers all around and I’ll be very happy to join that list.”

… continued after advert

Stage 3 Result
1 Travis MCCABE (UHC) USA 3h46:00 10
2 Mitch DOCKER (ORS) AUS 0 6
3 Leigh HOWARD (ABS) AUS 0 4
4 Luke ROWE (SKY) GBR 0
5 Aleksei TCATEVICH (GAZ) RUS 0
6 Benjamin HILL (ATG) AUS 0
7 Ivan SAVITCKII (GAZ) RUS 0
8 Jesper ASSELMAN (RNL) NED 0
9 Jesse KERRISON (IWS) AUS 0
10 Brad EVANS (DPV) NZL 0
11 Daniel FITTER (NIS) AUS 0
12 Ian BIBBY (JLT) GBR 0
13 Nick VAN DER LIJKE (RNL) NED 0
14 Taco VAN DER HOORN (RNL) NED 0
15 Michael HEPBURN (ORS) AUS 0
16 Nathan EARLE (AUS) AUS 0
17 Michel KREDER (ABS) NED 0
18 Marcelo FELIPE (7RP) PHI 0
19 Kenny ELISSONDE (SKY) FRA 0
20 Janier Alexis ACEVEDO CALLE (UHC) COL 0
21 Damien HOWSON (ORS) AUS 0
22 Cyrus MONK (DPV) AUS 0
23 Nikolay TRUSOV (GAZ) RUS 0
24 Tanner PUTT (UHC) USA 0
25 Martijn TUSVELD (RNL) NED 0
26 Timothy GUY (ATG) AUS 0
27 Pavel BRUTT (GAZ) RUS 0 4
28 Michael STORER (AUS) AUS 0
29 Aaron GATE (ABS) NZL 0 3
30 Jason CHRISTIE (NZL) NZL 0
31 Sam BEWLEY (ORS) NZL 0
32 Lawrence WARBASSE (ABS) USA 0
33 Sergey NIKOLAEV (GAZ) RUS 0
34 Jesse EWART (7RP) AUS 0
35 Samuel JENNER (AUS) AUS 0
36 Benjamin DYBALL (STG) AUS 0
37 Cameron MEYER (AUS) AUS 0
38 Alistair SLATER (JLT) GBR 0
39 Kirill SVESHNIKOV (GAZ) RUS 0
40 Artur ERSHOV (GAZ) RUS 0
41 Simon GERRANS (ORS) AUS 0
42 Jesse FEATONBY (DPV) AUS 0
43 Jonathan CLARKE (UHC) AUS 0
44 Lachlan NORRIS (UHC) AUS 0
45 Alistair DONOHOE (ATG) AUS 0
46 Jhoan Esteban CHAVES RUBIO (ORS) COL 0
47 Guy KALMA (ATG) NZL 0
48 Dylan SUNDERLAND (NIS) AUS 0
49 Jai HINDLEY (AUS) AUS 0
50 Lucas HAMILTON (AUS) AUS 0
51 Anthony GIACOPPO (IWS) AUS 0 1
52 Timothy ROE (IWS) AUS 0
53 Mario VOGT (ATG) GER +2:31
54 Alexandr SHUSHEMOIN (ATG) KAZ +2:31
55 Josh BERRY (7RP) AUS +2:31
56 Oliver KENT-SPARK (DPV) AUS 0
57 Mathew ROSS (DPV) AUS 0
58 Nicholas KATSONIS (DPV) AUS +2:31
59 Conor DUNNE (ABS) IRL 0
60 Peter KONING (ABS) NED 0
61 Cameron BAYLY (IWS) AUS 0
62 Jacob KAUFFMANN (NIS) AUS 0
63 Danny VAN POPPEL (SKY) NED 0
64 Christopher FROOME (SKY) GBR 0
65 Sebastian HENAO GOMEZ (SKY) COL 0
66 Tim ARIESEN (RNL) NED +2:58
67 Jeroen MEIJERS (RNL) NED +2:58
68 Philip MARTZ (ATG) USA +2:58
69 Ayden TOOVEY (NIS) AUS +2:58 1
70 Ian STANNARD (SKY) GBR +2:58
71 Sam DOBBS (NZL) NZL +2:58
72 Brenton JONES (JLT) AUS 0
73 Hamish SCHREURS (NZL) NZL +2:58
74 Edmund BRADBURY (JLT) GBR 0
75 James ORAM (NZL) NZL +3:16
76 Taylor GUNMAN (NZL) NZL +3:16
77 Patrick SHARPE (STG) AUS +3:16
78 Joshua TAYLOR (NIS) AUS +3:16
79 Darcy ELLERM-NORTON (STG) NZL +3:16 3
80 Drew MOREY (DPV) AUS +3:16
81 Joseph COOPER (IWS) NZL +3:16
82 Robbie HUCKER (IWS) AUS 0
83 Alex FRAME (JLT) NZL 0
84 Kaden GROVES (STG) AUS +4:54
85 James FOUCHE (NZL) NZL 0
86 Alex WOHLER (NIS) AUS 0
87 Calvin WATSON (ABS) AUS +5:58
88 Steve LAMPIER (JLT) GBR +5:58
89 Brodie TALBOT (STG) AUS +5:58
90 Adrian HEGYVARY (UHC) USA +5:58
91 Sjoerd VAN GINNEKEN (RNL) NED +4:54
92 Mark John Lexer GALEDO (7RP) PHI +3:16
93 Edgar Nohales NETO (7RP) ESP +5:58
94 Thomas HUBBARD (STG) NZL +5:58
95 Jay DUTTON (STG) AUS +2:31
96 Rustom LIM (7RP) PHI +5:58
97 James GULLEN (JLT) GBR +5:58
98 Rob POWER (ORS) AUS +5:58
99 Matthew ZENOVICH (NZL) NZL +5:58
100 Greg HENDERSON (UHC) NZL +4:54
101 Angus LYONS (AUS) AUS +2:31
102 Craig EVERS (7RP) AUS 0

dnf Scott BOWDEN (IWS) AUS

Average speed of the winner: 44.5 km/h
Number of starters: 103
Riders abandoning the race: 1

General Classification

After Stage 3
Time/Gap
1 Damien HOWSON (ORS) AUS 12h32:12
2 Jai HINDLEY (AUS) AUS 38
3 Kenny ELISSONDE (SKY) FRA 53
4 Cameron MEYER (AUS) AUS +1:08
5 Michael STORER (AUS) AUS +1:10
6 Christopher FROOME (SKY) GBR +1:12
7 Lucas HAMILTON (AUS) AUS +1:13
8 Nathan EARLE (AUS) AUS +1:15
9 Jhoan Esteban CHAVES RUBIO (ORS) COL +1:15
10 Timothy ROE (IWS) AUS +1:17
11 Ian BIBBY (JLT) GBR +1:26
12 Janier Alexis ACEVEDO CALLE (UHC) COL +1:28
13 Edmund BRADBURY (JLT) GBR +1:35
14 Jonathan CLARKE (UHC) AUS +1:40
15 Sebastian HENAO GOMEZ (SKY) COL +1:43
16 Cameron BAYLY (IWS) AUS +1:45
17 Jesse FEATONBY (DPV) AUS +1:56
18 Lachlan NORRIS (UHC) AUS +1:57
19 Alistair DONOHOE (ATG) AUS +2:04
20 Benjamin DYBALL (STG) AUS +2:30
21 Pavel BRUTT (GAZ) RUS +3:40
22 Dylan SUNDERLAND (NIS) AUS +3:43
23 Jason CHRISTIE (NZL) NZL +4:51
24 Martijn TUSVELD (RNL) NED +5:39
25 Lawrence WARBASSE (ABS) USA +7:03
26 Robbie HUCKER (IWS) AUS +7:07
27 Daniel FITTER (NIS) AUS +7:16
28 Simon GERRANS (ORS) AUS +7:27
29 Tanner PUTT (UHC) USA +8:03
30 Jesse EWART (7RP) AUS +10:23
31 Cyrus MONK (DPV) AUS +10:35
32 James ORAM (NZL) NZL +11:40
33 Mario VOGT (ATG) GER +12:35
34 Steve LAMPIER (JLT) GBR +12:44
35 Luke ROWE (SKY) GBR +12:47
36 Samuel JENNER (AUS) AUS +13:05
37 Sam DOBBS (NZL) NZL +14:21
38 Timothy GUY (ATG) AUS +15:26
39 Conor DUNNE (ABS) IRL +16:34
40 Artur ERSHOV (GAZ) RUS +16:53
41 Taco VAN DER HOORN (RNL) NED +16:54
42 Jesper ASSELMAN (RNL) NED +16:59
43 Drew MOREY (DPV) AUS +19:05
44 Sjoerd VAN GINNEKEN (RNL) NED +19:08
45 Michael HEPBURN (ORS) AUS +19:30
46 Jacob KAUFFMANN (NIS) AUS +19:40
47 Nicholas KATSONIS (DPV) AUS +20:05
48 Travis MCCABE (UHC) USA +21:03
49 Alexandr SHUSHEMOIN (ATG) KAZ +21:09
50 Greg HENDERSON (UHC) NZL +21:16
51 Alistair SLATER (JLT) GBR +21:18
52 Mitch DOCKER (ORS) AUS +21:58
53 Aleksei TCATEVICH (GAZ) RUS +22:02
54 Brad EVANS (DPV) NZL +22:05
55 Nick VAN DER LIJKE (RNL) NED +22:13
56 Sergey NIKOLAEV (GAZ) RUS +22:15
57 James GULLEN (JLT) GBR +22:23
58 Oliver KENT-SPARK (DPV) AUS +22:41
59 Brodie TALBOT (STG) AUS +22:49
60 Ivan SAVITCKII (GAZ) RUS +23:20
61 Marcelo FELIPE (7RP) PHI +24:40
62 Tim ARIESEN (RNL) NED +24:56
63 Jeroen MEIJERS (RNL) NED +25:05
64 Calvin WATSON (ABS) AUS +25:32
65 Aaron GATE (ABS) NZL +25:50
66 Guy KALMA (ATG) NZL +26:44
67 Michel KREDER (ABS) NED +26:47
68 Anthony GIACOPPO (IWS) AUS +27:05
69 Joseph COOPER (IWS) NZL +27:28
70 Rustom LIM (7RP) PHI +28:17
71 James FOUCHE (NZL) NZL +28:33
72 Brenton JONES (JLT) AUS +29:49
73 Rob POWER (ORS) AUS +30:02
74 Taylor GUNMAN (NZL) NZL +30:04
75 Ayden TOOVEY (NIS) AUS +30:06
76 Edgar Nohales NETO (7RP) ESP +30:21
77 Patrick SHARPE (STG) AUS +30:30
78 Benjamin HILL (ATG) AUS +30:54
79 Angus LYONS (AUS) AUS +30:55
80 Alex FRAME (JLT) NZL +31:11
81 Nikolay TRUSOV (GAZ) RUS +31:12
82 Ian STANNARD (SKY) GBR +31:34
83 Mathew ROSS (DPV) AUS +31:45
84 Mark John Lexer GALEDO (7RP) PHI +32:04
85 Jesse KERRISON (IWS) AUS +34:13
86 Danny VAN POPPEL (SKY) NED +35:28
87 Peter KONING (ABS) NED +35:32
88 Leigh HOWARD (ABS) AUS +36:44
89 Hamish SCHREURS (NZL) NZL +38:31
90 Matthew ZENOVICH (NZL) NZL +38:35
91 Joshua TAYLOR (NIS) AUS +38:48
92 Sam BEWLEY (ORS) NZL +39:16
93 Kaden GROVES (STG) AUS +40:28
94 Philip MARTZ (ATG) USA +40:40
95 Josh BERRY (7RP) AUS +40:55
96 Adrian HEGYVARY (UHC) USA +41:29
97 Darcy ELLERM-NORTON (STG) NZL +43:05
98 Craig EVERS (7RP) AUS +45:51
99 Kirill SVESHNIKOV (GAZ) RUS +49:48
100 Alex WOHLER (NIS) AUS +50:56
101 Jay DUTTON (STG) AUS +53:44
102 Thomas HUBBARD (STG) NZL +57:10