A perfect Tour Down Under for Orica-GreenEDGE was rounded off with a second stage win for Caleb Ewan, while Simon Gerrans came safely home to confirm his fourth GC crown.
In a repeat of stage 1's dominant victory, once Ewan launched his final sprint, nobody was able to come close to challenging. His win also marked six out of six stage wins by Australians this week, the first Aussie lockout in the Tour Down Under since 2002.
Almost 100,000 fans provided the usual party atmosphere on the street course in Adelaide, with Gerrans' ochre jersey lead never under threat from his nearest rivals, the focus instead being the expected bunch sprint finish.
A five-man break was allowed to get clear in the opening laps of the course, but due to the inclusion in the group of Carlos Verona (EQS) and LottoNL-Jumbo's George Bennett, Orica-GreenEDGE didn't allow them to so much as get out of sight.
The five were gradually reeled in, doing well to keep the peloton at bay as the average speed hovered around 50km/h, and five of the 20 laps had been completed by the time they were brought back into the bunch.
Another attack came shortly afterwards, this one of LottoNL-Jumbo's Maarten Tjallingi and Lotto-Soudal's Thomas de Gendt. They, too, were kept in sight of the bunch, but stayed clear through both of the intermediate sprints and the two King of the Mountains climbs, all of which were uncontested by the duo.
Tinkoff's Jay McCarthy had his eyes on taking the sprint jersey off Simon Gerrans, but Gerrans' teammate Daryl Impey worked superbly to head the peloton across the line for the first sprint to deny McCarthy. The second sprint was a no-go for the peloton due to Johan le Bon (FDJ) making an ultimately futile bid to join the leaders.
Sergio Henao's place as King of the Mountains leader was already secure, the Colombian holding an unassailable lead in the standings, resulting in the climbs being all but ignored by the peloton.
Two Astana riders, Laurens de Vreese and Lieuwe Westra, attacked with four laps remaining, but only Westra was able to join Tjallingi at the front, as de Gendt dropped back into the bunch. Their hopes of holding out for the end of the stage were quashed by a group effort at the front of the peloton, with Drapac, Tinkoff, Etixx-QuickStep, Dimension Data, Team Sky and Orica-GreenEDGE sharing the workload.
By the final lap, the break had been brought in to allow a sprint finish, It looked like Trek-Segafredo had their man, Giacomo Nizzolo, in prime position in second wheel with Ewan seemingly isolated, but the Orica-GreenEDGE rider pulled the pin with around 150m to go, blasting past them all to win by three bike lengths, with Mark Renshaw (DDD) again taking second.
Graham Watson
Towards the back, Simon Gerrans rolled over the line comfortably to confirm his victory in the overall standings. In addition, with McCarthy unable to pick up the top ten finish he needed, Gerrans also too victory in the sprinters' classification, although McCarthy's efforts this week were rewarded with the young riders' jersey and 4th overall.
Stage winner Caleb Ewan (OGE):
“Obviously it wasn’t just a great week for me, the team showed that this week they are by far the strongest. It was always going to be hard to come to this race and chase both stages and overall victory.
“I actually got caught behind on the way down to the finish line, and I was way back in the bunch and I had go back to the front. Luckily my team-mates brought me up to where I wanted to be for sprinting and it all went well.”
Directeur sportif Matt White (OGE):
“It's been a huge week for our team, to win the overall and book-end with Caleb, this was confirmation for Caleb, he clearly was the fastest rider here all week.
“For Gerro to come back, everyone saw how hard he worked. This will set the tone for rest of the year.
GC winner Simon Gerrans (OGE):
“I couldn’t have asked for any more of the guys this week, they really did a sensational job this week.
"It's just awesome, a great way to start the season."
Stage results
1. Caleb Ewan (OGE) 1:55:02
2. Mark Renshaw (DDD) + :00
3. Giacomo Nizzolo (TFR) + :00
General Classification final standings
1. Simon Gerrans (OGE) 19:11:33
2. Richie Porte (BMC) + :09
3. Sergio Henao (SKY) +:11
4. Jay McCarthy (TNK) + :20
5. Michael Woods (CPT) + :20
6. Ruben Fernandez Andujar (MOV) + :28
7. Domenico Pozzovivo (ALM) + :28
8. Rafael Valls Ferri (LTS) + :36
9. Steve Morabito (FDL) + :49
10. Patrick Bevin (CPT) + :50
King of the Mountains final standings
1. Sergio Henao (SKY) 38
2. Richie Porte (BMC) 28
3. Michael Woods (CPT) 20
Sprint Classification final standings
1. Simon Gerrans (OGE) 51
2. Jay McCarthy (TNK) 46
3. Caleb Ewan (OGE) 38
No comments:
Post a Comment