Caleb Ewan Wins Stage One Of The Tour Down Under

Orica-Scott's Caleb Ewan won the first stage of the 2017 Tour Down Under - which was shortened due to searing South Australia temperatures - with a strong sprint finish in Lyndoch to take the overall lead. 

Credit: Cycling Weekly
22-year-old Ewan is rapidly cementing himself as arguably Australia's best sprinter and with his performance in the final kilometre, it's easy to see why. With the finish in sight, it looked as though he'd lost his lead-out man, but employed some some nifty maneuvering and soon found himself sweeping past his rivals to repeat his achievements of 2016's opening stage, and beat Team Sky's Danny van Poppel and Bora-Hansgrohe's Sam Bennett into second and third place respectively.

"It was stinking hot out there", exclaimed Ewan in the immediate aftermath of Stage One, "it was a good idea for the race to be shortened." 

"A lot of guys ran out of lead-out men and misjudged it", continued Ewan, "but I did well to open up my sprint and I'm happy with the win."

Due to the severe heat, reaching beyond 40 degrees Celsius at points, race organisers shortened the 145km stage from Unley to Lyndoch. 

With caution and hydration the foremost thought in the peloton's mind, the opening phases of the course were very pedestrian. Only Astana's Laurens De Vreese was willing to brave exerting himself to anything more vigorous than a spinning cadence, breaking from the peloton after only 3km, and picking up the King of the Mountains Jersey for his considerably risky foray.

Stage One had been ear-marked as a run-of-the-mill sprinters stage but with only a few kilometres to go, AG2R La Mondiale's Jan Bakelants was set to turn the script upside down, with Lotto-Soudal's veteran Aussie, Adam Hansen, in a quite literal hot pursuit.

Bakelants' futile bid for the leader's Red Jersey was ended when the lead-out trains, headed by Ewan's Orica-Scott teammate and fellow Australian, Luke "Turbo" Durbridge, inevitably reeled in the Belgian, who hasn't won a stage since last year's Tour of the Mediterranean.

In under the flamme rouge, it looked as though most of the lead-out trains had broken down, either due to miscommunication or simply heat exhaustion. 

World Champion, Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan, went for broke a long way out in an attempt to setup a win for Bennett, but Ewan managed to latch onto his wheel and power away to secure yet another stage victory in his home race.

Stage Two is regarded as the first of two Queen stages, starting with five laps of coastal town, Stirling, before heading into the Adelaide Hills to Paracombe. A sharp descent on Norton Summit and the King of the Mountains climb up Torrens Hill Road are sure to provide a thrilling finish.

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