Elia Viviani wins Tour Down Under stage three after Caleb Ewan "stuff up"

Elia Viviani took advantage of a poorly judged sprint from Caleb Ewan to claim his first ever win for Quick-Step Floors at the Tour Down Under on stage three.

Elia Viviani moved to new team Quick-Step Floors
from Team Sky
Picture credit: cyclingnews.com
Ewan and Australian National Champion Alex Edmondson (Mitchelton-Scott) appeared to have the sprint under control but failed to anticipate the charge of Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) allowing the Italian to jump the race leader and take the stage win.

Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) also capitalised on Ewan's poor sprint to come second with Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) in fourth.

Viviani was pleased with his win, given the extreme temperatures on the stage: "It's the fourth sprint [of the week] and it's not easy to come [to Australia] in January with these conditions. I never win in the hilly season like that so that's a good thing and means I've had a good winter. I feel lucky to be here and take this win."

A forlorn Ewan expressed his disappointment at his poor sprint: "I think in hindsight it was probably a finish that you're better off coming from behind, as I did last year. 

"I can't fault my team, they were absolutely perfect and did exactly what I asked them to do and it was just my stuff up in the end." 

The Race

Weather warnings prior to the stage meant the race organisers shortened the race from Glenelg to Victor Harbor by 20km to 120.5km. 

Even at 9:00am the temperatures were approaching 35 degrees, but that didn't stop the familiar breakaway of King of the Mountains Nicholas Dlamini (Dimension Data) and Scott Bowden (UniSA) minus Will Clarke (EF Education First-Drapac).

Penny's Hill - a new KOM addition to the Tour Down Under - was the first obstacle of the day, and despite an optimistic challenge from Bowden, Dlamini wasn't to be out-foxed and waited for the young Australian to tire before passing him to take maximum points. 

At the first intermediate sprint it was a battle between general classification rivals Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) and Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe), but when it looked like Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) may snatch the spoils, Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) swept past to capture the bonus second.

With 32km to go Dlamini dropped back to the peloton, leaving Bowden to persevere in the sweltering 44 degree midday sun.

Haas and McCarthy once again battled for vital bonus seconds at the second intermediate sprint. This time Haas held off McCarthy to bring the gap between the two on GC to just one second.

Bowden was reeled in with 30km to go and all that lay ahead was to decide the winner of the stage.

Mitchelton-Scott seemed to have the sprint under control with Ewan sat on the wheel of lead-out man Alex Edmonson with no challengers in sight.

Ewan, however, only launched his own sprint for the line after he'd caught a glimpse of Viviani accelerating many metres behind him, by which time it was too late, allowing the Italian to fly past and take the stage victory. 

Stage three result

1. Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors)
2. Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb)
3. Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott)
4. Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates)
5. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)
6. Simon Clarke (EF Education First-Drapac)
7. Alexander Edmondson (Mitchelton-Scott)
8. Zak Dempster (Uni SA)
9. Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step Floors)
10. Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe)

General classification

1. Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) in 10:58:36
2. Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) at 10"
3. Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) at 14"
4. Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 15"
5. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 16"
6. Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) at 17"
7. Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha-Alpecin) at 19"
8. Simone Consonni (UAE-Team Emirates) at 20"
9. Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) at 20"
10. Anthony Roux (FDJ) at 20"

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