Caleb Ewan made it two stage wins out of three in the Tour Down Under on Thursday – as fellow Australian Richie Porte maintained his place as overall leader.
Ewan once again outsprinted world champion Peter Sagan after a hard day’s riding from Glenelg to Victor Harbor.
Porte managed to avoid some nasty crashes in the closing stages – including one involving his closest rival Gorka Izagirre – to keep hold of the ochre jersey.
“It was quite a nervous and stressful day,” admitted Porte afterwards.
“I was pretty close to a few of the crashes at the end and on a stage like this there is so much to lose and not much to gain.”
Although he was left battered and bruised, Spaniard Izagirre was fortunate in some respects that he went down just inside the final 3km, thus ensuring he was given the same time as the bunch to stay just 20 seconds seconds adrift of Porte overall.
Up front, Ewan once again proved his stunning speed to claim the stage victory on a day when a long breakaway involving Thomas De Gendt, Clement Chevrier, Jeremy Maison and Vegard Laengen was finally overhauled about 10km from the line.
“Today was quite hard because we had to ride back a super-strong breakaway,” Ewan said.
“It was difficult for me to back up after yesterday’s effort and it probably took me three-quarters of the stage to get into it.
“At the end I was jumping around on all different wheels in the last kilometre, but it’s great that I got there in the end.”