Caleb Ewan made it a hat-trick of wins in this year’s Tour Down Under with another stunning sprint on stage four.
The Australian star again beat his rivals in a shoot-out to the line at Campbelltown with world champion Peter Sagan once more forced to settle for second place.
Richie Porte finished safely in the bunch to maintain his overall Tour lead, 20 seconds ahead of Gorka Izagirre.
Ewan admitted he was enjoying his sensational run of form at the very start of the season.
“I really could not have asked for a better start to the year. Once again my team backed me and they did a great job,” he said.
“All the wins I’ve had in the past few days, the finishes have been different and I knew this one was going to be tough.
“But without the team and their support I could not have got all these victories.”
For the third day out of four in the 2017 TDU, the stage didn’t quite offer enough for a breakaway victory – despite the very best effort of New Zealand’s Jack Bauer.
He first went away off the front with Australian Cameron Meyer and Ondrej Cink from the Czech Republic, before trying to do it all on his own in the final 30km.
But national time trial champion Bauer could not hold off the charging peloton as he was swallowed up just a few minutes from the line.
That put Ewan in pole position for another win and he proved he is virtually unbeatable on present form by blasting through to deny Sagan once more.
Izagirre was delighted to maintain his second place in the General Classification after being badly injured on Thursday in a nasty crash near the finish in Victor Harbor.