Sagan again the king of the Hills

JUST like he did a year ago, world champion cyclist Peter Sagan has won at Uraidla in the Adelaide Hills at the Tour Down Under.

The Slovakian cycling star won a reduced bunch sprint to take out yesterday’s 146.2km stage from Lobethal in hot conditions through the Adelaide Hills.

It comes 12 months after Sagan also won in Uraidla.

Arguably the hardest stage in the Tour’s 21-year history, it predictably splintered the field, with Canadian Michael Woods launching an attack with 2km left. For the second straight stage, Spanish rider Luis Leon Sanchez narrowly missed out on a win.

South African defending champion Daryl Impey, riding for the Australian MitcheltonScott team, finished third to keep his title defence on track.

Australian star Richie Porte was with the leaders at the finish and while he finished outside the top 10, he is unlikely to have lost any time.

Minutes before the stage start, there were negotiations about potentially shortening the stage because of the hot conditions.

Riders’ delegate Adam Hansen, teams’ delegate Matt White and a couple of other team directors spent several minutes speaking with race director Mike Turtur. Hansen and White initially reported that a compromise had been reached, with one of the seven 14km finishing circuits cut from the stage.

But as the stage started, race radio announced that the majority of teams had decided there would be no change.

While conditions remained hot, it was cooler than Wednesday’s second stage, which was cut by 27km because of the heatwave.

A seven-rider break was allowed to clear and it initially featured Italian Stage 1 winner Elia Viviani.

Young Australians Michael Storer (UniSA) and James Whelan (EF Education First) were also in the break.

There was a crash at the back of the peloton with about 40km left but there were no casualties.

Inside 30km, Whelan joined with Italian teammate Alberto Bettiol in an enterprising two-man break.

After a power of work, Whelan ran out of steam with 20km left and Bettiol was caught early on the last lap as the pace ramped up.

New Zealander Patrick Bevin finished fifth yesterday to retain the overall lead.