Battered Bevin bleeds for victory
helped to his feet by a team-mate following the heavy fall.
Limping and with blood running from his right knee and right elbow, the 27-year-old shrugged off the pain to get on a replacement bike, digging deep to catch up to the peloton and salvage his race lead.
Bevin, who was taken away by ambulance before the podium presentation, started the day with a seven-second advantage over South African Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) and ended it with the same margin. Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) is 16 seconds adrift in third, while Kiwi George Bennett (JumboVisma) also remains in contention, 26 seconds back from Bevin in seventh.
Bevin and Impey shared the two intermediate sprints, meaning they gained five seconds on the climbers who will thrive on today’s summit finish at Willunga.
The sprinters, including Bevin, Sanchez, Impey and Ewan, are unlikely to play any part in the finish of the final stage. The outcome of the tour will depend on whether any of the climbers close to the overall lead can take enough time, including the 10-second bonus for winning the stage, to shake Bevin’s grip on general classification.
But it remains to be seen if he will be able to continue as he looks to secure a maiden World Tour stage race victory.
As for Ewan, he did not comment after his relegation but Lotto-Soudal team manager Mario Aerts was left fuming at the decision.
Overhead TV footage showed Ewan appearing to try to headbutt Philipsen as they jostled for position inside the last kilometre.
Ewan was relegated after an appeal from Philipsen’s UAE team.
‘‘Of course, it’s unfair to me,’’ Aerts said.
‘‘Caleb protects (himself), to not go in the barriers.
‘‘Then he uses his head – he says ‘I cannot use my hands, so what do I do to stay (upright)?’.
‘‘I find it very ‘light’ – of course, head butts look spectacular, if they can’t use their hands, they have to use something else of their body.
‘‘It’s a heavy decision for a light thing to do.’’
Aerts added Lotto-Soudal was given no say before the race jury made the decision to relegate Ewan, who remains in the tour.