Bevin retains tour lead
Kiwi cyclist Patrick Bevin has retained the overall lead and the ochre jersey after stage three of the Tour Down Under.
He finished fifth on the
146.2km stage, which Slovakia’s Peter Sagan won, beating South Africa’s Daryl Impey to the line in a sprint at Uraidla in the Adelaide Hills.
Bevin is one second ahead of Sagan, with Spain’s Luis Leo´n Sa´nchez eight seconds further back in the general classification.
Sagan’s win yesterday came 12 months after a triumph in the same town, and earned him a
10-second bonus, but that wasn’t enough to get him past Bevin, who won stage two on Wednesday. Arguably the hardest stage in the Tour’s 21-year history predictably splintered the field, with Canadian Michael Woods launching an attack with 2km left.
Impey, riding for the Australian Mitchelton-Scott team, finished third to keep his title defence on track.
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, but as the stage started, race radio announced that the majority of teams had decided that there would be no change.