Trade of fortunes for Viviani, Ewan

AUSTRALIAN sprint ace Caleb Ewan was nowhere to be seen as Italian rival Elia Viviani showcased his peerless racing craft at the Tour Down Under yesterday.

Two days after Ewan won the Down Under Classic street race and Viviani crashed out of contention on the final lap, their fortunes were reversed dramatically in Port Adelaide.

Viviani squeezed through a tight gap on the far left in the sketchy final sprint and burst clear on the right to take the stage win.

After 18 wins last year, including a Tour Down Under stage, the 2016 Olympic champion on the track is also is the Tour’s race leader for the first time. Ewan was the big loser in Stage 1 after he and his new Lotto-Soudal team were unsighted in the last couple of kilometres.

Sunday’s win and yesterday’s failure illustrate Ewan is a work in progress as the Lotto-Soudal team leader.

While obviously frustrated, Ewan was far from dejected post-race. Today and Saturday will give him two more realistic chances for a stage win. “It isn’t disappointing — we are going to learn from this and that’s the main thing,” Ewan said.

Three-time world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) also had to settle for eighth place.

An ecstatic Viviani’s win takes any pressure off his powerful Deceuninck-Quick Step team for the rest of the Tour.

“When you start the World- Tour season with the stage win and the leader’s jersey, it’s the best way,” he said.

“Now we know we’ve done a good job in the winter, so that’s the question we’ve already answered.”

It was a straightforward stage that started in North Adelaide and went through the Adelaide Hills, with the ANZAC break of Australians Jason Lea (UniSA), Michael Storer (Sunweb) and New Zealander Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) reeled in 40km from the finish.