‘Pocket Rocket’ Ewan flies out of nowhere to land stage three glory
● Aussie sprints to victory and says it proves last year’s wins were ‘no fluke’
Caleb Ewan hop es to “keep winning” after taking victor y in a sprint finish to stage three of the Tour de France in Sisteron, denying Irishman Sam Bennett on the line.
Australian Ewan (Lotto-soudal) seemed to appear from nowhere to we ave his way through a congested bunch and pass Bennett( Deceuninc k-Quick Step) just before the finish line.
Italian and European road race champion Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) finished third while Julian Alaphilippe held on to the yellow jersey.
It was Ewan’s four th Tour stage win after three victories on his debut last year and after the race he said: “The last few days haven’t been great for us, after we crashed on the first day and lost a couple of guys.
“But everyone stayed motivated and we all knew if it all went right, I could win the sprint today. Everyone today gave it 110 percent and it worked.
“This is the biggest race in the world and I’m so happy to get another win and prove last year wasn’t a fluke. I hope to keep coming back and keep winning.
“With the calibre of sprinter here it’ s always going to be hard but we have a few more opportunities and I think
we’ ll take them when they come.”
E wan displayed excellent bike handling skills to navigate his way through what was a chaotic finish.
The 26- year-old narrowly avoided Peter Sag an’ sb a ck wheel and the right-hand side barrier to get onto Bennett’ s wheel before he kicked clear
with tremendous speed at the 50-metre marker.
“I was a bit too far for ward in the final kilometre so I dropped back and gave myself a bit of a rest,” said Ewan
“I found my way through the wheels. Coming from behind, it’s a bit of a risk, but I found my way along the barrier and I came with a lot of speed and it worked.”
Living up to his nickname of “Pocket Rocket,” the 5ft 5in Ewan reached a top speed of 68.8 kph (42.7 mph) in the finale.
Three-time world champion S ag an faded to finish fifth but picked up enough points to replace stage one winner
Alexander Kristoff in the green points jersey.
After the opening two stages around Nice, the race veered inland over a 198- kilo metre route to Sisteron, which is labeled the“Gateway to Provence”.
The route featured four minor climbs before a flat finish suited to sprinters.
Three French riders – Anthony Perez, Jerome Cousin and Benoit Cosnefroy – broke away at the start and established an advantage of nearly three minutes.
Cousin then launched a solo attack midway through the stage and created a lead of more than four minutes.
Cousin was finally caught by the main pack with 16 kilometres remaining.
Perez, meanwhile, crashed into his team car on a highspeed descent after puncturing a tire and broke his left collarbone – forcing him to abandon the race. It was an espe - cially unfor tunate a ccident for Perez, since he had already gained enough points to don the polka-dot mountains classification jersey after the stage.
Today’s Stage 4 features the race’s first uphill finish with a climb to Orcieres-merlette that should force the overall favourites – such as Team Ineos’ defending champion Egan Bernal – into action.