Published February 7, 2015 06:27AM
Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) has secured his second consecutive stage win in the 2015 Jayco Herald Sun Tour, sprinting to victory in Nagambie on stage 3 ahead of Tyler Farrar (MTN-Qhubeka) and Steele von Hoff (KordaMentha-Australia).
Ewan came into the final corner (the same finishing corner as yesterday’s stage) further from the front than he did 24 hours earlier, but the 20-year-old was still about to get the result he was after. He overhauled the early jump of Drapac’s Will Clarke and several other riders before kicking to win by more than a bike length.
“Same finish line and same result, I am really happy with both of them,” Ewan said after winning the stage. “It played out a little differently [to stage 2]. It was pretty hectic in the final with the big wide road.”
Earlier in the day a group of six riders broke clear of the peloton inside the first 10km: Adam Phelan (Drapac), Jake Kauffmann (Budget Forklifts), Cameron Bayly (search2retain-health.com.au), Jayden Copp, Ben Hill (CharterMason Giant), and Ryan Thomas (Data#3 Symantec). The six riders’ lead peaked at 2:47 but with the peloton keen for a bunch sprint, the break was never given much latitude.
All six leaders had been caught with 3km to go in the stage, setting the race up for another bunch sprint.
Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) maintained his overall lead again after finishing safely in the bunch, despite there being a number of crashes in the peloton throughout the stage.
“There was a lot of nervous guys out there, I don’t know what it was,” said Meyer. “If it was that it was quite fast all day, they wanted to keep the break in check that’s for sure and they definitely wanted a sprint finish. A lot of teams were very eager and I think that caused a few crashes out there.”
Meyer’s teammate and defending champion Simon Clarke was among the riders to crash, as too were Robert Power (U23-Australia) and Alistair Donohoe (Search2retain).
Meyer still leads the GC by four seconds ahead of New Zealand national champion Joe Cooper (Avanti) with Cooper’s teammate and compatriot Patrick Bevin another 11 seconds behind.
The 2015 Jayco Herald Sun Tour concludes tomorrow with a 125.4km stage that starts and finishes atop Arthurs Seat on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. The riders will tackle the tough 3km climb three times on tomorrow’s stage en route to deciding the winner of the race overall.