Patrick Bevin mastered the uphill drag to the line to take his first WorldTour victory, give his CCC team their first race victory and capture the race lead. The Kiwi ITT national champion is on fine form – watch out!
Stage 2: Norwood to Angaston, 122.1km
A crash in the final kilometre saw a reduced group fight for stage victory, but don’t let that fact fool you into thinking this was an ‘easy’ win – it was nothing of the sort. Bevin chased down a late attack by Astana’s stage hunter extraordinaire Luis Leon Sanchez and held off a charging Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), before powering to the line in a fashion which will surely make his GC rivals take note.
I put my head down and if you finish first, you finish first. if you get mowed down, you get mowed down, but obviously the legs were good. Patrick Bevin
The Kiwi now holds +5secs on second placed Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quickstep), with former winners Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) at +15secs. That’s a good margin in a race that often comes down to a handful of seconds.
Happiness is first wins …
Bravo Matthieu!!
Stage two was already shortened due to concerns over the likely temperatures. With the mercury hitting over 40 degrees Matthieu Ladagnous (Groupama-FDJ) spent over 40km on a solo raid, he was only brought back with 3.5km to go. The effort was enough to earn him a trip to the podium as the most combative rider.
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Full report at Cycling News.
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