Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) proved fastest at the end of stage 4 of the Santos Tour Down Under, coming past Sam Bennett (Deceuninck – Quick Step) and winning by a bike length ahead of the Irish champion and Belgian Jasper Philipsen (UAE-Team Emirates). For Ewan it’s his second stage win in his first stage race of the season, and his 9th since he started in this Australian WorldTour race.

“It was a very tight corner into the finish, but to be honest I like it when it is a technical finish”, said Ewan about the severe dogleg right turn with 300 metres to go.

“I just told my last man, Roger Kluge, to put me on the wheel of Sam Bennett and that’s exactly what he did. I was off the road a bit with one kilometre to go but luckily Roger was still there and he dropped me on the wheel. That’s exactly where I wanted to be on that last corner.”

There were some crosswinds toward the end of the race but Lotto Soudal was well prepared.

“We knew there would be a lot of wind once we turned on to the flat part in the second half of the course, but my team was always on the front. I was never in trouble. They did such a good job today”, added Ewan.

Tomorrow’s stage 5 starts in Glenelg and finishes in Victor Harbor, where again the sprinters are expected to be on the podium.

“Tomorrow is one of those stages that could go either way. Last time we did this finish, I got dropped on the climbs. So, I hope my legs are better tomorrow”, concluded Ewan.

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