Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-SCOTT) sprinted to victory on today’s second stage of the Santos Tour Down Under as teammate Daryl Impey finished in second. It was the seventh career stage win in the race for the Australian sprinter.
Once again, Will Clarke (EF Education First – Drapac), Nicolas Dlamini (Dimension Data) and Scott Bowden (UniSA) formed the breakaway with Jaime Castrillo (Movistar Team) joining the trio.
The sprinters’ teams ensured that it would finish in a sprint in Stirling with Castrillo being caught with 15 kilometres remaining.
Mitchelton-SCOTT helped Ewan into a prime position for the finish where he edged out Impey and Jay McCarthy (Bora Hansgrohe). Thanks to his bonus seconds, Ewan also takes over the leader’s jersey. He leads Impey by 10″ with World Champion Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) in third a further 2″ down.
Caleb Ewan – “I am very thrilled, it is probably more exciting winning on a stage that you’re a little bit unsure about going into. It was a tricky finish because I didn’t know if I would get up there or not and I didn’t want to make the call from the bottom.”
“I just sat in there and tried to conserve as much energy as possible and I saw Daryl sitting up there nicely so I told him to go with about 300metres to go and then he got us out and then I had a clear run at the line.”
“I think this is probably my best Tour Down Under win because it was on a finish that didn’t suit me and probably suited Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) more, so to get one up on him here, on this finish, is a bonus.”
“The last few Tour Down Under’s I have had the Ochre jersey but then gone straight into a mountain stage so I haven’t had the chance to hold it for more than one-day so this is great to try and keep it tomorrow.”
