Three-time world champion Peter Sagan (BORA - Hansgrohe) took his first victory of 2019 winning Stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under, mixing with the puncheurs and climbers, easing to victory in the bunch sprint.
Today was the first Stage of this year's Tour Down Under that wasn't shortened, with the full compliment of teams deciding to keep the original Stage distance of 146.2km. There was also racing straight from the gun, as CCC Team's Patrick Bevin made sure the peleton started off at some speed.
The breakaway also formed relatively early, with Nic Dlamini (Team Dimension Data), Michael Potter (UniSA - Australia), Manuele Boaro (Astana), James Whelan (EF - Education First), Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) and Léo Vincent (Groupama - FDJ) all partnering an eye-catching inclusion of Deceuninck - Quick Step's Elia Viviani - no doubt wanting to get all the intermediate sprint points on offer today; and he did just that, winning the first intermediate sprint with ease, and then leading over the second uncontested to take the full compliment of points.
Manuele Boaro (Astana) won the maximum of the only KOM points on offer today, but with UniSA - Australia's Jason Lea in quite a commanding lead in that competition, it was surely only to brag a little and potentially to get his team (and himself) in the limelight.
With 54km to go, Elia Viviani dropped back as his objective for the day was very much over, and a Sprinter of his calibre and skillset would struggle to get a breakaway victory. 20km later the group started to split, with Dlamini, Potter and Potter 22 seconds ahead. The penultimate lap of Adelaide Hills (26km from the finish) saw Whelan and Bettiol leading, before Bettiol went on to ride solo as Whelan couldn't keep up with the increasing gradients.
After the break was fully caught, it was in-form Michael Woods (EF - Education First) attacking (possibly indicating that Whelan might have been a bridge for him and he was targetting this Stage?) but he was closely marked by Sánchez and Sagan.
After rolling under the 1000m to go inflatable, Daryl Impey made a dig for the Stage victory, and made a valiant effort but ulimately just gave a splitsream for both Sagan and Sánchez. Sagan benefitted the most, and just about holded off Sánchez's effort to take the Stage victory! Again CCC Team's Patrick Bevin finished strongly in 5th position, and still holds a commanding lead over his rivals (but only 1 second over Peter Sagan).
Official Results obtained from procyclingstats
Stage 3 Results;
GC Results after Stage 3;
Jersey Holders for Stage 4;
Leader's Jersey - Patrick Bevin (CCC Team)
Point's Jersey - Peter Sagan (BORA - Hansgrohe)
KOM Jersey - Jason Lea (UniSA - Australia)
Young Rider's Jersey - Michael Storer (Team Sunweb)
Team - UAE - Team Emirates
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