Final day in Adelaide and it`s really interesting. Different to previous years not only for sprint decisions, but also as the new route allows some sprinters to improve. Ewan could even climb from 8th to podium today and also Holloway and Gaviria might climb with a good result.
Meanwhile Goss as points leader also under pressure as some sprinters could still steal it from him while Zielinskiis save with the KoM.
U25 is Ewan vs. Gaviria and might be bonus second impacted today while Generali with their huge Willunga performance have conquered the team rankings.
13 riders in the break as crit stages such as today tend to go to the break, which would obviously be big miss for Ewan. Porte Rikunov Turgis Andersson Yordsuwan Biermans Pellaud Gougeard Durbridge Kamp RodrÃguez Eiking Zaraliev
But Podium Ambition wants the win here and hence Nelson is chasing as well and with 30km to go all are caught!
Immediately Valio coming to the front and calming down the race but fast enough to avoid uncontrollable attacks.
Carrefour and Indosat with sprint trains and Ewan once again trusting his own positioning and this time actually in a perfect position.
Li
Bercz
Feiereisen
Vanderbiest
Anuar Aziz
Ewan
Speirs
Stauff
Goss
Gaviria
Ulanowski
Bouhanni
Guardini
Drapac
Roelandts
Eriksson
Kreder
Holloway horrible placed as Kreder used to be, which can work as seen.
Kreder therefore at the end of the train right now and in general some new names here as the pan flat stage sees more riders going for it.
No question Carrefour is the stronger train. They really pace and Gaviria and Ulanowski switched over to this one now.
1,5km and Kreder appears again. Not the typical sprinter that is waiting very long. He needs to feel the wind apparently but so far it worked out well for him.
Vanderbiest next to him but Feiereisen still 2 bikelength ahead while Ewan and Stauff wait behind him.
Sepris is now bringing Goss and Bouhanni etc. in position and wide open again.
Stauff decided to follow Vanderbiest with 1km to go. It`s slightly uphill and while this should suit Kreder, he is now struggling.
Goss and Bouhanni next while Ewan is sitting next to Guardini, Roelandts, Drapac.
Ulanowski on the other side riding his sprint.
Vanderbiest can`t make it a second win. Instead Goss is coming from behind now with Roelandts and Drapac next to him and also Ewan perfectly in the slipstream of Stauff.
Just 200m left and Stauff still going strong with Ewan now finding the gap between him and Goss, who is fighting with Roelandts for the point jersey!
Ewan with the win indeed as Stauff lost the pace in the end. And big win this is for Ewan. Not only first stage here but also 3rd in GC!
And almost the point jersey in addition but Goss in the end coming in as 2nd in a photo finish and hence remains in the point lead by 1 point only!
Guardini as 3rd ahead of Roelandts and Stauff actually down to 5th ahead of Drapac and Gaviria. This was some promising race by young Colombian and big things to come from him surely.
Gautier takes the GC and celebrates a big win for Valio and himself. This must be one of the best starts of a CT team into a season, beating lots of PCT puncheurs in a C1 event! Not too shabby.
