Tour Down Under - Stage 3

The rolling road blocks were certainly in effect today, as the peloton rode south-bound from Unley down to Victor Harbour.  As Mike Turtur waved the red flag at the end of the neutral zone outside Flinder's Hospital, hundreds of fans cheered the peloton onto the Southern Expressway to begin the journey south.  They were moving fast, too, as the traffic was completely stopped barely 25 minutes later as the riders made their way from the Expressway onto the main road southbound.

Following a few abortive attempts, the breakaway of the day had already formed, four riders already four minutes ahead of the peloton - Matt Brammeier, Omega Pharma - Quickstep; Eduard Vorganov, Katusha; Jan Bakelants, Radioshack Nissan Trek; and Thomas de Gendt, Vacansoleil.  The teams of sprinters and GC contenders didn't like that, Lotto-Belisol, Rabobank and GreenEDGE keeping and pace high and the time gap steady to ensure a catch before the finish.  The renegade four hit the second KOM together, De Gendt, Brammeier and Bakelants taking the top three allocations of points with Vorganov coming across fourth for two.  They were still four minutes ahead when they reached the first sprint point in Mt. Compass, De Gendt stepping up to maximum points in front of the crowd.

But despite the increase in speed, the time gap was dropping.  As the breakaway passed the feed station, restocking their jerseys with food and water bottles, the peloton was only a couple of minutes behind, bottles and bananas flying everywhere as they raced through in hot pursuit.  They were gaining, too, the gap barely one minute as Radioshack Nissan Trek drove the peloton to the second sprint point, just a kilometre behind the leaders.  De Gendt, Bakelants and Vorganov again raced up to take the sprint points, before sitting up and returning to the peloton, clearly having acheived their aims for the day.

Matt Brammeier, meanwhile, was still trying to stay away from the peloton 200 metres behind, but unsurprisingly Brammeier couldn't hold them off for long, the race coming back together with just under 43 kilometres left to ride.  The more ambitious ProTeams then took over the peloton, BMC and Sky picking up the pace and starting to string out the peloton, nine riders at the back managing to keep contact in the increasing crosswinds.

As the peloton hit 55k/h the attacks began again, as did the punctures.  The attackers reeled in and the flat tyres catching up, GreenEDGE began driving the reunited peloton towards the stage finish in Victor Harbour on the scenic Fleurieu Peninsula.  Although 10 minutes behind the predicted race times, the riders stormed down into the township on the descent, Rabobank doing the work out front for sprinters Michael Matthews and Mark Renshaw.  Other teams tried attacking as the finish line loomed, the blue and orange colours of Rabobank not letting anyone get away.

The race altogether as it reached the final metres, bar a few unfortunate punctures, it was down to a bunch sprint finish, Greipel edging out all other contenders to take his third victory in Adelaide and an impressive 10th TDU stage win.  FDJ-Big Mat's Yauheni Hutarovich also got up to claim second, with Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen finally making the podium in third.  Rabobank's efforts let Renshaw in fourth, and GreenEDGE was happy with Robbie McEwen placing fifth on the stage, while Simon Gerrans moved into fifth overall in the GC.  Stage 3 over, the riders are now another day closer to their nemesis stage - Stage 5's long climb to the top of Old Willunga Hill.