Young Australian sprint ace Caleb Ewan has won his third stage at this year’s Tour Down Under. The 22-year-old Orica-Scott rider was boxed in at one point on the long finishing straight in Friday’s stage four, but he tore past Dutch sprinter Danny van Poppel (Sky) to claim the win.

It is Ewan’s sixth win already this year. “I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year,” he said. Two-time defending world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) from Slovakia was runner-up to Ewan for the second day in a row and van Poppel was third.

Friday’s 149.5km stage was a loop through the Adelaide Hills that ended in Campbelltown, only a few kilometres from the Norwood start. The weather was ideal, with the temperature in the mid-20s. Australian Cameron Meyer, the 2011 Tour winner, joined Czech Ondrej Cink (Bahrain-Merida) and New Zealander Jack Bauer (Quick-Step) in a break that dominated the stage.

After Cink and then Meyer went back to the peloton, Bauer made a brave bid for the solo win. But he was caught 4km from the finish, on the 20km, mainly downhill run along Gorge Rd, as the sprint teams drove the pace in the peloton. Meyer, after briefly leaving professional cycling last year, has returned to the sport and is riding in the composite UniSA team at the Tour.

Earlier on Friday, Richie Porte’s closest rival was cleared of serious injury after a crash near the end of stage three. Spaniard Gorka Izaguirre’s left arm and leg were swathed in bandages as he prepared for the stage start. The Movistar rider suffered some nasty gravel rash after he was caught in a three-rider spill on Thursday near the Victor Harbor finish.

Izaguirre remains second overall, 20 seconds behind Porte ahead of Saturday’s decisive second-last stage at Willunga. Porte was keeping himself out of trouble on Friday before Willunga, a stage he has won for the past three years.



