Caleb Ewan has continued his winning start to the 2016 season, delivering on his pre-race favourite tag to claim victory in the Down Under Classic, a bike length ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and Adam Blythe (Tinkoff).
Orica-GreenEdge controlled the majority of the 51km Adelaide criterium with Darly Impey playing the role of lead out man for the 21-year-old who now has five wins from seven starts this year.
“It’s always hard going into a race as a favourite and especially when there is such a tough field here,” Ewan said in his post-race interview. “I was probably more nervous for today than I have been for any of the other race so far.
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“My team just rode perfectly. We sat back for a lot of the race and cruised around. And they were awesome. Once you need to go to the front, they kept me up there and led me out perfectly.”
In the final ten laps of the race, Team Sky, with Geraint Thomas and Peter Kennaugh, came to the fore with the aim of securing victory for Ben Swift. The move would prove premature though as their riders dropped away in the final laps as Cannondale, IAM Cycling and Trek-Segafredo all moved forward.
A fast final sprint was kicked-off by Nizzolo, with Ewan appearing to be boxed in, but the Australian national criterium champion quickly jumped on his wheel, then passed the Italian, winning by a bike length. Tinkoff’s aggressive racing was rewarded with Blythe’s third place as Swift crossed the line in fourth, followed by Marko Kump in fifth to start his Lampre-Merida career.
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