Adelaide: Australia’s Caleb Ewan sprinted past world champion Peter Sagan on Wednesday to win the second stage of the Tour Down Under cycle race and to seize a 10-second lead on general classification.
Sagan took the lead in sight of the finish line of the 148.6-kilometre stage from Unley to Stirling but Ewan surged past him to claim his seventh stage win on his home tour which starts the 2018 World Tour season. Ewan’s Mitchelton-SCOTT teammate Daryl Impey of South Africa was second, Australia’s Jay McCarthy was third and Sagan came in fourth.
The demanding uphill finish at Stirling doesn’t suit out-and-out sprinters such as Ewan but the Australian placed himself in a good position on the climb to the finish and made up for mistiming his sprint on the first stage on which he finished second.
German sprint star Andre Greipel, who won Tuesday’s opening stage from Port Adelaide to Lyndoch, dropped to the back of the bunch on the last climb and didn’t take part in the sprint for the finish.
