the aussie Rohan Dennis, South Australia’s living time trial legend, claimed victory in the second stage on Thursday and with it he rose to first position in the provisional general classification of the Tour Down Under.
Dennis, from the Jumbo-Visma team and 2015 Down Under Champion, he was helpful and used his time trial skills when he felt it was necessary to clinch victory on the second day played between Brighton and Victor Harbor.
The second stage of the Tour Down Under took place around the coast, starting in the seaside town of Brighton, to cover a wide esplanade before a sprint to Snapper Point, to Aldinga and, then headed to the Myponga dam wall with another scoring sprint to Yankalilla before descending to Victor Harbor.
At 154.8 kilometers, this is the longest stage of the five days of the Tour Down Under, theoretically the decisive stage for this edition.
Dennis joined a five-person breakaway group on the final climb which includes two Grand Tour winners and consists of Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe), Australian Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Swiss Mauro Schmid (Soudal-Quickstep).
The Australian cyclist thus added his first victory since he won the last victory in this test in 2015. The two-time world time trial champion and gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games, finished the race ahead of Vine, Schmid, Yates , Hindley and Australia’s Caleb Ewan in Victor Harbor.
Although Dennis lamented the loss of his teammate Robert Gesinkwho suffered a fall and broke his hip on the first Ziptrak stage, from Tanunda to Tanunda, and the Jayco AlULa team also suffered a blow when Australian Chris Harper failed to start.
After a quiet start on the southern motorway from the Brighton exit, Alberto Bettiol’s overall lead ended tragically when he suffered a cramp in his left leg about 11km from the finish line and threw his water bottle on the asphalt in anger
Bettiol’s teammates led the main group as a breakaway led by Italy’s Manuele Boaro of Astana Qazakstan and Switzerland’s Johan Jacobs maintained a four-minute gap, although they were neutralized by the large group, where the quintet in the end jumped together with Dennos ended up in contention with the victory of the day.
The third stage will be held between the towns of Norwood and Campbelltownwith a total distance of 116.8 kilometers.
Source: La Verdad
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