Tour Down Under 2020 – Stage 2 [FULL STAGE]

January 22, 2020

Tour Down Under 2020 – Stage 2 – Woodside – Stirling : 135,8 km

The 2020 Tour Down Under peloton boasts five past overall winners in Porte, Impey, Dennis, André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Astana’s Luis Leon Sanchez. While new Team Ineos signing Dennis has recently announced that his days of targeting the GC at Grand Tours are likely over, the South Australian local still has what it takes to conquer the finish at Paracombe on stage 3 – as he did in 2015, en route to the overall victory – and then to hold his own on the final stage to Wilunga Hill if he’s in a winning position. Porte will come to Adelaide again hoping to repeat his 2017 victory, and while Mitchelton-Scott is the team most likely to stand in his way with defending champion Impey and 2018 Vuelta a España winner Yates, AG2R’s climber extraordinaire, Bardet, may also find his early-season legs on the climbs and find himself in a position to battle for the overall classification. His rivals see his announced low expectations as a final warning rather than a true indiction of the Frenchman’s form.

Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) conquered the rollling climb up to Stirling to win stage 2 at the Tour Down Under Wednesday, coming past 2019 champion Daryl Impey and his Mitchelton-Scott lead out to seize the stage victory and overall race lead.

Impey hung on for second and took a six-second time bonus toward his GC effort, while Cofidis’ Nathan Haas was third. Overnight race leader Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was near the front when the sprint started but faded out of the top 10. He is equal on time with Ewan but the Australia took the ochre-coloured leader’s thanks to better stage placings.

Just as he did when he won here in 2018, Ewan waited patiently, this time as his former Mitchelton-Scott team ratcheted up the pace on the final climb in hopes of dropping the pure speedsters and improving Impey’s chances for victory. Ewan foiled those plans, however, with a perfectly timed jump on the familiar uphill sprint to take the win by several bike lengths.

Bennett also made it over the toughest part of the climb and had hoped to sprint, but the Irish champion said later that when he got out of the saddle to give it a go, his legs were simply empty.

The win for Ewan was redemption of sorts after the Lotto Soudal man was out of position in the stage 1 finale and finished a disappointing seventh.

“Yesterday things really didn’t go to plan, and I think we spoke for about an hour in the room about what we could do, what we could do better,” Ewan said in the finishing straight.

“The boys did an absolutely perfect job today. They did everything I asked for. They brought me to the line in perfect position.”

The finale was marred by a huge crash with 1.5km to go that took down Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), among others.

Porte appeared to be okay, but Viviani had large patches of road rash visible. The Italian was up and walking around after the finish, however, and also appeared to have avoided serious injury. Simon Yates hit his left knee hard and struggled to ride to the finish, with blood covering his wound. Mitchelton-Scott said any final decision about him continuing in the Tour Down Under would be made before Thursday’s stage 3. However his injuries appeared too severe for him to continue.

How it unfolded

The 135.8km second stage started in Woodside and finished in Stirling, where the peloton faced fast uphill finish.

The day started with several trips around a loop near Woodside that included the day’s two KOMs, followed by a short jaunt to the Stirling loop, where four more circuits awaited. The stage passed through the Adelaide Hills that have recently been hit by bushfires.

The activities started early, animated by CCC Team’s Joey Rosskopf, who had been in the breakaway on stage 1 but just missed taking the mountain jersey to UniSA’s Jarrad Drizners. With the first KOM just 15km into the stage, Rosskopf wasn’t waiting around on stage 2, and he jumped away in the opening kilometres with UniSA’s Sam Jenner as Astana’s Laurens De Vreese and Israel Start-Up Nation’s Omer Goldstein attempted to bridge

Rosskopf grabbed maximum points at the first KOM and established his lead in the mountains classification, then eased up to let De Vreese and Goldstein latch on. The breakaway was soon a quartet as the leaders drove their advantage up to nearly three minutes on the hilly circuits.

Rosskopf grabbed the second KOM win at 38.5km and the leaders settled in toward the Stirling circuits, where intermediate sprints with time bonuses were up for grabs at 74.9km and 96.2km.

The breakaway started the Stirling circuits with just 1:10 on the peloton, and Goldstein claimed the top prize at the first sprint. Things fell apart from there, however, as De Vreese attacked the group when the peloton got close, starting his own solo adventure.

The Astana rider claimed the final sprint of the day, while behind his breakaway companions had been swallowed up, allowing GC contenders Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) and George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) to fight for the remaining time bonuses.

The peloton caught De Vreese with 25km remaining, and from there the drama died down as teams started to think about setting up their leaders for the finish.

Team Ineos’ plans for Rohan Dennis went slightly sideways when the time trial world champion had a mechanical inside 20km to go and needed wheel change, but Luke Rowe was there to shepherd Dennis safely back into the peloton.

With the GC contenders and the sprinters still in the bunch, the jockeying for position started in earnest inside 10km to go and a lot of uphill ground to cover.

Mitchelton-Scott waited for the final climb to start and then sent the entire squad to the front to drive up the pace for Impey, and the gambit almost worked except for failing to dislodge Ewan.

Results :
1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal 3:27:31
2 Daryl Impey (RSA) Mitchelton-Scott
3 Nathan Haas (Aus) Cofidis Solutions Credits
4 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) UAE Team Emirates
5 Fabio Felline (Ita) Astana Pro Team
6 Andrea Vendrame (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
7 Timo Roosen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
8 Luis León Sanchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team
9 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
10 George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma
11 Simon Geschke (Ger) CCC Team
12 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
13 Sam Bennett (Irl) Deceuninck-QuickStep
14 Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain McLaren
15 Rob Power (Aus) Team Sunweb
16 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
17 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) EF Pro Cycling
18 Danilo Wyss (Swi) NTT Pro Cycling
19 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Pro Cycling
20 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Bahrain McLaren
21 Santiago Buitrago Sanchez (Col) Bahrain McLaren
22 Omar Fraile Matarranz (Spa) Astana Pro Team
23 Simone Consonni (Ita) Cofidis Solutions Credits
24 Jorge Arcas (Spa) Movistar Team
25 Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
26 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
27 Lukasz Wisniowski (Pol) CCC Team
28 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
29 Florian Stork (Ger) Team Sunweb
30 Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
31 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep
32 Luis Mas (Spa) Movistar Team
33 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo
34 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
35 Josef Cerny (Cze) CCC Team
36 Szymon Sajnok (Pol) CCC Team
37 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
38 Ben Gastauer (Lux) AG2R La Mondiale
39 Lawrence Warbasse (USA) AG2R La Mondiale
40 Miles Scotson (Aus) Groupama-FDJ
41 Dylan Sunderland (Aus) NTT Pro Cycling
42 Stefan De Bod (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling
43 Rick Zabel (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation
44 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
45 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep
46 Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Movistar Team
47 James Piccoli (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation
48 Juan Pedro Lopez Perez (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
49 Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
50 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Team Ineos
51 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Movistar Team
52 Michael Hepburn (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
53 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation
54 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) EF Pro Cycling
55 Fabian Lienhard (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
56 Roger Kluge (Ger) Lotto Soudal
57 Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal
58 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
59 Jarrad Drizners (Aus) UniSA-Australia
60 Tyler Lindorff (Aus) UniSA-Australia
61 Matthew Holmes (GBr) Lotto Soudal
62 Juri Hollmann (Ger) Movistar Team
63 Clément Chevrier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
64 Axel Domont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:23
65 Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Ineos
66 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
67 Geoffrey Bouchard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
68 Joseph Rosskopf (USA) CCC Team
69 Francisco Ventoso (Spa) CCC Team
70 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
71 Mathias Le Turnier (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits
72 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:03:12
73 Marco Marcato (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
74 André Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation
75 Eduard Prades Reverter (Spa) Movistar Team
76 Sergio Samitier Samitier (Spa) Movistar Team
77 Rasmus Fossum Tiller (Nor) NTT Pro Cycling
78 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Astana Pro Team
79 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Team Ineos
80 Jay Mc Carthy (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe
81 Cesare Benedetti (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
82 Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb
83 Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb
84 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:04:16
85 Luka Pibernik (Slo) Bahrain McLaren
86 Koen De Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:04:29
87 Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Bel) CCC Team
88 Michel Ries (Lux) Trek-Segafredo
89 Asbjørn Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
90 Jonas Rutsch (Ger) EF Pro Cycling 0:04:32
91 Max Kanter (Ger) Team Sunweb
92 Christopher Lawless (GBr) Team Ineos
93 Jonathan Dibben (GBr) Lotto Soudal 0:04:42
94 Owain Doull (GBr) Team Ineos
95 Samuel Jenner (Aus) UniSA-Australia
96 Sam Welsford (Aus) UniSA-Australia
97 Kelland O’Brien (Aus) UniSA-Australia
98 Lachlan Morton (Aus) EF Pro Cycling 0:04:50
99 Shane Archbold (NZl) Deceuninck-QuickStep
100 Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:05:01
101 Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Groupama-FDJ 0:05:06
102 Alberto Dainese (Ita) Team Sunweb
103 Chris Harper (Aus) Team Jumbo-Visma
104 Ian Stannard (GBr) Team Ineos
105 João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:05:21
106 Samuele Battistella (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling
107 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling
108 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling 0:05:25
109 Kenneth Vanbilsen (Bel) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:05:29
110 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cofidis Solutions Credits
111 Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates 0:05:35
112 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
113 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
114 Jack Bauer (NZl) Mitchelton-Scott 0:06:08
115 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Ineos 0:06:17
116 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal
117 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
118 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
119 Tom Scully (NZl) EF Pro Cycling
120 Taco Van der Hoorn (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
121 Cameron Scott (Aus) UniSA-Australia
122 Nicholas White (Aus) UniSA-Australia
123 Martin Laas (Est) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:06:46
124 Ide Schelling (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe
125 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:07:29
126 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
127 Marco Mathis (Ger) Cofidis Solutions Credits
128 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo
129 Mitchell Docker (Aus) EF Pro Cycling
130 Rafael Valls (Spa) Bahrain McLaren
131 Marco Haller (Aut) Bahrain McLaren
132 Domen Novak (Slo) Bahrain McLaren 0:07:34
133 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team 0:10:55
134 Omer Goldstein (Isr) Israel Start-Up Nation
135 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
136 Mads Pedersen (Den) Trek-Segafredo
137 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:13:47
138 Mickael Delage (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
139 Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nation

General Classification after Stage 2 :
1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal 6:56:15
2 Sam Bennett (Irl) Deceuninck-QuickStep
3 Daryl Impey (RSA) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:01
4 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:04
5 Nathan Haas (Aus) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:00:05
6 Jarrad Drizners (Aus) UniSA-Australia 0:00:07
7 Dylan Sunderland (Aus) NTT Pro Cycling 0:00:08
8 Christopher Lawless (GBr) Team Ineos
9 Jay Mc Carthy (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe
10 George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:09
11 Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb
12 Andrea Vendrame (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:10
13 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
14 Luis León Sanchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team
15 Fabio Felline (Ita) Astana Pro Team
16 Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
17 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
18 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep
19 Simon Geschke (Ger) CCC Team
20 Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Movistar Team
21 Luis Mas (Spa) Movistar Team
22 Szymon Sajnok (Pol) CCC Team
23 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) EF Pro Cycling
24 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Pro Cycling
25 Rob Power (Aus) Team Sunweb
26 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
27 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
28 André Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation
29 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Bahrain McLaren
30 Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain McLaren
31 Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
32 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
33 Ben Gastauer (Lux) AG2R La Mondiale
34 James Piccoli (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation
35 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep
36 Timo Roosen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
37 Lawrence Warbasse (USA) AG2R La Mondiale
38 Danilo Wyss (Swi) NTT Pro Cycling
39 Omar Fraile Matarranz (Spa) Astana Pro Team
40 Lukasz Wisniowski (Pol) CCC Team
41 Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
42 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) EF Pro Cycling
43 Clément Chevrier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
44 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo
45 Jorge Arcas (Spa) Movistar Team
46 Stefan De Bod (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling
47 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Movistar Team
48 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
49 Eduard Prades Reverter (Spa) Movistar Team
50 Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Ineos
51 Joseph Rosskopf (USA) CCC Team
52 Marco Marcato (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
53 Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb
54 Santiago Buitrago Sanchez (Col) Bahrain McLaren
55 Simone Consonni (Ita) Cofidis Solutions Credits
56 Juri Hollmann (Ger) Movistar Team
57 Miles Scotson (Aus) Groupama-FDJ
58 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
59 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cofidis Solutions Credits
60 Luka Pibernik (Slo) Bahrain McLaren
61 Chris Harper (Aus) Team Jumbo-Visma
62 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Astana Pro Team
63 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
64 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
65 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling
66 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Team Ineos
67 Michael Hepburn (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
68 Tyler Lindorff (Aus) UniSA-Australia
69 Josef Cerny (Cze) CCC Team
70 Fabian Lienhard (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
71 Florian Stork (Ger) Team Sunweb
72 Rick Zabel (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation
73 Matthew Holmes (GBr) Lotto Soudal
74 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Team Ineos
75 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
76 Juan Pedro Lopez Perez (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
77 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
78 Rafael Valls (Spa) Bahrain McLaren
79 Samuele Battistella (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling
80 Cesare Benedetti (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
81 Max Kanter (Ger) Team Sunweb
82 Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nation
83 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
84 Marco Haller (Aut) Bahrain McLaren
85 Sergio Samitier Samitier (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:32
86 Roger Kluge (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:00:36
87 Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:43
88 Rasmus Fossum Tiller (Nor) NTT Pro Cycling
89 Francisco Ventoso (Spa) CCC Team 0:01:20
90 Mathias Le Turnier (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:01:40
91 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:33
92 Axel Domont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
93 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:03:22
94 Geoffrey Bouchard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:32
95 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:03:35
96 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
97 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:04:26
98 Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Bel) CCC Team 0:04:39
99 Michel Ries (Lux) Trek-Segafredo
100 Jonas Rutsch (Ger) EF Pro Cycling 0:04:42
101 Samuel Jenner (Aus) UniSA-Australia 0:04:50
102 Sam Welsford (Aus) UniSA-Australia 0:04:52
103 Owain Doull (GBr) Team Ineos
104 Kelland O’Brien (Aus) UniSA-Australia
105 Lachlan Morton (Aus) EF Pro Cycling 0:05:00
106 Shane Archbold (NZl) Deceuninck-QuickStep
107 Alberto Dainese (Ita) Team Sunweb 0:05:16
108 Koen De Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:05:24
109 João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:05:31
110 Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Groupama-FDJ 0:05:38
111 Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates 0:05:45
112 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling 0:06:08
113 Jonathan Dibben (GBr) Lotto Soudal 0:06:14
114 Jack Bauer (NZl) Mitchelton-Scott 0:06:18
115 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:06:23
116 Taco Van der Hoorn (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:06:27
117 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
118 Nicholas White (Aus) UniSA-Australia
119 Cameron Scott (Aus) UniSA-Australia
120 Ian Stannard (GBr) Team Ineos 0:06:38
121 Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:06:44
122 Asbjørn Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 0:06:50
123 Martin Laas (Est) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:06:56
124 Kenneth Vanbilsen (Bel) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:07:09
125 Marco Mathis (Ger) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:07:39
126 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal
127 Tom Scully (NZl) EF Pro Cycling 0:07:41
128 Domen Novak (Slo) Bahrain McLaren 0:07:44
129 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:07:59
130 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:08:15
131 Ide Schelling (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:08:29
132 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Ineos 0:08:50
133 Mitchell Docker (Aus) EF Pro Cycling 0:08:57
134 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team 0:11:01
135 Omer Goldstein (Isr) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:11:02
136 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:12:02
137 Mads Pedersen (Den) Trek-Segafredo 0:12:25
138 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:13:57
139 Mickael Delage (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:16:12