Tour Down Under 2020 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE]

January 23, 2020

Tour Down Under 2020 – Stage 3 – Unley – Paracombe : 131 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.

Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) took control of the 2020 Tour Down Under Thursday at the bottom of Torrens Hill Road on his way to the finale of stage 3, climbing away from his rivals and into the race leader’s ochre jersey.

Porte won by five seconds over a chase group that featured Rob Powers (Team Sunweb) in second and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) third, along with Rohan Dennis (team Ineos) fourth, Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) fifth, Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) sixth, Dylan Van Baarle (Team Ineos) seventh, Simon Geschke (CCC Team) eighth and George Bennet (Jumbo-Visma) ninth. Mitchelton-Scott’s Luke Hamilton finished another eight seconds back to round out the top 10.

“Hats off to the boys,” Porte said in the finishing straight. “They did a really good job in controlling it. I felt good at the bottom of the climb and got a bit of a gap there. It was just a shame there was such a headwind there in the final, because we could have really done some damage.”

Porte played the familiar climb perfectly, having won here in 2017 after learning a tough lesson in 2015 when Dennis stole the stage from Porte and Cadel Evans as the pair watched each other.

Porte left nothing to chance Thursday, jumping away from the select climbing group that formed at the bottom of the climb and driving his pace all the way up the 1.7km ascent to the line.

Yates jumped out of the chase group but was unable to get back on terms with Porte and eventually succumbed to Powers for the runner-up spot. Defending Tour Down Under champion Daryl Impey’s sixth place on the day lifted him to second overall, six seconds behind Porte, but that’s obviously not where the Mitchelton-Scott rider was hoping to be at the end of the day.

Powers is now third overall behind Impey, nine seconds back, with Yates taking up the fourth spot at 11 seconds and George Bennett in fifth at 14 seconds.

How it unfolded

The 131km stage from Unley to Paracombe finished with a climb that was sure to shake up the general classification. But before the peloton could get to that final 1.7km ascent, the riders traversed a twisting, hilly route that backtracked several times and reversed directions for the finale after four 11km loops around Paracombe.

The day offered two intermediate sprints with 47km to go and 3km to go, and KOM points were on offer 500 metres from the finish.

The riders broke away form the peloton in the opening kilometres and would animate the day’s racing. In the move were Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R La Mondiale), Guillaume Boivin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Miles Scotson (FDJ).

The trio worked well together and built a gap of nearly four minutes that stuck for awhile as Trek-Segafredo and Mitchelton-Scott shared pacemaking duties back in the peloton.

Even when Boivin suffered a mechanical and needed to stop for a bike change, Bouchard and Scotson waited for the Canadian so as to keep their trio intact for the long day ahead.

The trio’s gap was down to 2:30 with 55km remaining, and when they reached the first intermediate sprint in Inglewood they didn’t break their rhythm to contest it but rolled through in the regular rotation with Scotson taking maximum pints.

The wheels started to come off as the finale neared, however, with Boivin the first to pull the plug on the move with less than 20km to go. Scotson then put paid to Bouchard and left the Frenchman behind, but the young Australian would soon succumb as well, leaving the peloton intact with less than 10km remaining.

From there it was a battle amongst the GC riders’ teams to fight for position leading into the final climb. The racing got tense and several crashes ensued as riders started to drop, but Porte’s Trek-Segafredo team kept the 2017 winner safe and shuttled him to the bottom of the hill to take on his rivals.

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

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