The bunch returned after eleven years in the small town lying in the Adelaide Hills area.

The race continues Wednesday with another short but hot stage, which ended up changing the leader of the general classification. After leaving behind Norwood, the riders entered on a 35km anti-clockwise circuit, whose main difficulty was Fox Creed, a 1.6km climb averaging 7.5%.

Just like on the previous stage, two riders went in the breakaway, but despite opening a huge gap of more than six minutes, they stood no chance against the peloton. Soudal Quick-Step were among the teams working hard at the front, helping the chasers bring back the escapees and keeping things together on the last lap. As the speed increased in anticipation of the final climb, Pieter Serry put in a massive effort that split the peloton, leaving only a handful of riders in the frame, including Julian Alaphilippe.

The double World Champion was very active in the finale, chasing a strong duo that escaped over the top of the hill, in the hope that it would come down to a reduced bunch sprint. The catch was made with one kilometer to go, but a late attack of Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) foiled the group’s plans, and the Mexican took the win. For the second day in a row, Antoine Huby was the first Soudal Quick-Step member to cross the finish line, and the young Frenchman remains our team’s highest-ranked rider in the overall standings.

“The guys showed some beautiful teamwork today. They worked hard and positioned themselves well to guide Julian in the final kilometers. The signs are encouraging for the next stages of the race, where we’ll keep trying to get a good result”, said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Geert Van Bondt.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
3:29:37
2 Corbin Strong
Israel - Premier Tech
0:00
3 Stephen Williams
Israel - Premier Tech
0:00
4 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
0:00
5 Caleb Ewan
Team Jayco AlUla
0:00
6 Lars Boven
Alpecin - Deceuninck
0:00
7 Ruben Guerreiro
Movistar Team
0:00
8 Danny van Poppel
BORA - hansgrohe
0:00
9 Max Kanter
Astana Qazaqstan Team
0:00
10 Laurence Pithie
Groupama - FDJ
0:00
34 Antoine Huby
Soudal Quick-Step
0:00
38 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal Quick-Step
0:00
67 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
0:00
93 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
0:59
95 Gil Gelders
Soudal Quick-Step
0:59
115 Pieter Serry
Soudal Quick-Step
2:52
135 Josef Černý
Soudal Quick-Step
5:39
1 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
6:55:22
2 Corbin Strong
Israel - Premier Tech
0:02
3 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
0:07
4 Stephen Williams
Israel - Premier Tech
0:07
5 Georg Zimmermann
Intermarché - Wanty
0:08
6 Finn Fisher-Black
UAE Team Emirates
0:08
7 Louis Barré
0:09
8 Caleb Ewan
Team Jayco AlUla
0:10
9 Jhonatan Narváez Prado
INEOS Grenadiers
0:10
10 Danny van Poppel
BORA - hansgrohe
0:11
24 Antoine Huby
Soudal Quick-Step
0:11
61 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal Quick-Step
0:11
77 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
0:36
91 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
1:10
105 Gil Gelders
Soudal Quick-Step
2:35
109 Pieter Serry
Soudal Quick-Step
3:03
131 Josef Černý
Soudal Quick-Step
7:15
1 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
41 pt
2 Corbin Strong
Israel - Premier Tech
39 pt
3 Caleb Ewan
Team Jayco AlUla
37 pt
4 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
31 pt
5 Sam Welsford
BORA - hansgrohe
30 pt
6 Phil Bauhaus
Bahrain - Victorious
25 pt
7 Danny van Poppel
BORA - hansgrohe
24 pt
8 Max Kanter
Astana Qazaqstan Team
24 pt
9 Stephen Williams
Israel - Premier Tech
22 pt
10 Jhonatan Narváez Prado
INEOS Grenadiers
18 pt
1 Luke Burns
Australia
23 pt
2 Jardi Christiaan van der Lee
EF Education - EasyPost
17 pt
3 Louis Barré
6 pt
4 Georg Zimmermann
Intermarché - Wanty
4 pt
5 Michael Hepburn
Team Jayco AlUla
4 pt
6 Álvaro José Hodeg Chagüi
UAE Team Emirates
3 pt
7 Tristan Saunders
Australia
3 pt
8 Axel Mariault
Cofidis
2 pt
9 Tobias Bayer
Alpecin - Deceuninck
1 pt
10 Bart Lemmen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1 pt
1 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
6:55:22
2 Laurence Pithie
Groupama - FDJ
0:11
3 Bastien Tronchon
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
0:11
4 António Morgado
UAE Team Emirates
0:11
5 Mathias Vacek
Lidl - Trek
0:11
6 Oscar Onley
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
0:11
7 Gianmarco Garofoli
Astana Qazaqstan Team
0:11
8 Enzo Paleni
Groupama - FDJ
0:11
9 Declan Trezise
Australia
0:36
10 Joshua Tarling
INEOS Grenadiers
0:51
16 Gil Gelders
Soudal Quick-Step
2:35
1 Intermarché - Wanty 20:46:39
2 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 0:00
3 Movistar Team 0:00
4 BORA - hansgrohe 0:00
5 UAE Team Emirates 0:00
6 Cofidis 0:00
7 Israel - Premier Tech 0:00
8 Alpecin - Deceuninck 0:00
9 Astana Qazaqstan Team 0:00
10 Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 0:00

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