CYCLING

Bevin talks Tour Down Under - Stage 4

By Aaron S. Lee

Caleb Ewan claims trifecta after New Zealand’s Jack Bauer nearly rides away with the win, and NZ Bike catches up with Patrick Bevin to get his take on the day.

ADELAIDE—According to rival Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac), Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) is simply “untouchable” at the moment. The 22-year-old claimed his third sprint win over reigning two-time world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in four stages at the Santos Tour Down Under on Friday.

It also marks the sixth race won by Ewan this year when including a stage win at the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic, a second straight national criterium title and the People’s Choice Classic to kick off the week’s festivities on Sunday.

“It was a tricky one, because it’s hard for a lead-out train to stay together down through The Gorge,” said Ewan who had to slip his way to the front of the line.

“I wasn’t panicking (when boxed in), and there was still a fair way to go, and luckily I got out,” explained Ewan. “Once I got out, I could open up my sprint.”

Earlier in the day New Zealander Jack Bauer (Quick-Step Floors) was one of three riders, including Australian Cameron Meyer (UniSA Australia) and Czech Ondrej Cink (Bahrain-Merida), to escape off the front, but it was Bauer who nearly pulled off a solo win before being caught with 5km to go.

“It's the only stage of the week I thought the break was going to have a chance to succeed,” said a disappointed Bauer afterwards. “Two years ago (Jack) Bobridge shelled everybody off. Obviously it wasn't the same stage but the same finale. 

“We never had enough road really to fight for the stage but I was going to attack anyway.” 

With only two stages remaining, including the decisive Willunga Hill stage on Saturday, Australian Richie Porte (BMC Racing) maintains a 20-second lead over his nearest rival Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) of Spain, followed by Colombian Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) at 22 seconds and Australians Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) at 24 and 27 seconds respectively.

Ewan currently wears the points jersey, while Porte holds both the ochre leaders jersey as well as the blue polka dot mountains jersey.

NZ Bike caught up with Kiwi Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac) to get his thoughts on Ewan, Bauer and his team’s plans for stage 5.

Bevin’s diary entry: Stage 4 – Norwood – Campbelltown, 149.5km
Caleb Ewan is flying at the moment and there is no doubt about his sprint. I think the lead is 99 to him and one to me (2015 Tour de Korea, stage 4) and I will cherish the one given the form he is in and the way he is putting guys away.
He is basically untouchable here. His team set’s him up and he delivers under the pressure of this being Orica’s home race.
For us it was a good day. A lot of the potential stress was somewhat avoided with a break that didn’t want to ride any harder than they had to. With a hard start and a hard finish, we set out to make sure we had our GC guys around and we did that no problem and look forward to tomorrow.
Fellow Kiwi Jack Bauer of Quick-Step Floors timed it well and he knew they were playing the game, as they didn’t rush the gap out. They rode what they had to in order to stay out there and then he lit it up on the way home. He was probably a bit foiled by the wind, which wasn’t a lot but barreling down in your face coming down the gorge can take a lot out of one rider. Seeing Jack out there is always good, and he’s always a bit of a worry to give any leash.
I ended up taking the front to make sure Michael Woods (CAN) was safe in the final few kilometres and teammate Tom Scully (NZL) did an amazing ride pretty much the whole way down and I took over and there was no second-guessing, no mistakes made after yesterday and I think we needed that for our confidence.
In the end, Mike ran near the top 10 (11th) so we are happy with that as we kept him out of trouble, as that’s a scary bit of road in the final. It’s beautiful, but with 130 riders screaming toward the finish it’s a very stressful 20 minutes of your life.
Next up is the infamous Willunga Hill. When you look at the level of the riders here and you add the hardest obstacle we go over this week, I think it shows that riders make the race despite it being only an eight-minute climb.
It’s all put out there tomorrow. We are focusing on a stage win and we’ve backed our guy all week and we are not about to turn away from it at all. Tomorrow is the day and we will see how it shakes out.
Until next time, stay tuned…
-Patrick Bevin

Stage 4 results (top 5)
1.    Caleb Ewan, AUS, Orica-Scott, 3:45:19
2.    Peter Sagan, SVK, Bora-Mangrove, and +0:00
3.    Danny van Poppel, NED, Team Sky, +0:00
4.    Ben Swift, GBR, UAE Abu Dhabi, +0:00
5.    Nathan Haas, AUS, Dimension Data, +0:00
 
General classification (top 5)
1.    Richie Porte, AUS, BMC Racing, 7:10:14
2.    Gorka Izagirre, ESP, Movistar, +0:20
3.    Esteban Chaves, COL, Orica-Scott, +0:22
4.    Jay McCarthy, AUS, Bora-Hansgrohe, +0:24
5.    Nathan Haas, AUS, Dimension Data, +0:27
Aaron S. Lee is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to NZ Bike Magazine
Photo credits: 
Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo