Merdia’s Bonifazio sprints to podium finish

Manama : Niccolò Bonifazio of Bahrain Merida Cycling Team at the bunch sprint was ranked third in the Tour Down Under stage 3 in Victor Harbour South Australia as they had another great result at the beginning of the season. 

“It was a nice parkour, but finally, there’s a little climb, the wind and the speed by the end made the sprint harder,” said Bonifazio. 

He expects that he can bring these great results in Tour Down Under back in the classics in Europe. “Before the queen stage coming tomorrow, there’s one more opportunity for sprinters in Northern Adelaide. We will see our fastest man of the day at Campbelltown after the 149.5 kilometre challenge,” he added. 

Phillipe Mauduit, the team’s sports director said,“Watching how they are doing at the sprint, I was quite impressed.”

“The thing is that we were losing power at the last 2kms. For us, it was a little bit complicated, we don’t have really little boys, but we have a really good team and they were doing a perfect teamwork and I’m very satisfied with the team spirit,” he said. 

The stage was won by Emerging sprinter Caleb Ewan, who produced a surge home from the final turn and and claim the 144-kilometre third stage from Glenelg to Victor Harbour in three hours, 24 minutes and 45 seconds.

World champion Peter Sagan weaved his way through traffic to cross a close second, with van Poppel fourth. After what he described as a nervous and stressful leg, Tasmanian Richie Porte retained his overall lead for BMC Racing and remains the man to beat for the General Classification with three stages remaining.

The final push to the finish took a toll on the field with several riders, including second-placed overall Spaniard Gorka Izaguirre, crashing to the tarmac.

Izaguirre didn’t lose any time as the fall occurred with just under three kilometres to ride and he remained 20 seconds behind Porte, with Colombia’s Esteban Chaves two seconds further back in third.

A pack of four formed a breakaway early in the stage and proved hard to run down. Well-credentialled Belgian Thomas De Gendt was the first to move and was soon joined by Clement Chevrier, Jeremy Maison and Vegard Laengen.

Stage four is 149.5 kilometres long from Adelaide’s Norwood suburb to Campbelltown. 

Results from the 144km third stage 

1. Caleb Ewan (AUS/Orica-Scott) 3:24:45

2. Peter Sagan (SVK/Bora-Hansgrohe) at 00:00min

3. Niccolo Bonifazio (ITA/Bahrain-Merida) 00:00

4. Danny van Poppel (NED/Team Sky) 00:00

5. Edward Theuns (BEL/Trek-Segafredo) 00:00

General Classification

1. Richie Porte (AUS/BMC Racing) 10:34:59

2. Gorka Izaguirre (ESP/Movistar) at 00:20

3. Esteban Chaves (COL/Orica-Scott) 00:22

4. Jay McCarthy (AUS/Bora-Hansgrohe) 00:24

5. Nathan Haas (AUS/Dimension Data) 00:27

King of the Mountain

1. Richie Porte (AUS/BMC Racing) 16pts

2. Thomas De Gendt (BEL/Lotto Soudal) 16pts

3. Esteban Chaves (COL/Orica-Scott) 12pts

Sprint

1. Caleb Ewan (AUS/Orica-Scott) 30pts

2. Danny van Poppel (NED/Team Sky) 26pts

3. Niccolo Bonifazio (ITA/Bahrain-Merida) 24pts