Peter Sagan wins People’s Choice Classic

Adelaide : Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed his first win of the season with victory in the People’s Choice Classics in Adelaide.

The world champion beat Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) to win the race and get off the mark for 2018.

“I am very happy,” said Sagan. “I was ok but after some guys came from the back they closed me a little bit but in the end it went very well. I am very happy for that and I didn’t expect I could win today.”

There was a heavy fall for Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Sky) with the rider crashing in the sprint. He was taken to hospital for checks on his right side and suffered numerous cuts.

The 22-lap race, which totalled 50.6km in distance, saw the WorldTour teams assemble for the first time this season with the Tour Down Under proper starting in two days’ time.

It didn’t take long for the attacks to start, with Bahrain-Merida the first squad to fire a rider up the road. EF-Education First Drapac – Powered by Cannondale chased the move down but by the start of the third lap a group of three had move clear.

At the front of Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek Segafredo), Tom Bohli (BMC Racing) and Zakkari Dempster (Uni-S-Ausrtralia) slipped clear, and they were soon joined by Timothy Roe (Uni-S-Ausrtralia), Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha-Alpecin), Lachlan Morton (Dimension Data) and Manuele Boara (Bahrain-Merida). 

This group steadily built up a lead of around 45 seconds in the opening half of the race as Quick-Step Floors, Mitcheton Scott, Sunweb and Lotto Soudal monitored the front of the main field.