The second stage of the Tour Down Under was a 135.8km-long at-times hilly course from Woodside to Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Shortly ahead of the finish, Jay McCarthy, who had won this stage four years ago, was involved in a crash, but was able to continue the race without losing time in the general classification. In the sprint on the slightly uphill finale, C. Ewan ended up prevailing ahead of D. Impey and N. Haas.
Result
01 C. Ewan 3:27:41
02 D. Impey +0:00
03 N. Haas +0:00
80 J. McCarthy +0:00
From the finish line
“The guys worked for me today, as I was feeling good and won this stage a few years ago. They did a solid job and brought me into a good position in the final few kilometres. However, unfortunately I was caught up in a large crash before the final kilometre, and so then we had no chance of a good result on the stage. It was a shame, because I had good legs, and we thought we had a good chance to take the win. However, because the crash occurred in the final 3km, I thankfully did not lose time in the general classification. A big thanks to my teammates for their hard work today.” – Jay McCarthy
“Today’s stage was relatively demanding, but Jay had good legs heading into it. We had planned to control the race for him and then prepare him for the sprint finale. That went quite well, and everyone in the team did a good job. We collected two seconds for Jay at the second intermediate sprint, and we were able to prepare him well for the finale. However, 1.5km ahead of the finish, he was involved in a large crash. Thankfully he escaped with only some minor abrasions, and not more than that. Now we’ll be concentrating on tomorrow’s stage, where we’ll be riding for Jay yet again. The third stage is a hard one, particularly the final 2km, which contain a difficult climb.” – Enrico Poitschke, Sports Director
