Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) avoided a crash on the final lap to win the Down Under Classic on Sunday, the criterium prelude to the Tour Down Under.
Ewan crossed the finish line in downtown Adelaide just over a bike length ahead of three-time world champion Peter Sagan after 30 laps of a 1.7km circuit.
“I knew that it was going to be a hard one to win because of the caliber of sprinter here. I went into it confident and I knew that my form was good but you never know how it’s going to go. It was a very aggressive race and that made it a little bit harder,” Ewan said at the finish.
“My team did a fantastic job. On a course like this with four corner on each lap it’s hard to stay together but they stayed composed and I stayed with Roger and he delivered me perfectly.”
Down Under Classic 2019 results:
| 1 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | 1:03:59 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 3 | Alex Edmondson (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 4 | Roger Kluge (Lotto Soudal) | +02” |
| 5 | Daniel Oss (Bora-hansgrohe) | +04” |
| 6 | Owain Doull (Team Sky) | +05” |
| 7 | Luke Rowe (Team Sky) | +09” |
| 8 | Luis León Sánchez (Astana) | ,, |
| 9 | Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 10 | Francisco Ventoso (CCC) | ,, |
