Tom-Jelte Slagter surprises everyone and takes an option on the final victory in the Tour Down Under 2013

Added: thursday 24 January 2013 at 9:50:00

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The 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2013 today was mainly animated by a breakaway with Simon and Will Clarke but at the finish in Stirling Tom-Jelte Slagter turned out to be the strongest man, thanks to his team mate David Tanner who delivered him in a perfect position for the last few hundreds of meters. The young Dutch rider also took a good option on the overall victory since he's now 5 seconds behind the leader of the general classification, Geraint Thomas, and could well show off a bit more of his power on Old Willunga Hill this Saturday!
The summary of the 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2013: Unley > Stirling
Today in Unley, 131 riders came to the start of the 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2013. After yesterday's crash, one rider didn't start, Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) who starts his season with a broken collarbone.

Right from the start, a big leading group took off and grew up to 25 riders. While approaching the only climb of the day, Eagle on the Hill on Mount Barker Road, Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Jack Bobridge (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) attacked from the leading group. Bobridge took the points on top before they were taken back by the leading group.

Rapidly afterwards, a new duo of Australian riders, with the same last name but without being relatives, attacked from this group and rapidly create a gap. Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Will Clarke (Argos-Shimano) extended this gap up to 3'25" during the first out of 5 laps on a circuit around the finish city, Stirling.

Behind them, the peloton got back together and different riders tried to attack, but those attacks didn't really have an influence on how the race unfolded. Several riders crashed in the peloton as well, in a less impressive way than in yesterday's descent from the top of Corkscrew Road, but Timothy Duggan (Team Saxo-Tinkoff, photo)'s crash unfortunately made an end to his Tour Down Under 2013.

At two laps from the finish, the adventure of the Clarkes duo came to an end when Daryl Impey, Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team), Andrey Amador (Movistar Team), Boy van Poppel (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Brian Vandborg (Cannondale Pro Cycling) and Thierry Hupond (Argos-Shimano) formed the last chasing groupe which joined the two Australian riders. The gap on the peloton never exceeded 30 seconds and little by little, the group of 8 fell apart and the peloton got closer and closer.

The last attempts in the last 10 kilometers came respectively from Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Tiago Machado (Radioshack-Leopard), Cameron Wurf (Cannondale Pro Cycling) and a final attack by ... David Tanner (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) who delivered Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) at a few hundreds of meters of the finish at the head of the race.

The young Dutch rider, in his second year as a pro, was unbeatable for the peloton and won this 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2013. Wearing his best young rider's jersey, this stage victory allows Slagter to move up to the second position in the general classification where Geraint Thomas remains the leader.
The classifications after the 3rd stage of the Tour Down Under 2013
Stage classification for 3/ Unley > Stirling
Here's the top 5 of this stage:

1/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - 3h36'46"
2/ Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE)
3/ Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team)
4/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)
5/ Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team)
General classification
His stage victory thus allows Tom-Jelte Slagter to move closer to Geraint Thomas who sees his gap reduced to only 5 seconds:

1/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - 9h56'17"
2/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +0'05"
3/ Javier Moreno (Movistar Team) - +0'06"
4/ Ben Hermans (Radioshack-Leopard) - +0'08"
5/ Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Merida) - +0'15"
The other classifications
Tom-Jelte Slagter of course remains the best young rider, followed at 10 seconds by Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

The King of the Mountains classification still has Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) leading, but he now shares his first place with 16 points with Jack Bobridge (Blanco Pro Cycling Team).
by Thomas Vergouwen
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