2018 Santos Tour Down Under (World Tour), Australia
People's Choice Classic Criterium: Sunday, January 14
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Sunday, January 14: People's Choice Classic: 22 laps x 2.3 km circuit = 50.6 km
Race story | Complete results | Race photos | Course map
Peter Sagan gets the year's first race. Bettini photo
The race: Here's the organizer's telling of the day's racing.
It was a sprint to the line between the who’s who of Santos Tour Down Under sprint talent, with reigning triple UCI World Road Champion Peter Sagan claiming the line to kickstart the 20th edition of Australia’s Greatest Cycling Race.
Twelve-deep in the peloton as it veered left onto Hutt Street, Sagan saw his bunch-leading BORA-teammates had gone, in his mind, too early.
With former People's Choice Classic winner Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-SCOTT) pushing ahead and two-time Santos TDU champion André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) pushing hard at the front, Sagan burst through the front of the pack to win by over a wheel from the German, with Ewan finishing third.
Although the People’s Choice Classic is a non-points race, Sagan’s win was the first time that a rainbow-jersey holder has crossed the line first at the Santos Tour Down Under.
Sagan will ride for teammates Jay McCarthy and Sam Bennett in the Tour, but he relished the first-up win on Sunday night. “I was well positioned ahead of the sprint but some guys came from behind and closed me in a little bit, I didn't expect I could win today but at the end it went very well,” Sagan said.
“My team mates were a little bit too early at the front but it looks like a good week ahead. My condition is good. I'm very happy for my team. It's a very good start of the season, I thank all the people who turned up today!”
The race saw an early breakaway when Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek Segafredo), Tom Bohli (BMC) and Zak Dempster (UniSA-Australia) formed a three-man group on lap three.
They were soon joined by Manuele Boararo (Bahrain Merida), Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha Alpecin), Lachlan Morton (Dimension Data) and Tim Roe (UniSA-Australia).
That group worked hard on securing the intermediate primes, which went the way of Boaro (Santos Prime 1) and Narval (Subaru Prime 2 and southaustralia.com Prime 3).
The breakaway maintained a solid lead over the peloton up until the second prime, when the main group began to close in within 20 seconds by the three-quarter mark of the race and had absorbed the frontrunners by lap 18.
Lead of the peloton changed hands between Sunweb, Astana, and Quickstep as it made its way through the streets for the #seesouthaustralia prime on lap 20 (claimed by Jay McCarthy, BORA-hansgrohe).
Sagan's popular victory came just hours after Australia's Amanda Spratt sewed-up her second general classification victory in the Santos Women's Tour Down Under.
The peloton will enjoy a rest day on Monday before the Tour proper commences with Stage 1 from Port Adelaide to Lyndoch in the Barossa.
50.6 kilometers raced at an average speed of 47.131 km/hr
| 1 | SAGAN, Peter (BORA-hansgrohe) | 1hr 4min 25sec |
| 2 | GREIPEL, André (Lotto Soudal) | s.t. |
| 3 | EWAN, Caleb (Mitchelton-SCOTT) | s.t. |
| 4 | VIVIANI, Elia (Quick-Step Floors) | s.t. |
| 5 | CONSONNI, Simone (UAE Team Emirates) | s.t. |
| 6 | LAWLESS, Christopher (Team Sky) | s.t. |
| 7 | WELSFORD, Sam (UniSA-Australia) | s.t. |
| 8 | BATTAGLIN, Enrico (Lotto NL-Jumbo) | s.t. |
| 9 | SÜTTERLIN, Jasha (Movistar) | s.t. |
| 10 | RENSHAW, Mark (Dimension Data) | s.t. |
| 11 | BARBERO, Carlos (Movistar) | s.t. |
| 12 | SCHMIDT, Mads Würtz (Katusha-Alpecin) | s.t. |
| 13 | BAUHAUS, Phil (Sunweb) | s.t. |
| 14 | BENNETT, Sam (BORA-hansgrohe) | @ 3sec |
| 15 | AGNOLI, Valerio (Bahrain-Merida) | s.t. |
| 16 | DOMONT, Axel (Ag2R La Mondiale) | s.t. |
| 17 | IMPEY, Daryl (Mitchelton-SCOTT) | s.t. |
| 18 | MINALI, Riccardo (Astana) | s.t. |
| 19 | SABATINI, Fabio (Quick-Step Floors) | s.t. |
| 20 | VON HOFF, Steele (UniSA-Australia) | s.t. |
| 21 | PETERS, Nans (Ag2R La Mondiale) | s.t. |
| 22 | OWEN, Logan (EF Education First-Drapac) | s.t. |
| 23 | FRAME, Alex (Trek-Segafredo) | s.t. |
| 24 | MCCARTHY, Jay (BORA-hansgrohe) | s.t. |
| 25 | MORKOV, Michael (Quick-Step Floors) | s.t. |
| 26 | ARASHIRO, Yukiya (Bahrain-Merida) | s.t. |
| 27 | VANDENBERGH, Stijn (Ag2R La Mondiale) | s.t. |
| 28 | TEUNISSEN, Mike (Sunweb) | s.t. |
| 29 | DE KORT, Koen (Trek-Segafredo) | s.t. |
| 30 | NAVARDAUSKAS, Ramunas (Bahrain-Merida) | 0:08 |
| 31 | SELIG, Rüdiger (BORA-hansgrohe) | s.t. |
| 32 | ROUX, Anthony (FDJ) | s.t. |
| 33 | HAYMAN, Mathew (Mitchelton-SCOTT) | s.t. |
| 34 | LAMBRECHT, Bjorg (Lotto Soudal) | s.t. |
| 35 | OLIVEIRA, Nelson (Movistar) | s.t. |
| 36 | DLAMINI, Nicholas (Dimension Data) | s.t. |
| 37 | DAVIES, Scott (Dimension Data) | s.t. |
| 38 | KOCHETKOV, Pavel (Katusha-Alpecin) | s.t. |
| 39 | MATOS, Nuno (Movistar) | s.t. |
| 40 | SANCHEZ, Luis León (Astana) | s.t. |
| 41 | SOLER, Marc (Movistar) | s.t. |
| 42 | DEBUSSCHERE, Jens (Lotto Soudal) | s.t. |
| 43 | DUCHESNE, Antoine (FDJ) | s.t. |
| 44 | VALGREN ANDERSEN, Michael (Astana) | s.t. |
| 45 | PREIDLER, Georg (FDJ) | s.t. |
| 46 | GUERREIRO, Ruben (Trek-Segafredo) | s.t. |
| 47 | COSTA, Rui (UAE Team Emirates) | s.t. |
| 48 | EG, Niklas (Trek-Segafredo) | s.t. |
| 49 | ZAKHAROV, Artyom (Astana) | s.t. |
| 50 | CLARKE, Simon (EF Education First-Drapac) | s.t. |
| 51 | LADAGNOUS, Matthieu (FDJ) | s.t. |
| 52 | POZZOVIVO, Domenico (Bahrain-Merida) | s.t. |
| 53 | HAMILTON, Christopher (Sunweb) | s.t. |
| 54 | OLIVIER, Daan (Lotto NL-Jumbo) | s.t. |
| 55 | LAMMERTINK, Maurits (Katusha-Alpecin) | s.t. |
| 56 | BOHLI, Tom (BMC) | s.t. |
| 57 | CHEREL, Mikael (Ag2R La Mondiale) | s.t. |
| 58 | SCOTSON, Miles (BMC) | s.t. |
| 59 | MORABITO, Steve (FDJ) | s.t. |
| 60 | CIMOLAI, Davide (FDJ) | s.t. |
| 61 | EDMONDSON, Alexander (Mitchelton-SCOTT) | s.t. |
| 62 | ULISSI, Diego (UAE Team Emirates) | 0:24 |
| 63 | DEVENYNS, Dries (Quick-Step Floors) | 0:25 |
| 64 | HANSEN, Adam (Lotto Soudal) | s.t. |
| 65 | OOMEN, Sam (Sunweb) | s.t. |
| 66 | SIEBERG, Marcel (Lotto Soudal) | 0:29 |
| 67 | BAUER, Jack (Mitchelton-SCOTT) | s.t. |
| 68 | MACHADO, Tiago (Katusha-Alpecin) | 0:31 |
| 69 | HOELGAARD, Daniel (FDJ) | 0:32 |
| 70 | VENTER, Jaco (Dimension Data) | s.t. |
| 71 | CAPECCHI, Eros (Quick-Step Floors) | s.t. |
| 72 | MORENO, Daniel (EF Education First-Drapac) | s.t. |
| 73 | GONÇALVES, José (Katusha-Alpecin) | s.t. |
| 74 | BEVIN, Patrick (BMC) | s.t. |
| 75 | GESINK, Robert (Lotto NL-Jumbo) | s.t. |
| 76 | WYNANTS, Maarten (Lotto NL-Jumbo) | s.t. |
| 77 | GASTAUER, Ben (Ag2R La Mondiale) | s.t. |
| 78 | IZAGUIRRE, Gorka (Bahrain-Merida) | s.t. |
| 79 | GATTO, Oscar (Astana) | 0:35 |
| 80 | ARNDT, Nikias (Sunweb) | s.t. |
| 81 | SCULLY, Tom (EF Education First-Drapac) | s.t. |
| 82 | BAK YTTING, Lars (Lotto Soudal) | s.t. |
| 83 | WISNIOWSKI, Lukasz (Team Sky) | s.t. |
| 84 | OSS, Daniel (BORA-hansgrohe) | 0:39 |
| 85 | BEPPU, Fumiyuki (Trek-Segafredo) | s.t. |
| 86 | BOARO, Manuele (Bahrain-Merida) | s.t. |
| 87 | DIDIER, Laurent (Trek-Segafredo) | s.t. |
| 88 | KENNAUGH, Peter (BORA-hansgrohe) | s.t. |
| 89 | BODNAR, Maciej (BORA-hansgrohe) | s.t. |
| 90 | CLARKE, Williams (EF Education First-Drapac) | s.t. |
| 91 | EARLE, Nathan (UniSA-Australia) | s.t. |
| 92 | BOWDEN, Scott (UniSA-Australia) | s.t. |
| 93 | CASTRILLO, Jaime (Movistar) | s.t. |
| 94 | WAGNER, Robert (Lotto NL-Jumbo) | s.t. |
| 95 | LEEZER, Thomas (Lotto NL-Jumbo) | s.t. |
| 96 | IZAGIRRE, Ion (Bahrain-Merida) | s.t. |
| 97 | DE GENDT, Thomas (Lotto Soudal) | s.t. |
| 98 | MORI, Manuele (UAE Team Emirates) | 0:44 |
| 99 | MONTAGUTI, Mattéo (Ag2R La Mondiale) | s.t. |
| 100 | LATOUR, Pierre (Ag2R La Mondiale) | s.t. |
| 101 | GERRANS, Simon (BMC) | s.t. |
| 102 | PORTE, Richie (BMC) | s.t. |
| 103 | WYSS, Danilo (BMC) | s.t. |
| 104 | DENNIS, Rohan (BMC) | 0:46 |
| 105 | PORTER, Alex (UniSA-Australia) | 0:47 |
| 106 | HAGA, Chad (Sunweb) | 0:55 |
| 107 | SLAGTER, Tom-Jelte (Dimension Data) | 0:59 |
| 108 | BENNETT, George (Lotto NL-Jumbo) | s.t. |
| 109 | PUCCIO, Salvatore (Team Sky) | 1:02 |
| 110 | HALVORSEN, Kristoffer (Team Sky) | s.t. |
| 111 | O'CONNOR, Ben (Dimension Data) | 1:09 |
| 112 | DOULL, Owain (Team Sky) | s.t. |
| 113 | MAS NICOLAU, Enric (Quick-Step Floors) | s.t. |
| 114 | BERNAL, Egan (Team Sky) | s.t. |
| 115 | SENECHAL, Florian (Quick-Step Floors) | 1min 12sec |
| 116 | ROE, Tim (UniSA-Australia) | 1:13 |
| 117 | RESTREPO, Jhonatan (Katusha-Alpecin) | 1:22 |
| 118 | FERNANDEZ, Ruben (Movistar) | s.t. |
| 119 | DURBRIDGE, Luke (Mitchelton-SCOTT) | 1:27 |
| 120 | MARCATO, Marco (UAE Team Emirates) | 1:34 |
| 121 | DIBBEN, Jonathan (Team Sky) | s.t. |
| 122 | BONO, Matteo (UAE Team Emirates) | s.t. |
| 123 | FERRARI, Roberto (UAE Team Emirates) | 1:36 |
| 124 | DE VRESSE, Laurens (Astana) | 1:37 |
| 125 | KORSÆTH, Truls (Astana) | s.t. |
| 126 | CANTY, Brendan (EF Education First-Drapac) | s.t. |
| 127 | PEDERSEN, Mads (Trek-Segafredo) | 1:42 |
| 128 | HOWSON, Damien (Mitchelton-SCOTT) | 1:45 |
| 129 | DEMPSTER, Zak (UniSA-Australia) | 1:58 |
| 130 | MORTON, Lachlan (Dimension Data) | s.t. |
| 131 | DOCKER, Mitchell (EF Education First-Drapac) | 2:51 |
| 132 | HAAS, Nathan (Katusha-Alpecin) | 3:31 |
People's Choice Classic photos by Fotorepoter Sirotti:
World road champion Peter Sagan gets ready to race.
Simon Gerrans waits for the race to start.
Team Virtu owner and 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis was there.
It's about time to race.
Looks like a nice day for a bike race.
Sagan keeps himself well-positioned.
The peloton crosses the line near the end of the race.
Jhonatan Restrepo
Fumiyuki Beppu
Eros Capecchi
Manuele Boaro & Tom Bohli try their luck.
Sagan's Bora-hansgrohe teammates do their share of the work.
There was a crash close to the finish.
Winner Peter Sagan is coming up the center.
Peter Sagan wins.
It was Kristoffer Halvorsen who crashed. Teammate Salvatore Puccio helps him across the line.
Peter Sagan enjoys his win
