Jhonatan Narvaez of Ecuador held on to his overnight lead on general classification to win the Tour Down Under cycle race yesterday as Australian sprint star Sam Welsford won the final stage for his third stage win of the tour.
A crash about 1.4km from the finish of the 90km sixth stage split the peloton, but Narvaez avoided trouble to maintain his nine second advantage over Spain’s Javier Romo for the first World Tour stage race title of his career.
Narvaez is the first rider from Ecuador to win the Tour Down Under, in the 25th edition of the race. The Ecuadorian finished runner-up last year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Yesterday, the 27-year-old came into the final stage with a nine second lead and was well protected by his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates.
Narvaez transferred during the winter to the UAE Team and had an outstanding start to the year, claiming the tour leader’s jersey from Romo (Movistar) when he won Saturday’s fifth stage in a thrilling climb up Willunga Hill.
The Ecuadorian national champion finished on the podium in three out of the six stages in the first World Tour event of the season.
Welsford was set up for the stage win by his Bora Hansgrohe lead-out man Danny van Poppel and the Australian Olympic track cycling gold medalist crossed the line ahead of French sprinter Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), who had won stage four.
Yesterday’s final stage featured 20 laps through parkland near central Adelaide in South Australia state.
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