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Tour Down Under: Stage 3 live updates

18th January, 2012
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Roar Guru
18th January, 2012
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1299 Reads

Welcome along to coverage of Stage 3 of the Tour Down Under. Today we start just outside of Adelaide city – Unley, in a 134.5km race.

There’s a 9.5km neutral stage, which is then followed by the official start in Bedford Park. The Tour then rides all the way through to Victor Harbor.

Stage 3 includes 2 Jayco Sprints (Mt Compass 65km and Goolwa 89.4km) and a Category 2 climb in the ŠKODA King of the Mountains (Sellicks Hill 42.9km).

Conditions are warm but not the heat and wind of the first stage. Unley’s max temp is meant to hit around 31C, with a breeze around 10km/hr.

Yesterday was an amazing day for 26-year-old William Clarke. The UniSA Australia rider was the last man picked for the TdU, but decided to take up the pace with BMC rider Martin Kohler after just 1km of racing. While Kohler went for the sprints to steal the leader’s Ochre jersey, Clarke decided to go for glory.

He left Kohler behind after the second sprint point to get the lead out to as much as 12:15. Despite a late charge from the peloton, the Tasmanian took the stage win.

We saw a bit of action late from GreenEDGE led by Simon Gerrans, but it was in vain. We’ve seen how important the sprint points have been so far with the time bonuses they provide, maybe Gerrans will be pushing hard at Mt Compass and Goolwa.

Martin Kohler’s lead is only two seconds. In fact, the top 64 riders are seperated by only 12 seconds, so expect some fireworks today.

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Don’t forget, any questions, thoughts or comments – send them through. We’ll do our best to keep you up to date.

We’ll start live blogging on Stage 3 of the SANTOS Tour Down Under from 1130 AEDST (1100 SA Time)

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