OVO Energy Tour of Britain 2017 | Stage 3 Normanby Hall to Scunthorpe
Caleb Ewan reclaims race lead with stage win in Scunthorpe
Words by SweetSpot, Images by Chris Maher
Caleb Ewan sprinted to his second victory of the week in the OVO Energy Tour of Britain, heading home Edvald Boasson Hagen by less than a wheel width to reclaim the overall lead and the OVO Energy Green Jersey in Scunthorpe.
The Orica Scott rider followed up his opening day win in Kelso by out sprinting Boasson Hagen and European Champion Alexander Kristoff, to move six seconds ahead of overnight leader Elia Viviani who finished seventh in the bunch sprint.
“Today was a tough day obviously with the weather,” said Ewan after the rainy conditions that swept the North Lincolnshire leg of the Tour. “So it wasn’t as straight forward as we would have hoped and I think it made it a bit harder.”
“We had to sit at the front all day, taking a bit of the wind and then with the hill coming up close to the finish line that made it a bit tricky as well.”
The bunch brought back the remains of the day’s breakaway with around 15-kilometres of racing to go, with Philippe Gilbert then causing panic among the sprinters teams by jumping clear on the drag up to the line.
“After Gilbert went, I was pretty confident in Luka Mezgec, he knows what he is doing so I could just follow him,” Ewan continued. “He had to go pretty much full gas as soon as he started the lead out so that made it harder for me as well.”
“To be honest, I was on his wheel and pretty pinned. As soon as he swung off I just gave it my all and did a big lunge for the line and luckily I just got the win ahead of Eddie.”
As well as win number two Ewan moves back into the lead of the Wiggle Points Jersey, five points ahead of Viviani.
It was also a brilliant day for Team JLT Condor who managed to get two riders, Graham Briggs and Ian Bibby, in the five-rider breakaway (inc Pete Williams, ONE Pro Cycling, Matt Holmes, Madison Genesis & Harry Tanfield, BIKE Channel Canyon). The duo worked brilliantly together to make sure that between them they took maximum points in all of the day’s intermediate competitions, resulting in Briggs picking up the Eisberg Sprints and SKODA King of the Mountains jerseys.
A terrific day for the team was capped off by Australian sprinter Brenton Jones taking fourth place on the stage overall.
Elsewhere, BIKE Channel Canyon’s Harry Tanfield was awarded the HIGH5 Combativity Award for the day after continually animating the break.
Stage Four of the OVO Energy Tour of Britain takes place in Nottinghamshire with the county hosting its first full stage. The stage begins in Mansfield town centre at 11:00 with live coverage on ITV4 from 10.45am, with the finish alongside Sconce and Devon Park in Newark-on-Trent after 164-kilometres of racing.
Stage Winner 51 EWAN Caleb Orica – Scott AUS
Combativity HIGH5 65 TANFIELD Harry Bike Channel – Canyon
General OVO Energy 51 EWAN Caleb Orica – Scott AUS
Points Wiggle 51 EWAN Caleb Orica – Scott AUS
King of the Mountain SKODA 113 BRIGGS Graham Jlt Condor GBR
Sprints Eisberg 113 BRIGGS Graham Jlt Condor GBR
Best British Adnams 31 LAWLESS Christopher Great Britain – GBR GBR
Teams Katusha – Alpecin
Jerseys
General – Green OVO Energy 51 EWAN Caleb Orica – Scott AUS
Points – Orange and Gray Wiggle 145 VIVIANI Elia Team Sky ITA
Mountain – Black Skoda 113 BRIGGS Graham Jlt Condor GBR Sprints –
Red Eisberg 12 DOMAGALSKI Karol One Pro Cycling
Stage 3 Top 30
1 51 *EWAN Caleb 00″ ORS AUS B:10″
2 2 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald ‘ ‘ DDD NOR B:06″
3 72 KRISTOFF Alexander ‘ ‘ KAT NOR B:04″
4 111 JONES Brenton ‘ ‘ JLT AUS
5 76 *SCHMIDT Mads Würtz ‘ ‘ KAT DEN
6 134 PASQUALON Andrea ‘ ‘ WGG ITA
7 145 VIVIANI Elia ‘ ‘ SKY ITA
8 83 GILBERT Philippe ‘ ‘ QST BEL
9 192 BENNATI Daniele ‘ ‘ MOV ITA
10 154 MAES Nikolas ‘ ‘ LTS BEL
11 71 MARTIN Tony ‘ ‘ KAT GER
12 121 VAN BAARLE Dylan ‘ ‘ CDT NED
13 86 STYBAR Zdenek ‘ ‘ QST CZE
14 195 IZAGIRRE Gorka ‘ ‘ MOV ESP
15 21 KÜNG Stefan ‘ ‘ BMC SUI
16 91 GROENEWEGEN Dylan ‘ ‘ TLJ NED
17 135 SMITH Dion ‘ ‘ WGG NZL
18 26 GERTS Floris ‘ ‘ BMC NED
19 41 *TEGGART Matthew ‘ ‘ SKT IRL
20 81 *GAVIRIA Fernando ‘ ‘ QST COL
21 55 MEZGEC Luka ‘ ‘ ORS SLO
22 31 *LAWLESS Christopher ‘ ‘ GBR GBR
23 93 CAMPENAERTS Victor ‘ ‘ TLJ BEL
24 82 *DE PLUS Laurens ‘ ‘ QST BEL
25 191 DOWSETT Alex ‘ ‘ MOV GBR
26 96 VAN HOECKE Gijs ‘ ‘ TLJ BEL
27 175 PATERSKI Maciej ‘ ‘ CCC POL
28 52 HEPBURN Michael ‘ ‘ ORS AUS
29 144 KWIATKOWSKI Michal ‘ ‘ SKY POL
30 161 *ALBANESE Vincenzo ‘ ‘ BAR ITA
General Classification after Stage 3
1 51 *EWAN Caleb 00″ ORS AUS 13h54’34”
2 145 VIVIANI Elia 06″ SKY ITA 13h54’40”
3 2 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald 07″ DDD NOR 13h54’41”
4 12 DOMAGALSKI Karol 14″ ONE POL 13h54’48”
5 23 DILLIER Silvan 15″ BMC SUI 13h54’49”
6 13 GRADEK Kamil ‘ ‘ ONE POL ‘ ‘
7 72 KRISTOFF Alexander 16″ KAT NOR 13h54’50”
8 81 *GAVIRIA Fernando ‘ ‘ QST COL ‘ ‘
9 92 BOOM Lars 18″ TLJ NED 13h54’52”
10 86 STYBAR Zdenek 20″
