Tour Down Under rips up script before decisive stages in Adelaide hills – Analysis

VICTOR HARBOR AUSTRALIA JANUARY 19 Simon Yates of United Kingdom and Team Jayco Alula Mauro Schmid of Switzerland and Team Soudal QuickStep Rohan Dennis of Australia and Team JumboVisma Jay Vine of Australia and UAE Team Emirates and Jai Hindley of Australia and Team Bora Hansgrohe compete in the breakaway during the 23rd Santos Tour Down Under 2023 Stage 2 a 1548km stage from Brighton to Victor Harbor TourDownUnder WorldTour on January 19 2023 in Victor Harbor Australia Photo by Tim de WaeleGetty Images
Simon Yates rides in the pack of favourites behind Mauro Schmid, Rohan Dennis, Jay Vine and Jai Hindley in a breakaway on stage 2 of the Tour Down Under (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

The third stage of the Tour Down Under will start a new chapter of the race for overall victory, with the attacks, time gains and time losses of stage 2 ripping up the expected script for the final days of the race.

Michael Matthews (Jayco-Alula) was the big favourite for overall victory but his 2:13 time loss on stage 2, sparked by a brutal and cruel ripple in the peloton and some damage to his bike as they hit the decisive climb of the day, lead to the Australian admitting it was ‘game over’ for the GC.  

Stephen Farrand
Head of News

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.