Jayco Herald Sun Tour: John Murphy steals stage 3 Inverloch sprint win

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A day after Tanner Putt finished second to Caleb Ewan, John Murphy went one better for UnitedHealthcare in Inverloch as he sprinted to stage 3 of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour in a photo finish ahead of Niccolò Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) with ONE Pro Cycling's Steele von Hoff in third. Pre-stage favourite Ewan crossed the line in sixth place.

There was no change to the top-ten on general classification after the 146km sprinters stage with Peter Kennaugh leading teammate Chris Froome by 13 seconds ahead of the final stage.

"I don’t think any sprinter is unbeatable so if you have the right team in front of you, you can win anything you want. My UnitedHealthcare team was unbelievable today, they took me into the corner in perfect condition and all I had to do was my sprint," Murphy said post-race.

"Coming out of the final corner, I thought the corner was a little bit further from the line so the moment I came out of the corner, I had to start and boom, just go from there and hope I can hold it to the line. It was a really close finish with Bonifazio so definitely pretty happy just to have that photo."

Adding that he was initially unsure of the result, two-time USA national criterium champion Murphy added that the reaction of Bonifazio was a giveaway that he snagged the stage win.

“Usually in a photo finish, you know when you’re beat and you don’t know when you’ve won. I didn’t know so it thought maybe I had it and Bonifazio knew he’d lost so that’s what gave it away to me," he said. “It took me a minute to digest that for sure I had won and once I had it, I was happy to celebrate with my teammates.

Having finished third on his Trek-Segafredo debut at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and won the bunch sprint for seventh yesterday, Bonifazio explained his hesitation cost him in the end

"Everyone was there for me all day and then in the finale [Alafaci] Eugenio dropped me off at 500 meters to go," Bonifazio said. "It was perfect, but after the last turn I underestimated how close the finish was, and I think I waited a little bit too long. It's really too bad because it was very, very close

With tomorrow's queen stage up Arthurs Seat, Kennaugh remains the overall race leader with 13 seconds over teammate Chris Froome but the British national champion isn't expecting an easy day in the saddle to seal his third career GC win following triumphs at Coppi e Bartoli and Tour of Austria in 2014.

“I don’t really know a lot of the riders. Obviously a lot of the domestic teams have strong guys and it’s their summer and they’re all going well but I don’t know the names. I am sure there are guys who are mega up for it. The Avanti team seems quite strong on the climbs so we’ll just have to watch out for guys like that I guess. We have a bit of cushion on GC over a few people but still, it would be nice to be able to finish off with a stage win.

After yesterday’s frantic attempts to get into the breakaway, it was a subdued morning with Morgan Smith (NZl) Kenyan Riders Downunder), Daniel Bonello (St George Merida), Thomas Hubbard (Data#3 Cisco Racing Team p/b Scody) and Ben Hill (Attaque Team Gusto) and forcing a move off the front of the peloton. Russ Downing (Condor JLT) would join the quartet with the peloton content with the composition of the five-rider break.

With the breakaway posing no threat to GC a nature break from the peloton signalled its intentions and the five-riders quickly had a lead of two minutes by kilometre six. The advantage steady grew over the eschewing kilometres so that by the 17km mark the breakaway reached its maximum lead of four minutes.

The gap then dropped to around the 3:50 minutes mark before moving out to four minutes through the rolling Gippsland parcours. At the first KOM point in Boolara, Hubbard rolled over the line ahead Downing with the duo reversing the result on the second KOM.

The fast and winding descents from the second KOM in Mirboo North, the old training roads of race director and three-time Sun Tour winner John Trevorrow, shot the peloton out into Leongatha for lunch with the break’s advantage dropping down to two-and-half, then out to three minutes.

Orica-GreenEdge with help from Team Sky and Trek-Segafredo decided it was time to start the chase so that by the time they passed through Inverloch for the first sprint point, the were 1:35 minutes behind.

Hill won both sprint points, elevating him into the green points jersey by days end, as the gap continued to fall. Sam Bewley was doing the pace setting for Orica-GreenEdge with the intention of setting up Ewan for consecutive stage wins.

With little wind to speak of around the Cape Paterson stretch of ocean road, a bunch gallop finish was on the cards with the break caught inside the final eight kilometres. Smith had attacked his companions, as Hill and Hubbard sat up and waited for the capture, but it would prove unsuccessful and also failed to net the aggressive rider jersey which also went to yesterday’s birthday boy, Hill.

Orica-GreenEdge kept the pace high for the final five kilometres on the ride into the beachside finish but with the decisive left-hand corner featuring inside the final 500 metres, UnitedHealthcare came to the front to drop off Murphy, who repaid his teammates with their first victory of season 2016.

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