Angus Lyons provides upset on Willunga stage at Santos Festival of Cycling

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The break reigned on stage 3 of the Santos Festival of Cycling, with Angus Lyons (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast) capitalising on an early move to steal a march on retiring Willunga Hill king, Richie Porte (Team Garmin Australia).

Lyons pace couldn't be matched by any of his break rivals in the final section of the climb, with the rider who came seventh on this stage last year dropping Callum Scotson (BikeExchange-Jayco) and stretching out a 22 second gap by the time they had reached the line. Cooper Sayers (Nero Continental) came in ten seconds back, just beating Brendon Green (Cycling Development Foundation) to third.

"We came close last year, with a similar sort of situation, just not as much gap on the bottom, so it was nice to finish it off," said Lyons, who took the win after his teammate Declan Trezise relentlessly drove the break to the base of the climb. "Declan rode an insane ride to keep us away. He didn't have a lot of help there in the last six or 8km and he did an amazing job to get me there with three minutes up my sleeve."

As the rest of the break came over the line, behind the GC battle was unfolding as were the final moments of Porte racing his way up Willunga. His teammate Luke Plapp (Team Garmin Australia) came through in eighth, the first of the riders not from the break and then it was Chris Harper (Villawood) and Porte a few seconds back, along with Matt Dinham (Team BridgeLane) at one minute and 28 seconds behind the winner. 

“Obviously the race was up the road so there wasn’t that massive pressure that there normally is to attack, so it was just nice to just be able to sit back and watch the race unfold," said Porte, who has tasted victory on top of the climb seven times.

After Dinham and Porte it was race leader James Whelan (Team BridgeLane) at one minute and 31 seconds, safely holding onto his overall position. 

"I feel amazing," said Whelan. "The team did an amazing job today. All I needed to do was get to the bottom of that climb and follow a few wheels and we won the thing."

The Willunga stage is always one that looms large, both for the GC, stage honours and the spectacle for the fans. The final 113.2km day, started in McLaren Vale, wound past the vineyards and onto the coast with views of Aldinga Beach before flying toward the race making climb of Willunga Hill, where the final battle for GC and stage honours unfolded on the crowd lined roads.

How it unfolded

It wasn’t long after the racing started that there were five out the front, with regular early break candidate Scotson joined by Lyons, Trezise and Edwin Britts (Oliver’s).

The gap quickly stretched out beyond a minute and a chase of four set off in pursuit with Sayers, Green, Daniel Luke (Oliver’s) and Cameron Fraser (Onyva) making the junction with 90 km to go as the course wound its way back through McLaren Vale. 

The group worked together smoothly to pull the gap out further, to around four minutes as they swept past the beach at Aldinga for the first time, facing the windy conditions and some crashes too. Plapp was among those involved, having to do some work to join back onto the peloton. 

The gap had then stretched out to four minutes at around 75 kilometres to go, with the GC focussed Team BridgeLane largely out the front and there was little concern for them if the stage victory was up the road as long as Whelan's overall lead stayed. By the second sweep past the beach, at around 30km to go, it had stretched to five minutes. Then the teams that were more concerned about the stage victory, like Team Garmin Australia, decided it was time to roll through to the front and start shaving down the gap.

It wasn’t happening quickly though, particularly with Trezise driving the pace in the break for teammate Lyons, who after last year’s effort out the front ended in seventh on the line so he knew that every second counted this time. The group hit the base of Willunga and, after a spent Trezise swung off the front and ground to a halt, the lead group hit the slopes with more than three minutes up their sleeve.

At 2.5km to go it was Scotson who jumped off the front, with Lyons quickly slipping onto the wheel and then Green also joining the trio. They were playing cat and mouse for a while, they had time after all, but then Lyons slipped away and while Scotson tried to haul him back it was to no avail. From that point it was clear it was Lyon’s year. 

In the overall competition it was best young rider, Dinham, who came second behind teammate Whelan while Harper took third. Benjamin Dyball (AUS II) took out the Sprint Classification while Ben Hill (CCS Cycling) kept hold of the King of the Mountains jersey.