Tour Down Under Stage 3: BMC take control with Rohan Dennis-Cadel Evans one-two

BMC Racing have taken control of the Santos Tour Down Under, with Rohan Dennis and Cadel Evans clinching a one-two for the team following an uphill finish in Paracombe on Stage 3 of the race. Giant-Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin finished third.

Dennis and Evans now occupy the first two places respectively on the general classification after the 143.2 kilometre stage from Norwood. The new race leader displaces UniSA-Australia rider Jack Bobridge.

With Dennis aiming to break the Hour record early next month, a week after Bobridge attempts it, their performances so far in this race suggest both are in good shape.

Following his win today Dennis, aged 24, said: “To be honest, I didn’t expect to win. The plan was for me to attack halfway into the climb but I was too far back to follow the plan.

“I have the ochre jersey now but Cadel and I are still both protected,” he went on. “There’s still Willunga [Stage 5] and a lot of racing to come.”

Evans, 2009 road world champion and winner of the Tour de France in 2011, is riding the final WorldTour race of his career and is in a strong position to add the biggest race to his home country to his palmarès.

“We had a plan, covering two bases, but I want to lend a favour to my teammates when I can, so we wanted to give Rohan and Peter [Stetina] the chance to make an attack anywhere they could,” he said. “That move really worked for us, and I am sure Rohan is going to be pretty happy.

“We want to stay where we are. It’s not easy, there is a lot of racing still to go,” Evans added. “Today narrows down who we have to watch.”