Porte seizes Tour Down Under lead with win at Paracombe
Boivin in day's breakaway, Piccoli top Canadian
Richie Porte is known as the King of Willunga Hill, having won atop the decisive climb five times, but he might soon be called the Prince of Paracombe, as he took his second career win there on Thursday to assume the Tour Down Under lead from double winner Daryl Impey. Having won the title only once in the past five seasons while coming runner-up four times, Porte is well positioned to be his home tour’s champion again.
Delighted to be able to pay back my teams support, and all the guys hard efforts @TrekSegafredo. Thanks for all the support #tourdownunder https://t.co/VkOdwcIDtB
— Richie Porte (@richie_porte) January 23, 2020
The Course
The 131-km route began with a 6.5-km, 6.5 percent climb, ambled along before taking in four laps around Paracombe, and then concluded with the 1.7-km, 8.2 percent Torrens Hill. In 2017 Porte beat Gorka Izagirre and Esteban Chaves to the top of Torrens Hill, with Michael Woods ninth.
Stage 3 of the #TourDownUnder is an undulating one and takes the peloton to Paracombe, for the first GC test of this year’s edition. pic.twitter.com/itNfS9PFtP
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) January 23, 2020
Boivin In the Breakaway
With Israel Start-Up Nation reeling from losing Ben Hermans to a crash on Wednesday, Canadian teammate Guillaume Boivin was in a three-man breakaway, coming second and first in the opening intermediate sprints. With the pack 30-seconds behind, Boivin drifted back to it.
The Conclusion
First Mitchelton-Scott led to the foot of Torrens Hill before Cofidis took over. On the climb Porte was imperious, going solo and holding off Simon Yates before the peak. Robert Power sneaked into second spot ahead of Yates at the line.
Boivin’s teammate and compatriot James Piccoli finished with the rider in the blue polka dots, Joey Rosskopf of CCC, and is now 37th on GC, while Boivin is 128th.
After a stage on Friday that favours the sprinters, and a Saturday that favours a late attack, Sunday is the big Willunga Hill showdown.
2020 Santos Tour Down Under Stage 3
1) Richie Porte (Australia/Trek-Segafredo) 3:14:09
2) Robert Power (Australia/Sunweb) +0:05
3) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) s.t.
43) James Piccoli (Canada/Israel Start-Up Nation) +0:46
134) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-Up Nation) +10:01
2020 Santos Tour Down Under GC
1) Richie Porte (Australia/Trek-Segafredo) 10:10:24
2) Daryl Impey (South Africa/Mitchelton-Scott) +0:06
3) Robert Power (Australia/Sunweb) +0:09
37) James Piccoli (Canada/Israel Start-Up Nation) +0:56
128) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-Up Nation) +13:31
