By Gerard Cromwell
Although Philip Deignan dropped down the overall standings at the Tour Down Under today, some strong riding by the Letterkenny man on the early slopes of the decisive Corkscrew Hill helped his team Sky leader Geraint Thomas move up to sixth place overall.
Deignan's driving on the front soon saw the peloton split with eventual stage winner Cadel Evans (BMC) and Sky's Richie Porte pulling clear towards the top.
Although Porte was joined by race leader Simon Gerrans of Orica GreenEdge after getting dropped by a super strong Evans, the duo were still 15-seconds down on the 2011 Tour de France winner as they began the final 7km decent into Campbelltown.
Evans took stage victory by 17 seconds, making him the new race leader, while Porte and Gerrans were caught on the run in by a nine man group containing Thomas and yesterday's stage winner Diego Ullissi of Lampre.
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Evans now holds a 12 second lead over Gerrans with Ullissi third at 15 seconds. Deignan came home in 49th place today in a group 2:29 down on the new leader. He is now 42nd overall, 2:37 down.
After the stage, Sky Sports Director Kurt-Asle Arvesen admitted there wasn’t much more the team could have done against such a great solo performance.
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“The team did fantastic,” he told Sky Sports.
“We gave it a go and Richie was at the front there with Cadel and Geraint was just behind. We were just missing that little bit extra on the top guys. We just have to try again on Saturday and the one really selective stage to go.
“We came here to win and now that looks like it is going to be hard. But we won’t give up. It’s clear Cadel Evans and Simon Gerrans will be hard guys to beat.”
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Philip Deignan takes to the front on Corkscrew Hill to try and set up Sky team mates Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas, before rival Cadel Evans seized the day to take stage victory and the overall lead on stage 3 of the Tour Down Under
Deignan has looked very strong on the bike this week and relaxed off it. It's early days with Team Sky but he seem to be going as well as he was this time last year ahead of what turned out to be a fantastic season for him.
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