Italian sprint ace Elia Viviani has held off Australian cycling rival Caleb Ewan for an outstanding win at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road race.
The win rectifies one of the few blemishes from Viviani's near-perfect 2018 season, when he racked up 18 wins for the all-conquering Deceuninck-Quick Step team.
Elia Viviani said the win was the perfect way to start his year.Credit:AAP
Nicknamed the Wolf Pack, the Belgian powerhouse had another reason to celebrate after Viviani made the most of outstanding teamwork to take out Sunday's 163.4km race in and around Geelong.
Viviani finished runner-up last year to Australian Jay McCarthy.
"Always when I'm asked about my amazing 2018, there are two second places I don't like – this race and Gent Wevelgem," Viviani said.
"It's the best way to start the season."
While Viviani had a leadout from teammate Michael Morkov, Ewan (Lotto Soudal) was boxed in after South African Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) tried an early sprint and ran out of legs.
Ewan still made a late charge and was catching Viviani, but ran out of road.
"I couldn't really start my sprint when I wanted to – Daryl started pretty early and he couldn't keep going," Ewan said.
"He was in my way … Elia left it really late and actually it was a perfectly-timed sprint by him."
It meant more frustration for Ewan, who was relegated from the stage-five win at last week's Tour Down Under for headbutting in the final sprint.
But Ewan also has shown strong form at his new team.
"I knew starting today I had a really good chance … it's just a bit frustrating in the end that I couldn't start the sprint when I wanted," he said.
The race came down to a reduced bunch sprint of 33 riders, well up on the lead group in the last two editions.
While it remains an unpredictable race, after five years teams clearly have worked out their tactics for the hilly 14km finishing circuit that they cover four times.
AAP
Source: Read Full Article