04 Feb 2017

Top five for Rowe in frantic finish

Related riders

Luke Rowe sprinted to fourth place on stage three at the Herald Sun Tour after Danny van Poppel was caught up in a late crash.

Team Sky had pushed hard to overhaul the day's breakaway ahead of the finish at Mitchelton Winery, but it wasn't to be for Van Poppel who went down ahead of the final kilometre.

Rowe backed up his stage win of 24 hours earlier with a strong finish as Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare) bested the bunch kick, with Mitchell Docker (Orica-Scott) home second. A disappointed Van Poppel was able to remount and finish the stage alongside his team-mates.

Despite the crash causing chaos at the finish the GC situation should remain stable heading into Sunday's queen stage. Kenny Elissonde retained third overall, with Chris Froome also within striking distance, just over a minute back on leader Damien Howson (Orica-Scott).

After the stage Rowe talked us through the day and a tough battle to bring back the nine-man move. He said: "Only us and JLT Condor seemed to want to bring it back for a sprint today. So it was a big workload for the boys.

Luke Rowe

You've got a three-time Tour de France winner riding on the front to bring it back for a bunch sprint which was impressive to see.

"It was touch and go but everyone bought in and we brought it back with a few kilometres to go. I was perfectly positioned with Danny with a kilometre and a half to go but unfortunately he went down in the crash."

Stage three results:

1. Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare) 3:46:00

2. Mitchell Docker (Orica-Scott) s.t.

3. Leigh Howard (Aqua Blue Sport)

4. Luke Rowe (Team Sky)

5. Alexey Tsatevich (Gazprom-RusVelo)

Overall classification:

1. Damien Howson (Orica-Scott) 12:32:12

2. Jai Hindley (Australia) +38"

3. Kenny Elissonde (Team Sky) +53"

4. Cameron Meyer (Australia) +1:08"

5. Michael Storer (Australia) +1:10"

6. Chris Froome (Team Sky) +1:12"