Ulissi 5th as Tour Down Under hits the hills

The first hilly test of this Santos Tour Down Under saw Diego Ulissi match the other favourites and claim his first top-5 result of this years race.

The final rise to Paracomb featured ramps of 20% which came at the base of the climb. It was Marco Marcato who made the first attack with under 3km to go, stretching the peloton and causing the group to split up completely.

Marcato was then caught and passed by Australian Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo) who would go on to take the stage and move into the leaders jersey.

The select group behind fought it out for the small placings, with Ulissi not conceding any major time to Porte and well placed to take aim at the overall podium in the days to come.

Tomorrow’s stage takes the riders from Norwood to Murray Bridge (158km) over flatter terrain with a technical run-in to the finish.

Ulissi: “The team did great work on the run-in to the last climb to keep me up the front. There was a very hard tempo on the final climb to the line set by the other GC guys. I felt good and was hoping for a good sprint but there was other riders with better legs on the day.Overall I’m happy with my result.”

Stage 3 results:
1.Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo) 3h14’09”
2.Robert Power (Team Sunweb) +5’’
3.Simon Yates (Mitchelton Scott) +5”
5.Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) +5”

General Classificatio after stage 3:
1.Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo) 10h10’24”
2.Daryl Impey (Mitchelton Scott) +6’’
3.Robert Power (Sunweb) +9’’
6.Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) +15’’