Caleb Ewen took his second succesive victory in the Jayco Sun Herald Tour in Australia with victory on the third stage.
The rain was out for stage three which was from Mitchelton Wines to Nagambie where Caleb Ewen had won stage two and Cameron Meyer retained his leader's jersey, was 148.6kms long and saw six riders in Adam Phelan of Drapac, Jacob Kauffmann of Budget Forklifts, Cameron Bayly of Search To Retain, Jayden Copp of Charter Racing, Ben Hill of Charter Racing and Thomas of Data Symantec get away.
Witrh 78kms to go, they were 2.05 ahead, having been at a maximum of three minutes.
At the start of the KOM climb, defending champion Simon Clarke was involved in a crash but ripped and bloodied he continued on, as the escapers saw their lead cut to a minute as they crested the summit.
On the descent, the gap started to increase and went out to 2.05 before Sam Witmitz, who had finished third on stage two abandoned.
Ben Hill took the second sprint at Seymour ahead of Copp and Phelan as the gap hovered around the 2.03 mark with thirty one kilometres left.
The six were still away going into the last fifteen kilometres but their lead had diminished rapidly and the breakaway was now in sight.