Juan Jose Lobato took victory on the second stage of the Santos Tour Down Under in South Australia.
Stage Two was 150.5kms long and from Unley to Stirling and saw the riders depart at 11.14am local time with Jack Bobridge, who will attempt the hour record next week in the leaders Ochre and King Of The Mountains Jersey, Luke Durbridge in the Young Rider Jersey and Dutchman Lieuwe Westra in the Sprint Jersey.
All 133 riders started the second stage which again did not have a neutral zone and on the climb up Windy Point, the attacks came early. Four riders including Robert Power of Uni SA attempted to get away but were soon brought back after 4.8kms.
Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudel launched an attack and got past FDJ's Jeremy Roy and Power, forcing the race to split into three groups before it all came back together.
Orica Green Edge's Cameron Meyer, Thomas De Gendt and BMC's Campbell Flakemore started another attack and this time it was successful and as De Gendt took the King Of The Mountains climb at Basket Range, they were 3.15 ahead.
Through Hahndorf and the time had gone out to 3.55 as De Gendt took the second sprint but was down to under three minutes with just over 72.kms to go.
At speeds of 47kmh and on the circuits around Hahndorf, IAM Cycling and Team Sky with Peter Kennaugh in the British National Road Race Champions jersey, Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard working for Richie Porte, were on the front.
The gap came down to 1.49 with 52kms left as Neil Van De Ploeg led a peloton which was now looking to bring back the three escapers.
At Mylor, De Gendt took the second sprint to add another three seconds which took him up to fourth in the general classification.
With the sprints done, it was the first of three climbs up to Stirling and De Gendt, who finished third in the 2013 Giro D'Italia, was doing most of the work in keeping the escape going.
As the riders entered Stirling the gap was 2.05 and then down to a minute with thirty kilometres left.
With 25.6kms to go, De Gendt dropped back into the peloton who had Meyer and Flakemore, the world U23 time trial champion, in sight. Another 1.4kms further up the road and the break was over.
There were big crowds in Stirling to see the riders start the final lap after taking their final bottles from their soigneurs.
BMC sent Danilo Wyss to join Calvin Watson on the front with twenty kilometres left and the pair started to open up a gap.
Robert Power, who will join Orica GreenEdge for the 2016 season, suffered a flat tyre with 12kms left whilst up the front Watson and Wyss were in the view of the peloton and caught at the ten kilometres to go marker.
Steel Van Hoff led as the riders started onto the final climb with Jack Bobridge in third place ahead of the big boys including BMC, Team Sky and Astana.
Bobridge was following Richie Porte, knowing that if he kept going he would keep his leader's jersey.
Peter Kennaugh did a big turn on the front ahead of Cannondale/Garmin who took over with just under three to go and the hardest part of the climb finished.
Under the flam rouge and the sprinters came forwards. Orica took over and started a move which was followed by Cadel Evans.
Darryl Impey attacked but Juan Jose Lobato went as well and got past the South African to win in 3.42.24 ahead of Impey, G Izaguirre, Tom Dumoulin, Evans, Luis Leon Sanchez, Porte, Bonifazio, Haas and S Dumoulin.
"It was a difficult finish for me but I managed to come through and it was a good win for the team. We always come with a strong team to the Tour Down Under," Lobato saif to Paul Sherwen.
Race Leader Jack Bobridge, who leads Lobato by three seconds, told Paul Sherwen: "After yesterday, I was sore and this was super hard but my team looked after me and I managed to keep connected with the bunch and save it for another day.
Pictures copyright and courtesy of Santos Tour Down Under