BMC's Rohan Dennis has won the third stage of the Santos Tour Down Under in South Australia and now leads the race after taking a dramatic stage victory.
For the first time in this race, there was a 7.5km neutral zone before the racing on the stage from Norwood to Paracombe got underway.
The 143.2km Thomas Foods stage started without Michal Kolar who did not finish stage two and Campbell Flakemore of BMC who was in the break on the second stage, who broke his collarbone in a crash riding back to the team hotel.
Martin Kohler of Drapac was straight on the attack when the flag dropped on a stage described as crucial by Cadel Evans, but was back in the peloton with three kilometres gone.
Kohler's team-mate William Clarke was the next to try and launch a break and although he had a minute's lead, it was soon back down to fourteen seconds.
That allowed Clarke to be joined by Lasse Norman Hansen of Cannondale/Garmin, Calvin Watson of Trek and Axel Domont of AG2R and with twelve kilometres gone, they had taken a lead of 2.20 over the peloton which again had Jack Bobridge of Uni SA in the Ochre Jersey.
At the thirty kilometres gone mark, the gap had gone out to 3.15 and 3.30, twelve kilometres.later.
The first sprint of the day came after 67.4kms at Charleston, the venue for all three sprints and Clarke took the three points on offer.ahead of Hansen and Dormont.
On a stage which went through areas affected by brush and forest fires, Travis Mayer had to call the race doctor for assistance, the lead was 3.18 with just under sixty three kilometres to go.
The gap dropped again to 2:34 as Clarke beat Hansen to take the second iiNET Sprint after 93.1kms.
With 38.3kms left, Dormont dropped away from the front three and let the front three get up to speeds of 80kmh going into the last thirty kilometres of the stage.
The final sprint came with 24kms to go in Charleston and Clarke rode through again to take the three points and the race's most aggressive rider of the day prize.
That meant that only the final climb was left for the 131 riders and this was the perfect chance for those who want to win the Tour Down Under to shown their credentials.
Hansen was the next from the escapers to drop back as Clarke and Watson had less than a kilometre's advantage.
Movistar were one of the teams moving forward to do some work with Team Sky and Giant Alpecin as Watson waited for the neutral service vehicle to get a drink and let Clarke stay out in front with just under fourteen kilometres left.
The peloton was flying and Clarke's lead was 31 seconds on the Cudlee Creek Descent. Clarke knew his day on the front was over and with 8.1kms left he was caught.
Onto Gorge Road and Team Sky were on the front with Ian Stannard working for Richie Porte. They went onto the final climb with 6.2kms to go and Australian national champion Heinrich Haussler was handily placed just behind the Giant Alpecin team and IAM Cycling.
Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard were taking turns on the front as was Cadel Evans followed by Porte and Impey and the man that the two Brits were working for - Richie Porte attacked with 1.2kms left, followed by Evans and Tom Dumoulin and Pozzovivo.
That attack failed so Porte attacked again and the other three followed. but out of the blue, Rohan Dennis came over the climb and took the sixteen points. The BMC rider shot away and took the win in 3.35.08 and the leader's ochre jersey, three seconds ahead of Cadel Evans and Tom Dumoulin and five seconds ahead of Maxime Bouet, Mick Rogers and Richie Porte. They were followed by Haig, Fernandez, Pozzovivo and Geschke.
Dennis, who leads Evans by seven seconds, said to Paul Sherwen. "I was quite a bit back. Cadel was away with Richie but the guys brought me back and I was happy to win. The plan was for more to attack the points. Cadel is still the leader and I have the ochre jersey, so the team meeting tonight will be interesting."
Provisional General Classification after three stages:
1 Rohan Dennis (BMC) 2 Cadel Evans (BMC) +7, 3 Tom Dumoulin +9 4 Porte +15 5 Haig +15 6 Fernandez +15 7 Rogers +15 8 Bouet +15 9 Pozzovivo +15
Photos copyright and courtesy of Santos Tour Down Under and Regallo