Blanco's Thomas Slagter won the third stage of the 15th Santos Tour Down Under.
Team Sky's Geraint Thomas was a man of two jersey's after yesterday's second stage and and the Welshman, who has the green polka dot King Of The Mountains jersey and the race leader's Ocre jersey and 130 riders set off on a 139km stage from Unley to Stirling, minus FDJ's Arnaud Courteille who broke his collarbone in a crash on yesterday's second stage.
A group of twenty three riders got away. This proved too big so Daryl Impey (Orica GreenEdge) and Jack Bobridge (Blanco), who took the opening King Of The Mountain's points, tried their luck as did Simon Clarke (Orica GreenEdge) and Will Clarke (Argos-Shimano on the Eagle On The Hill.
The Clarke's had better luck in staying away and with 21kms gone, they had opened up a lead of 2.55.
They were out in front when they reached Stirling for the first of six laps around what was seen by a number of the Australian riders as a tought circuit.
The first Jayco Sprint was at Heathfield after 35.2kms and Will Clarke took the full quota of five points on offer to add to the ten he already has, ahead of Simon Clarke and Geraint Thomas (pictured below), who had said before the stage that he was feeling good.
With a lead of 3.10 after 41kms, Simon Clarke was now the virtual leader on the road, after starting 1.28 down on Thomas as temperatures got to 38 degrees.
A crash took down some Astana and Vacansoleil riders before Will Clarke took the second Jayco sprint after 56.6km, to give him the lead in the sprint competition, ahead of Simon Clarke and Martin Tjallingi (Blanco).
Thomas was on the front of the peloton, which had swept up Tjallingi, looking to bring back the Clarke's who were 2.45 ahead.
There was another crash involving Cannondale and Saxo Bank Tinkoff riders but everyone got back on their bikes and continued the race.
As the front two reached the Hydration Station in Stirling with three laps to go, their lead was 1.59.
Two Movistar riders and Jack Bobridge and along with Luke Burbridge launched a counter move off the front of the peloton. This saw a group of ten riders form and make in roads into the lead of the two Australians out in front.
With two laps to go, the front two could be seen by a second chasing group and the peloton and as they got to the feed station, the escapers were swept up by an six man group including Daryl Impey and Canadian Brian Vandborg.
Edvald Boason Hagen continued to work for Thomas at the front of the peloton as they heard the bell for the final lap.
Impey, Vandborg, Steve Morabito, Will Clarke, Simon Clarke, Andrei Amador, Boy Van Poppel and Thierry Huppond had a lead of thirty seconds.
Vandborg was dropped and Damien Howson of Uni SA, tried to catch the seven still ahead with 18.5kms to go.
His attempt was in vain as the Sky led peloton engulfed him on an undulating circuit.
Steve Morabito and Andrey Amador started an attack with Impey, Simon Clarke, the most aggressive rider of the day, and Huppond but they were in the sights of the peloton with 9kms to go.
Moving up was World Champion Phillippe Gilbert, who had crashed yesterday but felt that today was a stage for him
With 6.1kms to go, Astana's Agnoli came up to the front and Morabito followed up whilst the other escapers were caught.
He was caught and Radio Shack's Tiago Machado, who was fourteen seconds down on the general classification took over at the front.
Machado got out of sight of the peloton. Laughlin Moreton and Jerome Pineau tried to catch him and just before the red kite, he was caught.
Attacks came and Cameron Wurf of Cannondale was next to go. He was too was caught and there was a thin line of riders going for the win but it was Blanco's Thomas Slagter who won in a time of 3.36.46 ahead of Matt Goss and Gilbert. Geraint Thomas finished fourth.
Stage winner Slagter, for whom this was his first stage victory, told Paul Sherwen: "It was incredible and the team was really good. The win was for the whole team."
Geraint Thomas, who keeps his ocre jersey, some five seconds ahead of Slagter, said; "it was a tough day. It would have been nice to get on the podium and get the time bonuses but it was mission accomplished."
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Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM