Mas takes 15th at 2019 season opener in Adelaide
13 January 2019

Down Under Classic

Movistar Team safe after eventful finish of criterium prior to first WorldTour round of the year, the Tour Down Under, starting on Tuesday.

Caleb Ewan (LTS) opened with a victory the week of duels between WorldTour outfits that kicks off the 2019 season at the Tour Down Under. The traditional criterium Down Under Classic -an hour’s racing and a total 29 laps of a 1.7km course near downtown in the capital city of South Australia- was a grueling warm-up for a six-day stagerace which has already seen high temperatures forcing to apply the Extreme Weather Protocol to Wednesday’s stage two to Angaston, cut nearly 30km down.

Edu Prades in his maiden race in Movistar Team colours. (c) Dario Belingheri / BettiniPhoto.net

The Movistar Team had to manage its way through incidents in a circuit race where crashes split the peloton twice into the final few laps. While Edu Prades was a DNF in his first race in Blue due to a mechanical, another rider’s bike crashing against his rear wheel -the Spaniard still able to start the TDU on Tuesday-, Jasha Sütterlin, initially the best placed to contest the sprint, went down later on -with no big consequence- and was unable to contest a finish where he already took 9th place in 2018.

The top finisher for the José Luis Arrieta-led group was another debutant: Lluís Mas, who took 15th.