Tour Down Under favorites defeated by Romo, who also leads in GC

Javier Romo managed to give Movistar a nice victory in the third stage of the Tour Down Under. In the last phase, the Spaniard rode away from a breakaway group of 20 riders, mostly favorites, and crossed the finish line with a five-second advantage. Romo also takes over the lead in the GC from Sam Welsford.

After two stages that ended in a sprint (and won by Welsford), the course of the third stage of the Tour Down Under was significantly more demanding. A new climb was found in South Australia with Knots Hill, which, on paper, should have been a great attraction for the peloton.

This way, there was also more interest in joining the early breakaway. Welsford's lead-out Danny van Poppel made Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's intentions clear by sliding along several times, while names such as Ide Schelling (XDS Astana), Marc Soler (UAE-Emirates XRG) and Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) also showed themselves in the fast opening stage.

Two men eventually got a free pass: Fergus Browning of the Australian selection was accompanied by INEOS Grenadiers rider Connor Swift, who could thus keep his leaders a bit out of the wind. Could, because the man from Wales was eventually ordered to wait and thus allowed Browning - who focused mainly on the mountain points - to do his thing. Geoffrey Bouchard (Decathlon AG2R) then decided to ride toward Browning.

UAE-Emirates XRG was the team that picked up the challenge in the big group, where leader Stephen Williams crashed about 50 kilometers from the end. The Brit got back on his bike but lost 25 precious seconds and thus a good starting position. Loe van Belle of Visma | Lease a Bike was involved in the 'nasty crash' but made it to the finish line.

Read more below the video!

Romo places attack at right time

With forty kilometers to go, Knots Hill had to be climbed for the first time, and leader Welsford had to let go of the group. In the downhill, someone other than Soler took action for the first time. However, the other teams still had enough support to do a solid lead-out towards the decisive passage, just under ten kilometers from the finish.

Van Poppel and INEOS moved in there. Its riders, Michal Kwiatkowski, Jay Vine, and Luke Plapp, were among the first to make an actual attack. However, breaking away uphill proved problematic, with everyone on edge. Nineteen riders came over the top together, and Romo made his move just after. The Movistar rider immediately created a gap and was able to take the win despite furious efforts by the men behind.

Jhonatan Narváez was second, ahead of Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. The chasing group also included Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike), Bauke Mollema, Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek), and Picnic PostNL leader Oscar Onley.

Results stage 3 Tour Down Under 2025

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Want to know when and where the most exciting races of 2025 will take place? Check out our updated 2025 cycling calendars for the men's and women's peloton!

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