While Romo rewards his hard winter work, defending champion Williams crashes at worst moment: "It was a shit fight all day"

When the favorites were watching each other, Javier Romo seized his moment. Thanks to a perfectly timed attack, the 26-year-old Spaniard became the surprising winner of stage 3 and the new leader of the Tour Down Under. Meanwhile, defending champion Stephen Williams of Israel-Premier Tech had bad luck: the Brit crashed at the worst possible moment, and lost precious time.

Stage winner Romo said in the post-stage flash interview that the victory did not come out of nowhere. "This win is so important. This winter I worked a lot, thinking about the Tour Down Under. I couldn't imagine this day," said the Spaniard. "I’m so happy, and I want to say thank you to my team because today they worked very hard for me. They have a lot of confidence in me. And it's so important, this victory. Also for my family, my girlfriend, all the people who helped me this year."

Five kilometers from the finish, Romo accelerated, slipping away from third position while no one reacted. Suddenly, he had a gap, and when the chase behind him faltered, he secured his first professional win. It seemed tense for a while, but the Spaniard had complete confidence. "In the last kilometer, I knew the victory was mine."

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Williams suffers bad luck at worst moment: "That's life"

Someone who was less fortunate was Stephen Williams. The defending champion crashed just before the final climb. "It was a bit of a shit fight all day," he told his team. "I came down in a crash just before the climb. It was just a touch of wheels and I came down. Then I tried to recompose and come back and I was alright."

But the Brit had to chase. "But, I just didn’t have the minerals on the climb and I fell behind. It’s not ideal but so is life and we have three more days to try and be good." Williams sees the stage to Willunga Hill as one where he can perform well. "Hopefully we can jump back from this and try and be good for the rest of the race."

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