Defending cycling Tour champion hurt in race crash

Tour Down Under defending champion Stevie Williams has been hurt in a race crash during the pivotal third stage.

The British cyclist, the No.1 rider for the Israel Premier Tech team, was limping immediately after Thursday’s crash and was nursing cuts on an elbow and knee as he returned to the peloton.

The crash happened in the feed zone with about 60km left in the 147.6km stage from suburban Norwood to Uraidla in the Adelaide Hills.

While Williams was in clear discomfort immediately after the crash, he was quickly on a spare bike and his teammates helped pace him back into the race.

After riding brilliantly to set up Williams for the overall title last year in the Santos Tour, they have sent a strong team again.

Williams is expected to be among the key players when the six-day Tour reaches its first key landmark, the 2.6km Knotts Hill climb close to the finish.

The Tour has never gone up the tough climb in its 25-year history and the riders will also navigate Knotts Hill earlier in the stage.

There is speculation that stage three will be even more decisive than Saturday’s Queen stage, featuring the iconic summit finish at Willunga Hill.

There was some rain on Thursday, but not enough to cause too many problems for the riders.

Young Australian rider Fergus Browning (ARA National team) was again in the day’s breakaway as he shores up his lead in the king of the mountain category.

He and French rider Geoffrey Bouchard (Decathlon AG2R) had stayed away since early in the stage, but were never being allowed to extend their advantage beyond a couple of minutes.

There is no chance they will survive to the finish.

Equally, Australian sprint ace Sam Welsford (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) will lose his overall lead on Thursday after winning the first two stages.

But Red Bull also have New Zealander Finn Fisher-Black as an overall contender.