Finn Fisher-Black ended his first race with his new Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team on Sunday, and despite not pulling off an audacious bid to try and move another notch up the GC ranks, the rider from New Zealand confirmed “we delivered on everything” related to overall objectives.
For a start, the team’s sprinter, Sam Welsford, just cleaned up his third stage win of the Tour. For himself, Fisher-Black put himself up to third overall with a massive surge on Willunga Hill on Saturday.
“The meeting before the race was to go for a podium in GC and stage wins with Sam so I think we can be really happy with the week,” said Fisher-Black. “We delivered on everything we set out to do so I’m super happy, a perfect start with the team.”
Standing on the podium steps alongside race winner Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates) and second-placed Javier Romo (Movistar) meant the 23-year-old had just clinched his first WorldTour-level GC podium. Still, he tried hard during stage 6 to move it up another notch, given Romo was just three seconds ahead while Narvaez had 12 seconds up his sleeve.
“I thought a second was maybe in reach. I think the win was pretty far gone, unless I really pulled out a ride. But I gave it a go to try and get some seconds, to get away from the bunch and bridge across to the breakaway on the second sprint,” said Fisher-Black.
If he’d done so, the three-second time bonus that goes to the intermediate sprint winner could have been in reach.
“But the gap was just too big,” said the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider, who was tackling his third Tour Down Under. ”We didn’t want to close it [the gap] too much, because it would open the race too much so we brought it down to 20 seconds, and then I tried to jump.
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“Gave it a go and couldn’t quite do it, so has to be third.”
Third on stage 3, third on stage 6 and third overall in his third time racing the Tour Down Under.
