Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) held off Australian sprint ace Caleb Ewan (National Team) to take out the 149.9km stage on Wednesday, in unusually mild conditions for January.

Fellow Australian Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) finished third and also picked up time bonuses in the intermediate sprints as he hunts the overall title.

A crash with 1km left in the high-speed finish split the bunch.

Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma) was the worst off when several riders crashed at 24km to go, with the Dutch rider hitting his head heavily on the road.

His team later announced he had withdrawn from the race.

French rider Nans Peters (Ag2r) launched a solo attack early in the stage and the peloton was happy to let him go.

He was caught as the pace ramped up for the second intermediate sprint, at 97.8km.

Just as that happened, a crash at the back of the peloton took out several riders including Austrian Herman Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious) and Dutchman Sjoerd Bax (UAE Team Emirates), whose jersey was shredded at the back.

Matthews was runner-up in the second sprint behind New Zealand’s Corbin Strong (Israel Premier Tech), meaning the Australian star picked up two bonus seconds.

In the 22 editions of the tour, eight of them have been decided by three seconds or less, so bonus seconds are always vital.

New Zealand rider Patrick Bevin (Team DSM) pulled out of the tour on Wednesday after he crashed during Saturday’s street race.

– AAP