South African Daryl Impey sits in tenth position, 22seconds off the pace, following stage three of the Santos Tour Down Under.

Today’s journey from Norwood to Paracombe was touted as a crucial day the general classification standings and didn’t disappoint.

Impey position well at the bottom of the tough final climb and battled to 18th position, 18seconds behind Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) who took out the stage and moved into the leaders jersey.

“It could have been worse, it could have been a little bit better,” sport director Matt White said of ORICA-GreenEDGE’s day on the road.

“On a steep climb like that things can get away for you pretty quickly and pretty easily.”

Despite the challenge, White said it is still possible for Impey to move up and fight for the podium position.

“If we are going to move up in some way on general classification we are going to need bonus points,” white said.

“All of the guys in front of Daryl are not sprinter type riders but there are some strong guys up there and that stage today will define GC (general classification) for sure.”

The day featured a breakaway of four riders; Calvin Watson (Trek Factory Racing), William Clarke (Drapac Cycling), Lasse Norman Hansen (Cannondale-Garmin) and Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale).

The quartet escaped in the first ten kilometres of racing and their advantage hovered around 3-4minutes for most of the day.  One by one, the group diminish, back together for the final battle up Paracombe.

Tomorrow, stage four starts in Glenelg and travels 144.5km to Mount Barker. The day’s classified climb at Gellicks Hill features within the first 50km but the final 50km also presents some tougher sections. Two intermediate sprints will be contested at the 90km and 117km points.