mmg.com.au

Shepparton professional cyclist Brett Lancaster displayed his versatility by snatching third place via a rare sprint finish in stage two of the Tour of Catalonia on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old is regarded as a fine domestique, but with Orica-GreenEDGE teammates Michael Matthews and Allan Davis not fit to start and Christian Meier worn out from an unsuccessful breakaway, Lancaster was the main man.

Lancaster finished behind Belgian rider and stage one winner Gianni Meersman and Italian Daniele Ratto in the the 160.7km ride from Girona to Banyuls, but he told Orica-GreenEDGE website greenedgecycling.com he considered it a missed opportunity.

“Third is okay, but the sprint will run through my head a million times because I know I should have gone earlier,” Lancaster said.

‘‘I was feeling good, and my teammates had set me up in fourth position ... (but) I haven’t sprinted for myself in quite a long time.

‘‘It was just that 20m or fraction of a second that I waited, and (Daniele Ratto of) Cannondale saw me step out.

‘‘He stepped into me, I clipped his wheel and it curbed my speed.

‘‘It gave a few guys time to get a jump on me, and I couldn’t quite get them back.

‘‘The team set me up perfectly, it was no-one’s fault but my own what happened at the end.’’

The lead trio also benefited from a crash on the final bend, which impacted several contenders for the stage win.

Meier remains well and truly in the hunt for the sprint jersey and Lancaster praised the efforts of his teammates so far.

‘‘(Christian) has won all the intermediate sprints so far, so we’ll just need to pick up a few points here or there for him to keep (the sprint jersey),’’ he said.

‘‘If he manages to get in one more breakaway, he’ll take out that jersey for sure.’’

A resident of Girona, Lancaster said he felt right at home on the road to Banyuls.

‘‘I know every kilometre of (road) we raced on (on Tuesday), we definitely enjoyed a bit of home town advantage,’’ he said.

‘‘I had my wife and kids at the finish line, she pulled them out of school to watch me race.

‘‘It would have been fantastic to have them see me get the win even though I know they were happy to get to see me at all.’’

The tour finishes in Barcelona on Sunday.