Elia Viviani called it and Patrick Bevin duly delivered, with the New Zealand cyclist pulling off the biggest win of his career.
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The two-time NZ time trial champion avoided a big crash inside the last kilometre to win stage two of the Tour Down Under.
Wednesday's win at Angaston in the Barossa also put Bevin into the lead, five seconds ahead of Viviani.
After winning stage one, Viviani predicted that the pure sprinters could struggle on the 700m uphill finish at Angaston.
The crash split the field and the reduced group that contested the sprint included the usual suspects - Viviani, Australian sprint ace Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan.
Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez hit out with a long attack, but he only became the springboard for Bevin's surge.
Bevin then held off Ewan at the line for his first WorldTour win, with Sagan third and Viviani seventh.
"I love the Tour Down Under, it's always been a great race to me and to put a WorldTour win on the board is huge," Bevin said.
"They're so hard to come by and it was such a great way to do it."
It is understood none of the overall contenders, such as Richie Porte, Daryl Impey, Wout Poels or Michael Woods, were hurt in the crash.
No-one lost time on the general classification because the crash happened within 3km of the finish.
The 122km stage was shortened by 27km because of Adelaide's heat wave.
While the temperature reached the high 30s, cloud cover meant it was not quite the 40-degree furnace that was feared.
Bevin showed he had come to Adelaide with strong form when he was a part of Tuesday's opening breakaway.
His win is a big morale boost for the CCC Team, which has been formed in the wake of the demise of the powerful BMC squad that had Porte as its Tour de France leader.
While Ewan said he did not have the legs at the finish, his result was also encouraging after he and his new Lotto-Soudal team were caught out in the stage-one finish.
Porte, now at Trek-Segafredo, will make his first bid for overall honours in Thursday's third stage in the Adelaide Hills.
The temperature is forecast to ease slightly for the 146.2km stage, which will feature six laps of a tough circuit at Uraidla.
Bevin is the underdog for the overall win, but he is up for the fight.
"It's a long week and we've had the two easy days," he said.
"Tomorrow's tough - this is my fourth time at Down Under and it's the toughest stage I've done (here).
"But I feel like now we're in a great position to box on for the next four stages."
Australian Associated Press
