Caleb Ewan's third win in the Down Under Classic is the perfect start to his new cycling era.
The Australian sprint ace avoided a crash on the last lap that took out Italian star Elia Viviani on the last lap in Adelaide.
Ewan then outsprinted three-time world champion Peter Sagan, who won last year's event.
It is a big year for the 24-year-old, who has left the Australian Mitchelton-Scott team to be the leader at Belgian squad Lotto-Soudal.
Ewan started the year by winning two races in Victoria's Bay Crits series, but this is the first time he has ridden with a full team lineup against a top-level field.
It is a significant boost ahead of this week's Tour Down Under, which starts on Tuesday.
"This is probably the most important one (Classic win), just to get the confidence of the team and it's also me being confident with the team," Ewan said.
"They did a perfect job ... it's such a good feeling.
"I'm super happy with how my form is and I couldn't have asked for a better start.
"It's the first time I've raced with the full team like this, so to start with the win is a good feeling."
Ewan said the crash that took out Viviani happened behind him.
It is understood the Deceucinck-Quick Step rider was not hurt seriously.
Ewan's former Mitchelton-Scott teammate Alex Edmondson finished third ahead of German Roger Kluge, who is the main leadout rider at Lotto-Soudal.
"On a course like this with the four corners every lap, it's hard to stay together ... but the team stayed very composed," Ewan said.
"I always stayed with Roger and he delivered me perfectly in the end."
There were constant attacks in the hour-long lap and Ewan, the 2016 and '17 winner, said it was a tougher classic than normal.
"I knew it was going to be a hard one to win, because of the calibre of sprinter here," he said.
"I went into it confident, because I know my form is good, but you never know how everyone else is going.
"It was a bit different to normal, it was very aggressive this race, so it made it a little bit harder."
The race started a couple of hours early because of broadcast commitments and the late-afternoon heat meant a much smaller crowd than usual.
Sunday was the start of a heatwave that will extend to the first two Tour stages.
Race organisers announced on Sunday that stage two to Angaston on Wednesday will be shortened because of the forecast 40-plus conditions.
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