The undulating 132 kilometres stage from Unley to Stirling provided ample opportunities for breakaways to form, with Thomas De Gendt, Manuele Boaro, Yoann Offredo and Patrick Lane escaping in the opening stages of the first event of this year's International Cycling Union WorldTour.

The most dangerous attack of the day coming from Australia’s Adam Hansen as the home favourite attacked the bunch approaching the 30km mark.

His heroic individual ride, lasting 80km, came to an end as the peloton began to jostle for an ideal position leading into the sprint finish.

Ysterday’s winner Caleb Ewan, however, was dropped on a climb.

Several other contenders for the stage win also saw their hopes dashed by a crash in the final metres of the race, including Orica-GreenEdge’s Simon Gerrans.

Fellow Australian, McCarthy, was able to avoid the accident and came through to take the victory in a time of 3 hours 26min 40sec, finishing ahead of Italy’s Diego Ulissi and defending Tour Down Under champion Rohan Dennis of Australia.

“I’ve done this stage for a few years now so we certainly had a plan,” said McCarthy.

“This year coming into this race I was in very good shape and before the start today I was hoping to be given a chance.

“The team supported me fully and I’m also given a chance to go for general classification this week as well.”

Following the stage win, McCarthy has a four second advantage over Ulissi in the overall standings, although three-time winner Gerrans and defending champion Dennis are well placed at five and six seconds back, respectively.

Racing is due to continue tomorrow with stage three seeing the peloton tackle a 139km route from Glenelg to Campbelltown, with a late climb likely to cause a flurry of attacks.