Stage 5 of the Tour Down Under is often where the overall classification is decided, and
with 33 riders sitting within 14 seconds of race leader Peter Sagan, we were set for a
very close finish. The destination today was Willunga Hill, a 3km climb averaging 7.5%,
The riders would tackle it twice inside the final 20km after 3 big loops around McLaren
Vale and Aldinga beach. For that reason it’s Richie Porte who comes into the stage as favourite.
He’s attacked, and won on this climb for the last 4 consecutive years. His rivals will
have a good idea when he will make his move today - it’s just a case of whether anyone
is strong enough to follow him.
What a difference a day makes - with a temperature drop of around 15ºC in the space of 24 hours,,
conditions were much more comfortable for the riders as they set off, and
there were several riders who were up for the day’s early breakaway. After a neutral
zone of just 500m, 7 riders launched off the front.
The largest break of week so far quickly settled into a rhythm which gave them a lead that
stabilised around the 4 minute mark inside the first hour of racing. A nasty crash for
Movistar’s Nuno Bico could’ve ended his day, but he got bandaged up and soon enough
was back in the 7 man group.
The first objective was to build enough of a buffer to stay away at least until the first
time up Willunga Hill, and they didn’t break focus at the first intermediate sprint of
the day at Snapper Point. Trek-Segafredo’s Fumiyuki Beppu took the points without disturbing
the paceline. 82km covered in two hours equated to a brisk pace thanks in some part
to the South-Easterly wind, with the time gap to the peloton barely moving from about
3 and a half minutes.
But, with a peloton containing many riders with overall ambitions, it was time to step
on the pace, with seasoned breakaway expert Thomas De Gendt pulling the break over the 2nd and
final intermediate sprint of the day. UAE Emirates had joined BMC at the front of the
peloton, and the lead for the breakaway was falling fast as we begun the first ascent
of Willunga Hill. The group slowly started to disperse on the steep lower slopes,
But De Gendt, and King Of The Mountains leader Nicholas Dlamini pushed on to the summit.
Any sort of points for Dlamini would mathematically secure the King of the Mountains jersey. He
thought he’d taken the maximum of 16 here...what he didn’t realise was that the official
finish of the KOM was 150m down the road, which De Gendt accidentally claimed as he
forged on with a solo move. Fortunately, the Dimension Data neo pro still found enough
points to secure the polka dot jersey. De Gendt has been in countless breakaways
in his time - this is in fact his 5th time in the escape on stages featuring Willunga
Hill - but it was always going to be hard to keep the peloton at bay. He was caught
as the race barrelled along the flat towards Willunga again. The front group now reduced
to only about 30 riders as we started to climb one last time.
Peter Sagan had held on admirably to the leaders until he popped with
1.7km to go. A couple of hundred metres later, and the Richie Porte show was about to begin.
He jumped with a trademark opening attack that only Jay McCarthy could follow. Just
as the tempo eased slightly, the reigning champion accelerated again which was enough
to crack his compatriot McCarthy - he darted away for yet another victory on Willunga Hill.
But now came a nervous wait to see if he’d done enough to clinch the leader’s jersey.
We thought the rest of the field had been blown away, but blitzing down the finish straight
came Daryl Impey, giving everything until the line, and it was just as well that he
did. Finishing with exactly the same overall time as Porte, Impey takes the ochre jersey
on countback, having placed higher up on the individual stage rankings.
IMPEY: I am stoked. I cant believe it. I put in a lot of work for this race but never thought I'd be
to be in the leaders jersey. It's fantastic for an Australian team
so to deliver like this with the help of the team it's just magical
PORTE: I must give credit to my team. they were fantastic today as always.
Rohan Dennis layed it all on the line for me. I think it's probably the hardest time I have
done this climb. it really hurt today.
But of course there is one stage still to go, so can Richie still win? If time bonuses
and the now crucial countback go his way, it’s still possible. But as Impey has shown
this week, he’s perhaps the better sprinter on paper. We’ll have to wait and see what
stage 6 brings for us. Definitely one for the fast men - 20 laps around an Adelaide
street circuit is on the cards, join us tomorrow, when we might have managed to finally work
out the countback rule. Give this video a like if you enjoyed it,
and give us your predictions for tomorrow in the comments below. Check out the highlights
from yesterday’s stage here, another nail-biter, and for 7 WorldTour newcomers to watch in
2018, click here.