Time for another certain shakeup in the General Classification today.
The destination on Stage 5 was Old Willunga Hill, the most fearsome climb in the Tour
Down Under which would be tackled twice inside the last 30km of today’s stage.
By the end of it, we will almost certainly know who has won this race overall.
The fight to get in the early breakaway was once again a fraught and frantic affair.
After 12km of counter attacking, a selection of familiar faces made the decisive split.
They were Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal, Will Clarke of Cannondale-Drapac and Quickstep
Floors’ Jack Bauer. They were eventually joined by Jeremy Maison of FDJ.
Bauer was particularly pleased to have another rider to share the workload.
BMC Racing Team took to the task of controlling the early pace as we circumnavigated 3 ‘big’
laps heading out towards the coast and along Aldinga beach, while the other teams with
GC aspirations kept an eye on things a little further back.
Light winds on course made for a fairly sedate first couple of hours.
The quartet out front were kept on a 2 minute leash for the majority of that time, with
the first intermediate sprint points at km 63 mopped up by Maison, Clarke and De Gendt
in that order.
The crowds were once again out in force, and things finally started to kick into action
on the last of the 3 big circuits just beyond the feed zone and the final intermediate sprint at 103km.
The break had begun to get their heads down and started raising the tempo as we moved inland
from the coast to start the two finishing circuits containing the formidable Willunga Hill.
Thomas De Gendt was at the head of affairs, wearing the polka-dotted king of the mountains jersey.
His main objective was to stay ahead for at just a little longer - 10 points at the top
of the climb this time round would put him in a great position to keep on top of that
classification for the remainder of the race.
As we begun Willunga Hill for the first time, it wasn’t long before Will Clarke, a stocky
man by pro cyclist standards, was dropped on the lower slopes with De Gendt now pushing
the pace in pursuit of those KOM points.
He got exactly what he wanted, as he, Maison and Bauer reached the top with a 1’55” lead over
the peloton, lead by the BMC duo of Damiano Caruso and Rohan Dennis.
A rapid descent ensued as they looped round for the final circuit, and with Team Sky adding
some serious horsepower to the chase, things were looking bleak for the escapees as the
race barrelled through McLaren Vale towards what would be a thrilling summit finish.
In fact, the catch was made before the the foot of the climb with 5km to go.
Bauer wasn’t quite done for the day, however, as he managed a final turn on the front of
the Quickstep train to lead the main group into the bottom of the climb.
But soon it was Sebastian Henao leading brother Sergio up the climb, which quickly made a
selection containing Chaves, Porte, McCarthy, Valls and Pozzovivo.
Just as Michael Woods made the bridge, a touch of wheels caused a momentary split, and a
few seconds later Porte launched his signature Willunga Hill attack.
It’s worked for him in the past, in fact he has 3 consecutive victories on this particular
stage and was making a strong bid for a 4th.
As soon as Sergio Henao sat back in his
saddle, it was game over.
There was no chance of catching the Tasmanian as he powered his way to a deserved 2nd stage
win of the week and importantly strengthened his grip on the overall classification.
Here’s your top three, and Nathan Haas, who nowhere to be seen further down the climb,
recovered to take an excellent 2nd place 20 seconds behind Porte, leading home Chaves,
Diego Ulissi and Jay McCarthy.
Richie Porte: I’ll tell you what, that hurt more than the other three that I have won up here.
I went from quite a long way out and it’s just incredible team work today and I'm just
happy to finish it off for the guys.
It would take some serious misfortune to topple the BMC man from the top of the leaderboard now.
Chaves steps up to 2nd, while Nathan Haas finds the podium after a stellar ride today.
Gorka Izaguirre dropped down the standings after a rough day.
The injuries he sustained in a crash on Stage 3 were no doubt taking their toll.
Join us tomorrow for the 6th and final stage of the Tour Down Under - last chance for the
sprinters on a 90km circuit race around Adelaide.
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If you want to relive the very first time Richie tasted victory on Willunga Hill, we
covered it back in 2014.
And if you want to improve your times up short climbs, we’ve got some training sessions for you.