By no means a procession stage, there were points, placings and pride at stake on this
90km race on the streets of Adelaide. 20 laps of a 4.5km circuit, featuring 2 intermediate
sprints and further bonuses at the finish line. Would BMC try an audacious move to try
and jump Richie Porte into the ochre jersey on the final day? Only one way to find out
- here are the highlights. Some fast racing was on the cards on another
hot day in Adelaide, and several riders were trying to escape in the early laps. Nothing
really stuck until lap 5 though, when EF- Drapac’s Logan Owen, Truls Korsaeth of Astana
and Laurent Didier of Trek-Segafredo found some space. The first intermediate sprint
of the day was at the end of the 8th lap - this trio had about a minute’s advantage by that
point, but the move broke up almost as quickly as it formed - Owen was left to go alone - Korsaeth
seemingly had a mechanical. As Owen took 3 bonus seconds, Korsaeth’s teammate Luis
Leon Sanchez got up for 2nd and Didier’s teammate Ruben Guerreiro took 3rd. Tactics
clearly at play here, with a shrewd eye on the overall standings - Sanchez and Guerreiro
jumped into the top 10 on GC thanks to those time bonuses.
Ben O’Connor from Dimension Data was able to bridge across and join Owen up front soon
after. The first KOM of the day, the fairly unimposing Montefiore Hill, was taken by O’Connor
- no need to flick through the scoresheet this time - O’Connor’s teammate Nicholas
Dlamini had done more than enough on previous days to secure the polka dot jersey.
This duo were clearly working well together, and they were in fact expanding their lead
over the peloton - 2 minutes is a fair bit of time on a circuit like this, and they stayed
away until the 2nd intermediate sprint at the end of lap 12, with O’Connor taking
it from Owen and Antoine Duchesne, out on his own between the break and the bunch.
The lap times were starting to pick up, with speeds approaching 45km/h as Lotto Soudal
and Mitchelton-Scott controlled the pace in the main group.
Duchesne was found by the peloton on the 15th time up Montefiore Hill, and 10km later so
too were O’Connor and Owen. A crash on on the final lap held up Daan Oliver,
Chris Lawless and Truls Korsaeth, but it wasn't long before they were back on their bikes
again. Teams were struggling to control the front of the race, and a scrambled final sprint
saw Elia Viviani exposed and sprinting early, overtaken by Caleb Ewan, who looked strong
until the last handful of metres, before Andre Greipel hit the headwind late and took an
18th Tour Down Under stage win by a fraction of a wheel.
The 35 year old clearly still has plenty of wins in him - a bit of experience goes a long
way in cycling. Greipel: I would say experience helps a lot
when you do 20 laps and you can see every time the final. You always can adapt and try
to speak with your teammates and make it possible and that’s what we did. We didn’t want
to make a full lead out. We just wanted to keep the position and it worked out perfectly.
Crossing the line safely in the pack, the man happiest to have finished 36th is Daryl
Impey - he avoided any final stage drama to take the third overall victory of his career. He was
on the receiving end of some heartfelt congratulations from team owner Gerry Ryan at the finish.
Impey: Coming into the race I didn't expect to win the race but sometimes the stars
line up and everything goes well and according to plan. I worked really hard in the off season
so happy to get this win and especially the win goes to my family in South Africa to Ali
and the kids. They have sacrificed a lot to get me here today.
Here are your final standings in the general classification. Richie Porte ousted into 2nd
by the most slender of margins, with 2013 winner Tom-Jelte Slagter returning to the
podium in 3rd. Sanchez and Guerreiro sneaking into the top 10 thanks to their bonus seconds
earned today. With the race done and dusted, lets review
the rest of the classifications. Peter Sagan takes the green points jersey, but as you
can see, all the big sprinters had their day in some way or another at this race.
He was in the breakaway 4 stages out of 6 in his first WorldTour race - Nicholas Dlamini
certainly earned the polka dot jersey for the king of the mountains classification.
Matt tipped him in our WorldTour newcomers video - Egan Bernal comes away from his first
race of the season with 6th overall and the white jersey for best young rider.
And Bahrain-Merida placed 3 riders inside the top 15 on GC, which was a big part in
them winning the teams classification. That’s all from the Tour Down Under, a fantastic
race this year with 5 different stage winners and a GC that couldn’t have been closer.
Give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed our coverage, we hope to bring you more race reports in
the near future, so stay tuned to GCN for those. For more videos, how about reliving
yesterday’s amazing stage up Willunga Hill here, or for Jon Cannings asking the pros
about their worst mechanical disasters, click here.