Richie Porte won stage 5 of the Santos Tour Down Under on Saturday atop Old Willunga Hill. Porte (Sky) attacked on the finish climb to a solo victory in the 151-kilometer leg from McLaren Vale.
Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) was second and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) was third, both 10 seconds behind the Tasmanian winner.
With a time bonus at the line after dropping overnight leader Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) high up on the finish climb, Gerrans, who entered the day second overall, took the overall leader’s jersey ahead of the final stage. Gerrans leads Evans by just one second, with Ulissi third overall, at five seconds.
“The guys were absolutely incredible today. … I felt great today. The team had a plan and the boys were absolutely great today,” said Porte. “To win on this climb in Australian is very special.”
After chasing Porte early on the Old Willunga Hill climb, Evans lost contact with Gerrans and Ulissi late. The 2012 Tour de France champion finished sixth, at 14 seconds.
“I could see Cadel was nervous there because he’d done a lot of work,” said Gerrans. “We jumped and he wasn’t able to go.”
Four men rode away into the long breakaway early in Saturday’s stage: Jens Voigt (Trek Factory Racing), Mikhail Ignatyev (Katusha), Juan José Lobato (Movistar), and Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). The group’s advantage, which extended to nearly nine minutes, was below five minutes with 80km remaining.
After contributing to the pace-making early in the stage, Evans’ BMC Racing team, which was satisfied to allow the breakaway to survive and eat up the time bonuses on offer at the finish, gave way to Sky and Orica.
With 50km to go, the gap was down to 2:10 — enough of an advantage to eliminate the stage’s second intermediate sprint (and the three seconds on offer) — but the foursome’s lead great to more than three minutes over the next 10km. The escape rode onto the first of two trips up Old Willunga Hill with less than 90 seconds on the peloton.
Lobato dropped off the pace low on the climb and, soon after, Ignatiev attacked, dropping Trentin. Voigt followed the Russian, the Italian chased back on, and the leaders were three with 25km remaining.
Garmin-Sharp led the peloton onto the climb, pushing through two Omega Pharma man hounding the front of the bunch. Ruben Plaza (Movistar) attacked, drawing out Wesley Sulzberger (Drapac), but not drawing a reaction from Lachlan Morton (Garmin) at the head of the peloton.
With 1km to the summit (23km to the finish), the leaders held 25 seconds over Plaza and Sulzberger and 40 seconds on the bunch. Voigt led the breakaway over the top of the climb.
The two chasers gave way to the peloton when Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) and Axel Domont (Ag2r La Mondiale) attacked to fight for the mountains jersey. With 20km to go, Voigt, Ignatiev, and Trentin clung to a half-minute advantage.
Behind them, Orica and Lotto organized and upped the pace in the peloton. Ignatiev soon dropped off the pace at the front, leaving Voigt and Trentin with a roughly 10-second lead and 17km still to go. With 15km to go, the leaders were finished and the race reset for the loop back to the foot of the finish climb.
The tension did nothing but rise over the descent from Old Willunga, with German champion André Greipel (Lotto) and Matthew Goss (Orica) among the riders driving the pace. Perhaps 30 riders remained in the bunch and Lotto’s Jürgen Roelandts rolled off the front in his super tuck. Roelandts drifted back and a regrouping saw roughly 40 riders together with 9km to go. But no fewer than three BMC Racing riders were caught out in the split and Orica pushed hard at the head of the front group, leaving Evans with just two teammates.
Voigt again attacked with 7.5km to go, pushing ahead alone. With 5km to go, the 42-year-old German was grinding it out with a 10-second lead.
With 3.5km to go, Greipel led the chase just five seconds behind his countryman Voigt. When the Evans group turned onto the foot of the climb it rode past Voigt and BMC Racing took to the front. The acceleration caught Gerrans out and the two-time race winner had to chase across a small gap with 2.8km remaining.
Richie Porte (Sky), in third wheel, followed Evans, who sat behind teammate Brent Bookwalter.
Evans and Porte countered an attack by Bernie Sulzberger (Drapac), but the overall leader was unable to handle the pace. Evans chased, but Porte began putting road between himself and the former Tour de France champion with 1.5km to go. Porte pushed onto the upper reaches of the climb out of the saddle, Evans chasing alone. With 1km to go, the gap was over 10 seconds.
Gerrans and Ulissi rode across to Evans inside the final kilometer, but the pace-making was the responsibility of the ocre-jerseyed BMC Racing captain. Evans faltered late, allowing his two companions to leave him in the final 250 meters.
The Santos Tour Down Under wraps up Sunday with the 18-lap, 85km stage 6 circuit race in Adelaide.
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