TDU: Porte wins key stage to keep jersey

On a day the climbers came out to play Australian Richie Porte showed them how it’s done claiming his fourth straight win on Willunga Hill and locking up his first Santos Tour Down Under crown.

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TDU: Porte wins key stage to keep jersey
Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo 

On a day the climbers came out to play Australian Richie Porte showed them how it’s done claiming his fourth straight win on Willunga Hill and locking up his first Santos Tour Down Under crown.

In a precisely timed attack the overnight race leader executed what has become his signature jump to soften up the opposition on the final ascent of BikeExchange Stage 5. It did the job because when he pounced again his rivals could do little more than watch him ride away.

Although Porte began the day saying the stage win was not his priority there was no doubt that, as the form climber in the race, he was favourite to be first over the line after the 151 kilometre race through the vineyards and coastal holiday beaches of the McLaren Vale wine growing region. Of the 125 thousand fans who flocked to the stage many set up in their preferred viewing position hours in advance and thousands took advantage of the glorious weather to ride from point to point on the course.

But it is the ascent of Willunga Hill that attracts the diehard fans who clamber for the best view and weren’t disappointed. “I’ll tell you what, that hurt more than the other three that I’ve rode up here,” said Porte after crossing the line alone, in a time of 3:40.13, 20 seconds ahead of Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) who pipped Colombian Esteban Chaves (ORICA-SCOTT) in the sprint for second place. “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”.

“That street circuit in Adelaide it’s not easy (and) anything can happen there,” said Porte who extended his lead from 20 seconds to 48 seconds. “I’m happy with where I am at the moment. I’ve put some good time into the other guys and you know I think it will make tomorrow feel a little bit more relaxed for us.”

The performance of Porte this week is a confidence boost after his 2016 season came to a premature end when he crashed during the road race at the Rio Olympic Games and fractured his shoulder blade. However he has made the most of his time off the bike and trained well for this week’s return to racing. “This is not an easy climb so to win it… it’s great for morale,” said Porte. “Obviously for me the biggest goal this year is July (and the) Tour de France but things are going well.”

The effort of Haas to lead the best of the rest across the line moved him up to third overall while Chaves has moved up to second. “It was very hard today, but it was also very beautiful,” said Chaves whose popularity is evidenced by his growing legion of Australian fans. “It was like the Tour de France on the climb. It is so nice to hear people yelling your name.

“We tried to split the bunch at the bottom with Sky, but that was not possible,” said Chaves of the pace set in the approach to the final climb. “When Richie attacked the first time, I could go with him. On the second attack, it was too hard, and I could not follow. “I am second and I am very happy with the start of the season,” said Chaves who was promoted one place in part due to misfortune for Gorka Izaguirre.

The Spaniard from the Movistar team started the day ranked second but was still suffering the effects of his crash on the stage into Victor Harbor. “The pain from my injuries finally caught up with me,” said Izaguirre. “I made it OK through yesterday but that was not a hard stage and I knew after the first passage up Willunga that it would not be easy.

“I tried to hang out, but when the attacks came, it was too much.” He struggled to stay in touch on the final climb finishing almost two minutes behind Porte and effectively surrendering his place on the podium. “It’s a shame to lose the podium, but that is bike racing,” he said.

Haas claimed a six second time bonus on the line which meant he overtook fellow compatriot Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) to move into third overall. “I cannot believe what I’ve just done,” said an thrilled Haas. “I wanted to see if I could go with the first acceleration because it was a headwind. I thought I made a big mistake by letting myself explode. “I am so proud of what me and my team did today. I race until the straps come off and second is better than third,” said Haas. “Hat’s off to Richie (Porte), because what he did today was so impressive.”

Meantime McCarthy was ruing his bad luck “Someone swung out, and took out my front wheel, and I had to unclip,” said McCarthy. “It was the worst-possible place for that to happen and I had to almost come to a complete stop. “It took me awhile to get going again and I could not follow the first attacks,” he explained. “I really fought back and I almost caught (fourth placed Diego) Ulissi at the line (but) I had to fight with everything I had to come back.

“It’s a shame not to have had a clean run on the climb,” he said. “The legs are good and I owe it to my team to keep racing tomorrow for the time bonuses. It’s not like the final stage of the Tour de France. We will keep fighting.”

Earlier in the day as the race director dropped the flag to signal a start to racing Julien Berard (AG2R La Mondiale) and Will Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac) launched the first attack of the day and were soon joined by Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) and Arnaud Courteille (FDJ). The quartet set off at a good pace and by the time they contested the first of the two iiNet Intermediate Sprints of the day at Snapper Point (63km) they had established a handy lead.

Maison edged Clarke for top points with De Gendt third. Fifty kilometres later it was De Gendt who picked up the maximum bonus ahead of Bauer and Clarke. The leaders hit the bottom of the Willunga climb for the first time with a gap of 2:30 to the peloton that had been riding tempo to keep them close enough to catch when the time came. De Gendt had started the stage wearing the polka dot jersey of Subaru King of the Mountain because he was sitting second behind Porte for climbing honours and Porte was sporting the Santos Ochre Leaders livery.

In a bid to pull clear of Porte the Belgian wanted to score the maximum points over the summit at Willunga and he did that with Bauer second and Maison third. But any hopes the leaders had of a stage celebration were soon dashed as Team SKY and ORICA-SCOTT combined forces to try and split the field and hunt down the escapees. They made the catch five kilometres from the mountain top finish line.

Stage 5
1 PORTE Richie 23 BMC 03:40:13
2 HAAS Nathan DDD 20
3 CHAVES Johan Esteban ORS ST
4 ULISSI Diego UAD ST
5 MCCARTHY Jay BOH ST
6 EARLE Nathan AUS 23
7 VALLS Rafael LTS ST
8 HENAO Sergio Luis SKY ST
9 GESINK Robert TLJ ST
10 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte CDT ST
11 KELDERMAN Wilco SUN ST
12 DENNIS Rohan BMC ST
13 *RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan KAT 28
14 *EIKING Odd Christian FDJ 32
15 HERRADA Jesus MOV ST
16 *STORER Michael AUS 35
17 VISCONTI Giovanni TBM 39
18 CINK Ondrej TBM 40
19 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon AST ST
20 POZZOVIVO Domenico ALM 44
21 *GUERREIRO Ruben TFS 46
22 PANTANO Jarlinson TFS 01:00
23 *HAMILTON Lucas AUS 01:01
24 *HINDLEY Jai AUS ST
25 GONCALVES José KAT ST
26 *HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian SKY ST
27 WOODS Michael CDT ST
28 *O’CONNOR Ben DDD 01:09
29 DEVENYNS Dries QST ST
30 DE LA PARTE Victor MOV ST
31 STETINA Peter TFS 01:22
32 LAMMERTINK Maurits KAT ST
33 BIDARD Francois ALM ST
34 BRAMBILLA Gianluca QST 01:25
35 *SOLER GIMENEZ Marc MOV 01:33
36 *MAS Enric QST ST
37 *VERMEULEN Alexey TLJ 01:44
38 HERRADA LOPEZ Jose MOV 01:50
39 IZAGUIRRE Gorka MOV ST
40 ARMEE Sander LTS ST
41 ROUX Anthony FDJ ST
42 VAKOC Petr QST ST
43 BAKELANTS Jan ALM ST
44 BRAJKOVIC Janez TBM 02:00
45 BAUER Jack QST 02:10
46 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Jacques DDD 02:18
47 TIRALONGO Paolo AST 02:25
48 SWIFT Ben UAD ST
49 DIDIER Laurent TFS ST
50 CARUSO Damiano BMC 02:54
51 GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam TBM ST
52 ELISSONDE Kenny SKY 03:20
53 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ ST
54 *MUHLBERGER Gregor BOH ST
55 GERRANS Simon ORS 03:31
56 IMPEY Daryl ORS ST
57 MEYER Cameron AUS ST
58 MACHADO Tiago KAT 03:36
59 GASTAUER Ben ALM 03:58
60 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM ST
61 BEVIN Patrick CDT 04:05
62 THOMAS Geraint SKY ST
63 MORI Manuele UAD ST
64 HANSEN Adam LTS 04:14
65 WYSS Danilo BMC 05:00
66 *HOFSTEDE Lennard SUN 05:12
67 PLANCKAERT Baptiste KAT 05:56
68 BYSTROM Sven Erik KAT ST
69 SUTTERLIN Jasha MOV 05:58
70 BAK Lars Ytting LTS ST
71 MARTENS Paul TLJ ST
72 *HAMILTON Chris SUN 06:28
73 GESCHKE Simon SUN ST
74 VENTER Jaco DDD 06:35
75 MEINTJES Louis UAD ST
76 DE GENDT Thomas LTS ST
77 LAENGEN Vegard Stake UAD ST
78 MARCATO Marco UAD 06:37
79 CAPECCHI Eros QST ST
80 VICIOSO Angel KAT ST
81 SAGAN Peter BOH 06:41
82 ARASHIRO Yukiya TBM 06:47
83 CHEVRIER Clement ALM 06:49
84 DE VREESE Laurens AST 06:58
85 ROWE Luke SKY 07:05
86 DURBRIDGE Luke ORS ST
87 *EWAN Caleb ORS ST
88 ZAKHAROV Artyom AST 07:20
89 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan TLJ 07:31
90 DE KORT Koen TFS 07:41
91 VALGREN Michael AST ST
92 MOINARD Amael BMC 08:05
93 *MAISON Jeremy FDJ ST
94 HOWSON Damien ORS 08:10
95 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ ST
96 MORTON Lachlan David DDD 08:52
97 STANNARD Ian SKY 08:57
98 CLARKE William CDT ST
99 SCULLY Thomas CDT ST
100 THEUNS Edward TFS 09:37
101 BERARD Julien ALM 10:22
102 VELITS Martin QST ST
103 FENG Chun Kai TBM ST
104 COURTEILLE Arnaud FDJ ST
105 HOWES Alex CDT ST
106 POSTLBERGER Lukas BOH 11:25
107 ARNDT Nikias SUN 12:24
108 KLUGE Roger ORS ST
109 *JENNER Samuel AUS 13:41
110 *SCOTSON Callum AUS ST
111 *VAN POPPEL Danny SKY ST
112 FARRAR Tyler DDD ST
113 KUMP Marko UAD ST
114 BENNETT Sam BOH 14:48
115 *BONIFAZIO Niccolo TBM 15:19
116 FROHLINGER Johannes SUN 16:06
117 RENSHAW Mark DDD ST
118 VAN ASBROECK Tom CDT ST
119 DE BIE Sean LTS ST
120 *BAUHAUS Phil SUN ST
121 SELIG Rudiger BOH ST
122 WAGNER Robert TLJ 18:26
123 *BOUWMAN Koen TLJ ST
124 GATTO Oscar AST ST
125 BARBERO CUESTA Carlos MOV ST
126 BRESCHEL Matti AST ST
127 *PEDERSEN Mads TFS ST
128 VENTOSO Francisco BMC ST
129 KOLAR Michael BOH ST
130 *MANZIN Lorrenzo FDJ ST
131 *SCOTSON Miles BMC ST
… continued after advert

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Overall
1 PORTE Richie 23 BMC 18:00:21
2 CHAVES Johan Esteban ORS 48
3 HAAS Nathan DDD 51
4 MCCARTHY Jay BOH 54
5 ULISSI Diego UAD 59
6 DENNIS Rohan BMC 01:02
7 VALLS Rafael LTS ST
8 GESINK Robert TLJ ST
9 KELDERMAN Wilco SUN ST
10 EARLE Nathan AUS 01:06
11 HENAO Sergio Luis SKY ST
12 *RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan KAT 01:07
13 HERRADA Jesus MOV 01:15
14 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte CDT 01:18
15 *STORER Michael AUS ST
16 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon AST 01:19
17 POZZOVIVO Domenico ALM 01:23
18 *GUERREIRO Ruben TFS 01:25
19 *EIKING Odd Christian FDJ 01:29
20 VISCONTI Giovanni TBM 01:38
21 WOODS Michael CDT 01:44
22 CINK Ondrej TBM 01:45
23 PANTANO Jarlinson TFS 02:03
24 *HAMILTON Lucas AUS 02:04
25 *HINDLEY Jai AUS 02:08
26 *MAS Enric QST 02:12
27 DEVENYNS Dries QST 02:16
28 IZAGUIRRE Gorka MOV 02:20
29 STETINA Peter TFS 02:24
30 GONCALVES José KAT 02:25
31 *O’CONNOR Ben DDD 02:36
32 BAKELANTS Jan ALM 02:45
33 VAKOC Petr QST 02:49
34 BRAMBILLA Gianluca QST 02:54
35 ROUX Anthony FDJ 03:12
36 HERRADA LOPEZ Jose MOV 03:15
37 LAMMERTINK Maurits KAT ST
38 BAUER Jack QST 03:45
39 SWIFT Ben UAD 04:16
40 DIDIER Laurent TFS 04:23
41 GERRANS Simon ORS 04:43
42 ARMEE Sander LTS 04:46
43 CARUSO Damiano BMC 04:48
44 IMPEY Daryl ORS ST
45 DE LA PARTE Victor MOV 04:57
46 BEVIN Patrick CDT 05:04
47 THOMAS Geraint SKY 05:34
48 *VERMEULEN Alexey TLJ ST
49 *SOLER GIMENEZ Marc MOV 06:00
50 BRAJKOVIC Janez TBM 06:05
51 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM 06:44
52 MEYER Cameron AUS 06:45
53 BYSTROM Sven Erik KAT 07:07
54 MARTENS Paul TLJ 07:27
55 BAK Lars Ytting LTS 07:28
56 *HAMILTON Chris SUN 07:31
57 GASTAUER Ben ALM 08:01
58 MACHADO Tiago KAT 08:03
59 MEINTJES Louis UAD 08:04
60 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ 08:08
61 HANSEN Adam LTS 08:14
62 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Jacques DDD 08:24
63 MORI Manuele UAD 08:36
64 BIDARD Francois ALM 09:15
65 VALGREN Michael AST 09:22
66 *MUHLBERGER Gregor BOH 09:30
67 CAPECCHI Eros QST 09:49
68 ZAKHAROV Artyom AST 10:01
69 CHEVRIER Clement ALM 10:11
70 WYSS Danilo BMC 10:13
71 ARASHIRO Yukiya TBM 10:20
72 SAGAN Peter BOH 10:31
73 LAENGEN Vegard Stake UAD 10:48
74 MARCATO Marco UAD 11:08
75 GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam TBM 11:53
76 GESCHKE Simon SUN 11:55
77 VICIOSO Angel KAT 11:59
78 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ 12:10
79 SUTTERLIN Jasha MOV 12:16
80 *MAISON Jeremy FDJ 12:21
81 MORTON Lachlan David DDD 12:43
82 *HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian SKY 13:08
83 PLANCKAERT Baptiste KAT 13:33
84 DE KORT Koen TFS 14:10
85 TIRALONGO Paolo AST 14:20
86 MOINARD Amael BMC 14:57
87 *HOFSTEDE Lennard SUN 15:08
88 ELISSONDE Kenny SKY 15:11
89 *JENNER Samuel AUS 15:54
90 *EWAN Caleb ORS 16:23
91 VELITS Martin QST 16:43
92 THEUNS Edward TFS 17:05
93 VENTER Jaco DDD 17:15
94 DE GENDT Thomas LTS 17:23
95 DE BIE Sean LTS 17:59
96 HOWES Alex CDT 20:28
97 DURBRIDGE Luke ORS 20:37
98 ROWE Luke SKY 20:46
99 ARNDT Nikias SUN 21:11
100 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan TLJ 21:24
101 FENG Chun Kai TBM 21:58
102 COURTEILLE Arnaud FDJ 22:43
103 BERARD Julien ALM 22:45
104 SCULLY Thomas CDT 23:37
105 *BONIFAZIO Niccolo TBM 24:02:00
106 KLUGE Roger ORS 24:19:00
107 STANNARD Ian SKY 24:39:00
108 *SCOTSON Callum AUS 24:46:00
109 *SCOTSON Miles BMC 25:01:00
110 DE VREESE Laurens AST 25:42:00
111 KUMP Marko UAD 25:43:00
112 *MANZIN Lorrenzo FDJ 26:19:00
113 BENNETT Sam BOH 26:43:00
114 BARBERO CUESTA Carlos MOV 27:13:00
115 VAN ASBROECK Tom CDT 27:49:00
116 SELIG Rudiger BOH ST
117 BRESCHEL Matti AST 28:09:00
118 RENSHAW Mark DDD 28:14:00
119 *VAN POPPEL Danny SKY 28:42:00
120 FARRAR Tyler DDD 28:59:00
121 *BAUHAUS Phil SUN 29:23:00
122 CLARKE William CDT 30:22:00
123 KOLAR Michael BOH 30:24:00
124 WAGNER Robert TLJ 31:25:00
125 HOWSON Damien ORS 34:22:00
126 *BOUWMAN Koen TLJ 35:33:00
127 POSTLBERGER Lukas BOH 35:34:00
128 VENTOSO Francisco BMC 35:36:00
129 FROHLINGER Johannes SUN 35:56:00
130 *PEDERSEN Mads TFS 38:33:00
131 GATTO Oscar AST 46:29:00

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