Sunday 25 January 2015 20:20, UK
Rohan Dennis avoided a late crash to complete overall victory at the Santos Tour Down Under as Wouter Wippert sprinted to a comfortable win on stage six in Adelaide.
Dennis (BMC Racing) safely negotiated the 90km city-centre criterium to seal a two-second triumph over Richie Porte (Team Sky). Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) ended the final stage race of his career in 20 seconds back in third.
With stage favourite Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) out of the equation having been held up by the crash, Wippert (Drapac Pro Cycling) capitalised by beating Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) into second place on the day and Boris Vallee (Lotto Soudal) into third.
Dennis, who claimed his first UCI WorldTour stage-race victory, said: “I had to make sure I kept within distance of Richie, especially after that little spill with about two and a half laps to go.
“It was just about following him and making sure that if there was a split, it wasn’t too hard to jump across.”
Porte told teamsky.com: “We were so far up that we didn’t even know about the crash, which is good. On a stage like that, you’ve got a lot to lose. I can’t thank the boys enough for what they did today.
“Second at the Tour Down Under is a good way to start the season.”
With only two seconds separating leader Dennis and second-placed Porte in the general classification at the start of the day and scope for that deficit to be overturned, the BMC Racing rider had to be vigilant throughout a fast and frantic final stage.
Life was made easier when Orica-GreenEdge and then a breakaway group collected all of the bonus seconds on offer at the day’s two intermediate sprints, but stress levels rose when a crash one-third of the way down the peloton almost caught the 24-year-old Australian out with less than 10km to go.
However, Dennis made it to the finishing straight intact, and with Kittel out of the picture, Wippert capped a strong week of sprinting with a deserved win.
Stage six result
1 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling, 1:56:09
2 Heinrich Haussler (Aus) IAM Cycling, same time
3 Boris Vallee (Bel) Lotto Soudal, st
4 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Tinkoff-Saxo, st
5 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge, st
6 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
7 Steele von Hoff (Aus) Uni SA, st
8 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana, st
9 Rudiger Selig (Ger) Katusha, st
10 Sebastien Chavanel (Fra) FDJ.fr, st
Selected others
24 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, st
28 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, st
General classification
1 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, 19:15:18
2 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +2secs
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing, +20
4 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +22
5 Ruben Fernandez (Spa) Movistar, +24
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +31
7 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge, +35
8 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar, +52
9 Jarlinson Pantano (Col) IAM Cycling, +53
10 George Bennett (NZ) LottoNL-Jumbo, st
Watch highlights of the final stage on Sky Sports 1HD at 9am and Sky Sports 3HD at 11.30am.
