Saturday 24 January 2015 21:29, UK
Team Sky’s Richie Porte climbed to an impressive solo victory on stage five of the Santos Tour Down Under but narrowly missed out on taking the overall race lead from Rohan Dennis.
Porte, starting the day 15 seconds down, attacked out of a severely reduced peloton with 1.2km of the final climb up Willunga Hill remaining and while Dennis was the only rider who could follow, he too fell away with around 500m remaining.
Porte powered on to take the stage win and 10 bonus seconds, but Dennis dug deep to finish nine seconds later in second place, with six bonus seconds proving enough to see him retain the ochre jersey by just two seconds.
Cadel Evans, Dennis' BMC Racing team-mate, finished 16 seconds down in fourth place on the day and is now 20 seconds back in third overall.
Porte, who has now won on Willunga Hill for two years in succession, said at the finish line: “I don't think I got the jersey, which is a bit disappointing. Full credit to Rohan. I gave it to him as hard as I could, but it wasn’t quite to be. But I’m very happy with the stage win. It’s a great way to start the year.
“I was hoping to finish it off [claim overall victory] here. It’s so nice to win on this stage, but it’s a bit disappointing to be so close to the jersey. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
With a summit finish looming and narrow margins at the top of the general classification, stage five looked set to decide the overall outcome of the race and the leaders duly produced a compelling battle on the 3.5km-long Willunga Hill.
Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas and then Orica-GreenEdge’s Cameron Meyer set a fierce pace up the first 2.3km of the climb, but just as it appeared the favourites were too evenly matched to be separated, Porte blew the group apart with a searing attack.
Evans and Giant-Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin initially followed but then both fell away, leaving Dennis as the only men who could keep pace with the flying Tasmanian.
It looked like he would hang on, but Porte kept up the relentless pressure and eventually dropped his compatriot just before the road flattened out to the finish line.
Dennis said: “I saw Cadel on the wheel [of Porte] and unfortunately he couldn’t hold it. I was lucky enough to have some sort of jump left and I jumped on to Richie’s wheel, but he was just powering away.
“Richie went, in hindsight, a little bit too late because really he had better legs than me today, so I’ve got to thank him.”
Dennis will now have to defend his lead on Sunday's race-ending 90km sprint stage in Adelaide, where bonus seconds could be keenly fought for.
Stage five result
1 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, 3:37:32
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, +9secs
3 Ruben Fernandez (Spa) Movistar, +16
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing, same time
5 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, st
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +19
7 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha, +24
8 Moreno Moser (Ita) Cannondale-Garmin, +26
9 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar, +28
10 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) FDJ.fr, +28
General classification
1 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, 17:19:09
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, +38
8 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha, +46
9 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar, +52
10 Jarlinson Pantano (Col) IAM Cycling, +53
Watch highlights of stage five on Sky Sports 1HD at 8am and Sky Sports 3HD at 11am, 4.20pm and 10pm. Watch the sixth and final stage live on Sky Sports 1HD at 2.30am on Sunday. All times GMT.
