Richie Porte Wins Santos Tour Down Under

22 January 2017 05:12

BMC's Richie Porte finished safely in the peloton to take the overall victory of the 2017 Santos Tour Down Under.

The Tasmanian was in the leader’s ochre jersey with a 48 second lead over Esteban Chaves and the KOM jersey and led the riders out on the sixth and final stage - the 90km criterium starting and finishing on King William Street, Adelaide which comprised of twenty 4.5km laps.

It was a course which went as follows: “Beginning in King William St, the riders head all the way to the north tip of Victoria Square. A u-turn takes the race back down King William St, over the River Torrens and then a tricky 270-degree turn onto War Memorial Drive. The riders sweep past the south end of what many people say is the heartbeat of the city, the magnificent redeveloped Adelaide Oval cricket ground, Then a right turn onto Montefiore Rd and up the small climb. The top of this hill marks the Subaru Australia KOM on laps 10 and 15 Another right onto Pennington Tce near the statue of Colonel Light precedes a short descent And then a right turn back on to King William Rd and on course for the start/finish”

132 out of 133 riders who started the race, started the final stage watched by massive crowds and it was Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal and Gianluca Brambilla of Quick Step who were the first to break.

Going past the Adelaide Oval on lap two, their lead stood at ten seconds with De Gendt hoping to stay away long enough to take the KOM points and take the jersey and was at 22 seconds a lap later.

Starting lap five, the lead was at 30 seconds with speeds averaging 46.9km/h but on lap eight, the peloton reeled De Gendt and Brambilla and it was Jay McCarthy of Bora Hansgrohe, who moved into third on GC, who took the sprint ahead of Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan.

On a day where temperatures were around thirty five degrees celsius, lap ten had the first climb of the day at Montefiore Rd. De Gendt went again led by team mate Adam Hansen and he took the three points to take his tally to 35 and put himself in the lead, ahead of Hansen and Alex Howes.

Jack Bauer got into a six man break with De Gendt, Bidard, Johannes Frohlinger, Jacob Ventner and Ben O’Connor before De Gendt dropped out of the break and was replaced by the Young Rider leader Jhonatan Restrepo of Katusha who moved into the top ten on GC by taking the second sprint, the three seconds and five points.

Bauer, Bidard, Frohlinger, Ventner and Ben O’Connor went clear by 55 seconds on lap fourteen but a lap later that was down to fifteen seconds. 

Onto lap sixteen and Jack Bauer, who took the second KOM, went away and was holding everyone off. The Quick Step rider, who was named the most combative rider for the third stage running, went twenty two seconds ahead with twenty kilometres left but just before the end of the lap , the peloton closed in on Bauer and just after starting lap nineteen, Bauer was caught.   

The peloton was altogether as they took the bell for the final lap. Orica Scott and Team Sky were on the front trying to set up a battle between Caleb Ewan and Van Poppel.

Ewan went down the left and held everyone off to take the win in 1.55.28 and make it the third time that one rider had won four out of the six stages, ahead of Sagan and Kump.

Ewan said about his fourth stage win:”I cannot believe that I joked with my girlfriend that I would win 4 stages but I cannot believe it. I am so happy with the performance having beaten the world champion. 

“It’s great to get the season off to a good start, I will have a break and get ready for the European season.”

Porte finished safely to win by forty-eight seconds said:” The Tour Down Under was good for me this year and great to win after being so close for the last three years.

“Team BMC sent out a strong team and I owe it to my team mates who got me across the line to win this race. 

“IT means a hell of a lot. “It’s brilliant. This was a hard criterium and to get through it unscathed and win it is great. 

Source: DSG