Richie Porte All But Wins His First Tour Down Under

Richie Porte blew away his rivals up the iconic Willunga Hill on Stage Five to all but win his first Tour Down Under.

Credit: cyclingnews.com

BMC Racing's Porte started his attack from a little far out on the climb he's taken three previous wins on, but the experience he'd accumulated was clearly key, as none of his overall classification rivals could get anywhere near him. 

"I tell you what, that hurt more than the other three [times] I've been up here", panted an out of breath Porte, "I went from quite a long way out but I'm just happy to finish it off for the guys." 

Stage Five was always going to be the stage that had the biggest say in sealing the winner of the Ochre Jersey, with the colossal three kilometre's at seven per cent of Willunga Hill needing to be summitted twice in the final 30km. 

In a repeat of the previous day it took a while for a decisive breakaway to assert itself. It was the familiar faces of Lotto-Soudal's KOM Jersey holder Thomas De Gent and Quickstep-Floors' Jack Bauer who were joined by breakaway newbie Will Clarke of Cannondale-Drapac when a faction was formed after 12km. After a little chase, FDJ's Clement Maison joined the group - much to the happiness of Bauer, who clearly thought a break of four stood more of a chance of staying away than one of three.

After a very sedate two hours, the peloton eventually picked the pace up following the last of the three coastal circuits of McLaren Vale as the riders headed for first foray up the daunting Willunga Hill.

Clarke, not exactly the blu-print for a climber, was soon spat out of the breakaway - the brutal seven per cent slopes were obviously too much for his legs to carry his six foot three, 81 kilogram frame.

De Gent was now pushing the pace, and further solidified his claim to the KOM Jersey, taking maximum points on Willunga Hill, with the breakaway one minute and 55 seconds ahead of the peloton.

The breakaway was finally caught by the peloton with five km to go, lead by the trains of Team Sky and BMC, just before the foot of the second Willunga Hill ascent. Bauer wasn't quite done for the day though, latching onto the front of the Quickstep-Floors pack for one last lung-bursting effort.

As the climb began in earnest, the field was significantly diluted as the specialist climbers took to the fore. Team Sky's Sebastian Henao, brother of Sergio, led the group containing such overall contenders as Chaves, McCarthy and Porte. 

A dramatic tangle of pedals caused enough of a break for Porte to take advantage of the confusion and launch his attack. Porte has won three previous times on Willunga Hill and he was confident of claiming a fourth.

As soon as the chasing Sergio Henao had cracked, Porte was in the clear and the rest was a formality, allowing the Tasmanian to take a second stage victory to all but win his first Tour Down Under, with Dimension Data's Nathan Haas and Orica-Scott's Esteban Chaves the only riders within 20 seconds.

The final stage of the 2017 Tour Down Under is a 90km circuit of Adelaide and a likely final showdown of this race at least between Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan.