Richie Porte Wins His First Tour Down Under
Richie Porte cruised home on Stage Six to seize his first Tour Down Under as Caleb Ewan won his fourth stage on a technical 90km street circuit through Adelaide.
Orica-Scott's Ewan, a starlet of the sprinting world at only 22-years-old, rounded off a truly brilliant week by coming out on top in yet another sprint battle against Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan.
"I can't really believe it", exclaimed a slightly overcome Ewan, "Coming into this Tour I actually joked with my girlfriend that I would win four stages and really I can't believe I have!"
Ewan continued: "With the caliber of sprinters here it was always going to be hard beating the likes of Peter Sagan. Even if he's not in his best form he's still the best rider in the world at the moment."
BMC Racing's Porte becomes the third Australian to win the Tour Down Under in as many years, after Rohan Dennis (2015) and Simon Gerrans (2016), something that has never happened in the TDU's 18 year history.
After a nightmarish 2016, Porte is now looking forward to better things in 2017: "After crashing in Rio and injuring myself quite nastily, it wasn't too hard to get motivated for this race. I had a good break at the end of last season and I've come back refreshed, physically and mentally, and to win this race means a hell of a lot. It's a credit to this race and how big it is."
Stage Six comprised a four kilometre circuit through the streets of Adelaide that would be completed 20 times, and barring mechanical issues or a race ending crash, BMC Racing's Porte was always going win his first Ochre Jersey.
There were important bonus seconds to be had at the first intermediate sprint, so with the help of lead out man Sagan, Bora-Hansgrohe's Jay McCarthy, who was sitting just three seconds off a podium spot, beat Ewan - enough to leap frog Dimension Data's Nathan Haas into third.
Despite the overall, points and KOM classifications all but decided, Thomas De Gent took it upon himself to ensure his polka dot jersey stayed stuck firmly to his back, the Lotto-Soudal man taking maximum points over the first ascent of Montefiore Hill.
Best Young Rider, Katusha Alpecin's Jhonatan Resprepo, managed to lift himself into the top ten overall by winning the second intermediate sprint and with it three bonus seconds. The effort had clearly taken it's toll however, as the five other men in his group - including the most aggressive rider of the previous three stages Quickstep-Floors' Jack Bauer - pulled away to form the break of the day.
No break was ever going to a have a chance of staying away on such a flat circuit though, and the sprint trains duly caught the breakaway on the penultimate lap.
Ewan, a Mark Cavendish look-a-like due to of his incredibly low down sprinting profile, demonstrated once again how intelligent he is in the heat of a sprinting melee, high jacking Sagan's lead out man, Rudiger Selig, and powering away from the Slovakian World Champion to seal a quartet of stage victories in just six days.
Ewan's Orica-Scott teammate Esteban Chaves ended up having a very quiet TDU, but did himself no injustices finishing 48 seconds behind Porte in second on overall classification, closely followed by McCarthy, 51 seconds down.
To go with his four stage wins, Ewan picked up the red points jersey ahead of Team Sky's Danny van Poppel and Haas.
De Gent's hard work paid off, just pipping Porte to the KOM polka dot jersey by three points, with Chaves in third.
Uni-SA Australia, the only wildcard team at the TDU, won the team classification.
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| Credit: adelaidenow.com.au |
"I can't really believe it", exclaimed a slightly overcome Ewan, "Coming into this Tour I actually joked with my girlfriend that I would win four stages and really I can't believe I have!"
Ewan continued: "With the caliber of sprinters here it was always going to be hard beating the likes of Peter Sagan. Even if he's not in his best form he's still the best rider in the world at the moment."
BMC Racing's Porte becomes the third Australian to win the Tour Down Under in as many years, after Rohan Dennis (2015) and Simon Gerrans (2016), something that has never happened in the TDU's 18 year history.
After a nightmarish 2016, Porte is now looking forward to better things in 2017: "After crashing in Rio and injuring myself quite nastily, it wasn't too hard to get motivated for this race. I had a good break at the end of last season and I've come back refreshed, physically and mentally, and to win this race means a hell of a lot. It's a credit to this race and how big it is."
Stage Six comprised a four kilometre circuit through the streets of Adelaide that would be completed 20 times, and barring mechanical issues or a race ending crash, BMC Racing's Porte was always going win his first Ochre Jersey.
There were important bonus seconds to be had at the first intermediate sprint, so with the help of lead out man Sagan, Bora-Hansgrohe's Jay McCarthy, who was sitting just three seconds off a podium spot, beat Ewan - enough to leap frog Dimension Data's Nathan Haas into third.
Despite the overall, points and KOM classifications all but decided, Thomas De Gent took it upon himself to ensure his polka dot jersey stayed stuck firmly to his back, the Lotto-Soudal man taking maximum points over the first ascent of Montefiore Hill.
Best Young Rider, Katusha Alpecin's Jhonatan Resprepo, managed to lift himself into the top ten overall by winning the second intermediate sprint and with it three bonus seconds. The effort had clearly taken it's toll however, as the five other men in his group - including the most aggressive rider of the previous three stages Quickstep-Floors' Jack Bauer - pulled away to form the break of the day.
No break was ever going to a have a chance of staying away on such a flat circuit though, and the sprint trains duly caught the breakaway on the penultimate lap.
Ewan, a Mark Cavendish look-a-like due to of his incredibly low down sprinting profile, demonstrated once again how intelligent he is in the heat of a sprinting melee, high jacking Sagan's lead out man, Rudiger Selig, and powering away from the Slovakian World Champion to seal a quartet of stage victories in just six days.
Ewan's Orica-Scott teammate Esteban Chaves ended up having a very quiet TDU, but did himself no injustices finishing 48 seconds behind Porte in second on overall classification, closely followed by McCarthy, 51 seconds down.
To go with his four stage wins, Ewan picked up the red points jersey ahead of Team Sky's Danny van Poppel and Haas.
De Gent's hard work paid off, just pipping Porte to the KOM polka dot jersey by three points, with Chaves in third.
Uni-SA Australia, the only wildcard team at the TDU, won the team classification.
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