Tour Down Under: Rohan Dennis wins in Paracombe

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Rohan Dennis out-kicked all the contenders at the Tour Down Under Thursday to take the uphill sprint in Paracombe, setting up a BMC one-two finish as teammate Cadel Evans followed him across the line. Giant-Alpecin's Tom Dumoulin was third.

Dennis benefited from tense moments in the final kilometres as all the general classification favourites eyed each other approaching the 1km banner. Dennis launched his attack directly under the banner and got an immediate gap as the others considered briefly that he may have simply been trying to set up Evans, BMC's announced team leader. By the time Richie Porte (Team Sky), Dumoulin and AG2R's Domenico Pozzovivo reacted to Dennis' move, the 24-year-old Australian was too far up the road to bring back.

"I was caught further back in the lead in and I just thought, 'ok don't stress, just take little steps towards the front', and don't try to go into the red zone before you actually hit the hill," Dennis said after the stage. "I saw obviously Cadel was away with four other guys, with Richie and Pozzovivo and Dumoulin, so I sat behind one of the Movistar riders and just crossed my fingers that he'd bring me back.

"Well, to be honest I didn't expect to have that in the finish," Dennis continued. "The plan was for me to actually attack at the bottom and put the guys of Richie and Pozzovivo and a couple other riders under pressure and let Cadel just sit back, but obviously I was still too far back to actually follow that plan, we got the total opposite. But, Cadel he's still, in my eyes, a leader and I'm gonna respect that. I'm not sure how the team meeting's gonna go but we're still both protected. There's still Willunga, Mt Barker and the last crit. So there's still solid racing to come."

Having lost Campbell Flakemore overnight to a broken collarbone he suffered in a crash while riding back to the hotel, the one-two by BMC was evidence they are still in this race and hungry for overall victory.

BMC also seized the top two spots in the general classification. Dennis leads Evans by seven seconds, while Dumoulin is third, nine seconds in arrears. Porte is fourth, 15 seconds down, followed by Jack Haig (UniSA), Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), Michael Rogers (Tinkoff-Saxo), Maxime Bouet (Etixx-Quickstep) and Pozzovivo, all also 15 seconds back. Orica-Greenedge's Daryl Impey is 10th overall, 22 seconds down.

Having won on Willunga last year, Porte knows what kind of time he can pull back, and while not 100 per cent suited to the climb to Paracombe, the Sky rider is still within the top five overall.

"We'll have to see how it plays out up on Willunga," Porte said. "They’re a man down [BMC], and that’s not easy, they're going to have to control the race, which they haven't done thus far. I know I am climbing well. It was a bit of a shame, it was a bit too much stop-start for my liking. The team put me in a great position at the bottom of the climb. I am really happy with how the team is riding. It’s not ideal, but it’s still not over."

For Dumoulin, more renowned for his time trial ability than climbing, the 24-year-old now finds himself challenging for the overall podium and eyeing off the biggest prize of all.

"The final was really hard, it was a real GC stage," he said. "The front group, those are the guys that do the grand tours, so it was a very demanding stage. I am really happy you be there, and I can be happy with third. I think I can make the podium. Never say never for the victory, it will be hard, but we will fight for every second here."

With tommorow's 145km stage from Glenelg to Mount Barker favouring the sprinters, the GC contenders will have to wait until Saturday for the queen stage to Willunga Hill.

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How it unfolded
For the third straight day, four riders made up the day’s main breakaway on the hottest stage of the 2015 race so far. It was Drapac’s breakaway specialist Will Clarke that was the first to get clear after several riders had earlier made attempts to no avail. A group of three, Lasse Norman Hansen (Cannondale-Garmin), Calvin Watson (Trek) and Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale), gave chase for Clarke with the catch being made after 10km of racing.

Clarke, who started the day just 1:04 down on overall leader Jack Bobridge (UniSA), was soon the race leader on the road, and the peloton was happy to let the quartet sit out in front with a three-minute advantage over the peloton.

With 38km left in the day, Domont was cooked and dropped off the leaders to occupy no -an’s land while the pace was lifted all round.

With the left-hand turn onto the final climb of the road crucial to positioning, the break’s lead was trimmed by the peloton to bring it down to two minutes with 23km left. With 17km to go, Hansen also bid farewell to the leaders as Clarke and Watson continued to press on despite their lead being just 1:05.

Giant-Alpecin and Team Sky were the chief chasers on the front of the peloton and at the 15km mark, Watson pulled up stumps to Clarke as the sole remaining member of the break.

At 13km to go, Clarke’s lead was down to 40 seconds as BMC, Astana and Orica-GreenEdge added further firepower to the chase. By 11km to go, Clarke’s lead was down to 28 seconds as Giant-Alpecin occupied the front positions on the bunch.

At 8.7km to go, it was all over for Clarke with the peloton quickly swarming and absorbing him after his long hot effort to earn himself the most aggressive rider jersey.  That set up a sprint like lead-out for teams trying to get their GC men into the final corner before the climb first. The lead swapped multiple times as the teams spread across the road vying for position.

Dennis' original intention was to attack at the bottom of the hill to soften up BMC's rivals, but the hard pace at the front delayed his ability to get himself into position. By the time he hit the front, the 1km banner was quickly approaching, and his move came just beneath it. As the others looked at each other momentarily, Dennis built an insurmountable gap that he carried to the line. Evans let the others chase and then launched his own blistering effort to claim second place.

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