Tour Down Under: Von Hoff steels the stage in Mount Barker

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Steele von Hoff won a bunch sprint finish in Mount Barker after 145km of racing to make it two wins out of four for UniSA while a crash brought down a large group in the final 150 meters. The win is von Hoff's first WorldTour victory of his career and second of the month after defending his Australian national criterium title in Ballarat.

Von Hoff out-kicked his rivals over a long, flat straightaway, crossing the line ahead of Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) and Wouter Wippert (Drapac). Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) was fourth, followed by Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R).

"Jack Bobridge was looking after me saying, 'be patient, be patient. I know these roads like the back of my hand'," von Hoff said after the stage. "I just trusted it then he delivered me in the final km under the banner and then I just sniveled and held the wheel of the trains. He told me to like (get on) Quicksteps' because with [Mark] Renshaw here there was definitely a fantastic chance and I did that and it opened up on the left hand side of the road.

"I think we're batting well above our average here: two stage wins, the ochre jersey for two days now," von Hoff said of the UniSA team. "This is fantastic, we've got such a good team here and good staff as well."

"My goal is to get back into the World Tour," von Hoff added. "The merger between Cannondale and Garmin left me behind this time but this win today will help me to go back to the highest level."

Rohan Dennis finished safely in the bunch and continues to lead his BMC teammate Cadel Evans by seven seconds in the general classification. Giant-Alpecin's Tom Dumoulin is third overall, nine seconds back, having also finished safely. Impey was the big mover on the day, improving his GC position from tenth for fourth thanks for the bonus seconds he picked at the finish line and first intermediate sprint point.

How it unfolded

As with the first three stages, the attacks during the 145km stage 4 run from Glenelg to Mt. Barker started immediately as the red flag dropped, but BMC was very protective of is GC leader Rohan Dennis and pulled back all of the early moves.

The pattern of attack and chase held until a quartet of riders sneaked away about 23km into the day. The move initially included Michael Hepburn (Orica-GreenEdge) Peter Kennaugh (Sky), Cedric Pineau (FDJ) and former race leader Jack Bobridge (UniSA).

Cannondale-Garmin's Nathan Haas, who was ninth on the first stage, put in an impressive effort to bridge to the leaders, but he was unable to make contact before the peloton, obviously pleased with the quartet up front, sat up and let the gap increase rapidly. An untimely flat eventually ended Haas' escape and he was quickly back in the field.

Just 23km into the race and the leaders had 1:50 on the peloton, and with Bobridge the best-placed general classification rider in the breakaway at 39 seconds off of Dennis' pace, the UniSA rider was once again the leader on the road.

The gap was up to 2:25 just 37km into the race, but it came down steadily on the climb up to the first KOM at Sellicks Hill at 44.2km. Bobridge grabbed the maximum points there, but by then the group's advantage was down to 1:30 under the pressure of BMC's chase.

Bobridge decided he was happy with the KOM points and the polka dot jersey, and so he sat up and allowed himself to fade back into the bunch. With the next-best GC rider in the group more than four minutes off Dennis' pace, the breakaway had a better chance to build its advantage without the UniSA rider among them.

As expected, with Bobridge gone from the group, the remaining trio's advantage started to increase. At 60km, with less than 85 km remaining, the gap was back up to 2:25. But again, BMC's domestiques flexed their muscles and started reeling the leaders back, trimming off more than a minute in less than 10km.

When the gap dipped below a minute before the first intermediate sprint of the day and its time bonuses, Pineau lost patience in the breakaway and dropped his two companions. But his attack drew out the chasing peloton and all three riders was soon back on the fold, setting up what amounted to a bunch kick for the intermediate sprint.

Orica's Daryl Impey, who started the day 10th overall just 22 seconds behind Dennis, took the three-second time bonus at the sprint line and moved just that much closer to the race leader.

Three more riders slipped off the front following the sprint, as Ruslan Tleubayev (Astana), Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Pieter Serry (Etixx-QuickStep) got a quick gap that they quickly built into a gap of more than two minutes.

The breakaway scooped up the next sprint points as Movistar moved the front of the chase for their man Juan Jose Lobato, digging into the leaders' advantage almost immediately. The pace of the chase has its effect on the field as well, as it split into three selections and deposited Giant-Alpecin sprinter Marcel Kittel in a group nearly four minutes back.

Tleubayev popped out of the break with just 24km when the gap was at less than a minute. Belkov and Serry continued on, but the chase brought them back in turn, making the catch with 9km to go.

Astana took advantage of the moment to launch Luis Leon Sanchez off the front behind a ferocious attack from his new teammate, Lars Boom. Boom sold out for his team leader and quickly fell off the pace, but Sanchez continued on with Movistar's Gorka Izaguirre Insausti, who tagged along with the Boom lead-out.

Orica-GreenEdge recognised how dangerous the move was and pulled the two Spanish riders back after several kilometres. On the fast descent into Mount Barker what looked to be a touch of wheels in the final 300 metres on the left hand side of the road spectacularly brought down rider who were strewn across the road. With von Hoff out in front, the former Garmin-Sharp rider proved too fast for Impey and Wippert and finished off the sprint to claim his first professional win and UniSA's second of the week.

While the GC contenders were caught up in the crash, with the accident taking place within the final three kilometres no rider lost time ahead of the queen stage to Willunga Hill.

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