Richie Porte (BMC Racing) won the Tour Down Under for the fist time in his career, finishing safely in the peloton after the sixth and last stage around the centre of Adelaide won by fellow Australian Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott).
Porte took centre stage on the final podium, beating Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) by 48 seconds; with Jay McCarthy(Bora-Hansgrohe) snatching third place overall after winning an intermediate time bonus that lifted him ahead of Nathan Haas(Dimension Data) thanks to stage placings.
Ewan closed out the best week of his career with his fourth stage win at the Tour Down Under. The Australian won the final sprint ahead of World Champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Marko Kump (UAE Abu Dhabi) after bumping shoulders with Danny van Poppel (Team Sky) in a high-speed finale.
The riders enjoyed a final day in the Adelaide sun, racing 20 laps of a 4.5km circuit, with Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) attacking early to secure he won the climber’s competition and the blue polka-dot jersey. Other attacks came but the peloton wanted a traditional sprint finish and then Ewan produced his powerful aerodynamic sprint to win despite Sagan making a determined and well-timed effort to the line.
Ewan and Porte were the only riders to win stages of this year’s Tour Down Under with the BMC team leader dominating at Paracombe and Willunga, while Ewan closed out all four sprint stages.
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