Tour Down Under: Ethan Vernon wins wind-buffeted shortened stage 4 as second overall Jhonatan Narváez crashes out

Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) retained the ochre leader’s jersey, but his teammate Jhonatan Narváez, second overall, was forced to abandon after a heavy crash within the opening 10 kilometres of the stage.

Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) moved up to second place overall at 1:03 down and Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost) is now in third place, a further nine seconds in arrears.

“Considering this stage wasn't meant to be 24 hours ago, and we lost Corbin Strong and Jake Stewart we did a great job. We watched this finish from previous men's and women's races,” Vernon said.

"The wind caused a lot of stress and the crash. Everyone was wary of the wind but nothing came of it. And we didn’t even try the second time.”

Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) is secure in the blue sprint jersey and, the same for Martin Urianstad (Uno-X Mobility) in the mountains jersey. Andrea Raccagni Noviero received a full team leadout from Soudal-QuickStep, to nab three seconds time bonus on the second intermediate sprint and takes over the white young rider’s jersey.

Sunday’s stage is the fifth and final stage on day six featuring eight brutal laps around Stirling covering 169.8km. With today’s stage being changed, this final day will be the main GC day of the race after the Uraidla stage a few days ago.

How it unfolded

The penultimate stage of the Tour Down Under saw a big alteration to the route due to extreme heat and very high risk of bushfires. The stage, which was originally meant to be 176km and feature three ascents of the famous Willunga Hill, was reduced to 130.8km starting in Brighton and finishing in Willunga Township with no ascents of Willunga Hill at all. The finish was the same as the women’s race on stage one earlier this month.

It was a hot start to the day in Brighton with the temperatures already well into the 30s C despite the start being moved an hour earlier. The highest temperatures were forecast to head towards 43 C by the finish. However, at the start, the talk wasn’t about the scorching hot weather but rather on the strong wind that came with it and a chance of echelons in the peloton.

Racing got underway with the attacks coming immediately, with Matthew Greenwood (Australia) and KOM leader Urianstad going clear. However, this wasn’t the usual easy ride away for the break as various teams were interested in joining the break on the new shorter stage parcours, and the duo were brought back by a Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ United) acceleration.

A new move went away with a very strong trio of Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United) and Greenwood. They had a very small advantage on the peloton with several riders in the gap between the leaders and the peloton. Oliver Bleddyn (Australia) tried to bridge the gap to the leading trio, but he didn’t have the legs and was swallowed up by the bunch.

While all that was going on, the defending champion and second place overall, Narváez, went down in a nasty crash and was forced to abandon. He is the first defending champion at the Tour Down Under to abandon since Andre Greipel back in 2009.

Back at the front of the race, the break still wasn’t clear, with the gap hovering around a minute, with several teams taking to the front as the riders seemed very nervous because of the threat of crosswinds. Before then, the first KOM of the day on Chandler’s Hill, where Cavagna took the 10 points ahead of Greenwood and Plapp and from the peloton, Urianstad swept up important points in the KOM standings, followed by Rudy Porter (Jayco-AlUla), who took the solitary point in fifth.

As the race rolled down onto McLaren Vale the gap grew dramatically between the peloton and the break with Plapp very vocal in the trio as they powered along with the gap going well above three minutes inside the final 100km. Back in the peloton the teams leading were Ineos Grenadiers, EF Education-EasyPost, Bahrain Victorious and, interestingly, Jayco-AlUla despite having Plapp up the road. The pace was not very high at all, though.

With 88km to go, the pace changed in the peloton as they turned and changed direction with the wind coming across. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe hit the front with Ineos Grenadiers, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike, and the rest all scrambling. There was so much movement that there was, inevitably, another crash with several riders going down. Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Jake Stewart and Corbin Strong (both NSN) were forced to abandon because of the crashes.

Up the road, Cavagna took the KOM points on the first passage of Low Willunga Hill ahead of Greenwood and Plapp. After the peloton came through the KOM, which was also where the finish was located, the pace changed as riders, including the likes of Lund Andresen, Sam Welsford (Ineos Grenadiers), Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Vine, started to try and form an echelon. All this commotion meant that the gap to the break lost well over a minute in about 10km.

Several riders were coming back to the peloton as the pace calmed down in the bunch and the gap started to drift out again for Cavagna, Plapp and Greenwood. They took a turn, and the peloton tried to up the tempo again, but then another turn came, and they were facing a headwind as they rode alongside Aldinga Beach for the intermediate sprint at Snapper Point.

Plapp rolled across the line at the intermediate sprint, taking the bonus seconds with Cavagna and Greenwood completing the podium. The break was riding very well together, but Cavagna looked to be starting to struggle in the brutal early afternoon sunshine and 40 C heat. The peloton had dropped the gap down to a minute and a half with 50km to go.

A couple of kilometres later, Cavagna confirmed the concerns as he dropped off the back of his fellow breakaway riders and sat up to wait for the peloton which was not too far off as they continued to close the gap. Bizarrely, the Australian National Team hit the front of the peloton despite having a teammate up the road in the breakaway.

The final KOM on Low Willunga Hill was taken by Greenwood with Plapp on his wheel, and Callum Scotson (Decathlon CMA CGM) took the remaining two points from the peloton. And it was the peloton that was closing rapidly and closed to nine seconds before they sat up and allowed the gap to drift a little bit away from them with 30km to go.

The break made it all the way to about 300 metres before the second and final intermediate sprint in Snapper Point as Soudal-QuickStep took their chance to take a leaders jersey with Raccagni Noviero sprinting for the three bonus seconds, which put him into the white jersey. Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), took two seconds ahead of Alastair Mackellar (EF Education-EasyPost).

After all the chaos of the intermediate sprint, the pace completely dropped off a cliff, with various teams just keeping everything steady and safe after losing four riders to abandons during the stage due to earlier crashes. This steadier pace continued until just over 7km to go, when the bunch was still very much spread across the road, but the pace had slowly started to ramp up.

Into the final 5km, it was a mix of sprinters’ and GC teams on the front of the peloton with various squads completely spread across the road, with various riders struggling to move their leaders to the front because of how packed it was at the front of the bunch.

As the pace rocketed, the main team to take control was Decathlon CMA CGM, who had huge numbers into the final few hundred metres. But, this wasn’t needed and Lund Andresen was boxed by his own men and got caught out by Vernon, who launched early. Lund Andresen still got up for second, securing his blue points jersey. Pithie was third.

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