Schultz wins Herald Sun Tour stage 4 on Arthurs Seat

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Mitchelton-Scott's Nick Schultz beat some of the world's best climbers at their own game to win stage 4 of the 2019 Jayco Herald Sun Tour on Saturday, beating Team Sky's Dylan van Baarle on the final climb to Arthurs Seat, with Van Baarle taking the overall race lead.

Van Baarle and Schultz were part of a dangerous eight-rider move that went clear after 20km of racing, and which also included Van Baarle's Team Sky teammates Luke Rowe and Christian Knees, Team BridgeLane's Hayden McCormick, Alistair Donohue (Pro Racing Sunshine Coast), Nathan Elliott (KordaMentha Australian Team) and Will Clarke (Trek-Segafredo).

Van Baarle was the danger man in the break for overnight leader Michael Woods (EF Education First) and race favourite Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), with the Dutchman having started the day in fifth place overall, 31 seconds down on Woods, and 27 behind Porte.

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Sky drove the eight-man breakaway through first Rowe and then Knees once on the climbs, and Van Baarle and Schultz were eventually left at the head of affairs on what was an attritional stage as the finish laps over the three-kilometre climb ticked down, with Donohue the last to lose contact with the two WorldTour riders on the penultimate climb after a brave ride.

The chase group that included Woods and Porte was never able to get back on terms, with both riders having been left without any teammates to assist them in the latter stages, and Woods finished sixth on the stage, 2:14 down, while Porte finished another 13 seconds down in eighth place.

While Van Baarle now leads Schultz overall by 24 seconds, Woods and Porte sit in third and fourth place on the GC, 1:52 and 2:09 down, respectively. With just one stage to go on a course around Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens on Sunday – a stage that should suit the sprinters – Van Baarle's overall lead should remain safe.

"I think that at the bottom of the final climb Dylan and I were both at our limit," Schultz told reporters at the finish, having led Van Baarle all the way up Arthurs Seat on the fourth and final ascent.

"He pulled harder than me on the flat part of the circuit, or the descent, so I had an inkling that we were both at our limit, and I think that also with his GC ambitions in mind, it suited him for me to ride as hard as I could up the climb as well, so it all worked out well," the 24-year-old Australian said.

"Nick did a great last climb from the bottom, full gas to the finish. At one point, with 150 metres to go, I thought he was dying, but he kept going and I was totally empty," confirmed Van Baarle, after the Dutchman had received his leader's yellow jersey.

"You'll never know what's going to happen if you don't try," he continued. "Even if Michael and Richie are two of the best climbers in the world, you still have to try."

Porte had to concede that he didn't have the legs on the day, but neither was it up to him or his Trek-Segafredo team to do all the chasing.

"My team rode really well, but it's not up to us to win the race for Woods," he said. "Obviously he didn't have the team there for him, and he also sat on me the other day for the last kilometre [on stage 2], which wasn't nice, so I didn't feel any need to try to win the race for him."

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