Herald Sun Tour: Hindley wins stage 4 on Mount Buller to extend overall lead

Image 1 of 12

Herald Sun Tour leader Jai Hindley (Sunweb) took his second stage victory at this year's Australian stage race on the summit finish at Mount Buller, Victoria, on Saturday, and in doing so extended his advantage in the general classification to 10 seconds over St George Continental's Sebastian Berwick.

It was another sensational ride by 20-year-old Berwick, taking on – and beating, bar Hindley – the WorldTour teams once more, and moving himself up from third overall at the start of the day to second place, with only one stage left to go in Melbourne on Sunday, which should go the way of the sprinters.

Mitchelton-Scott's Damien Howson – who won the race overall in 2017 – lost ground in the final few kilometres of the 16-kilometre-long climb up to the ski resort, and crossed the finish line 22 seconds behind Hindley. It meant that the 27-year-old dropped from second place – four seconds behind Hindley at the start of the stage – to third, now 36 seconds behind the race leader.

"The team was incredible today, and the guys just rode on the front from the first kilometre," said Hindley after crossing the finish line. "It's great that all their hard work paid off, so this is pretty special."

For the second half of the final climb, the 23-year-old race leader had Sunweb teammate Michael Storer working for him on the front of the main group, and Hindley only had to make his move with a kilometre to go when Berwick put in an attack.

"I've known Michael since we were young, so to have him riding the final for me like that was unreal," said Hindley. "I didn't have to say anything; he knew exactly what to do. He's phenomenal."

There was praise and respect for Berwick, too: "Hats off to Sebastian. He threw the kitchen sink at me, and was super impressive, so congratulations to him as he was super strong."

With just one day to go, and barring accident or injury – or a stage that goes totally off-script – Hindley should be crowned the 45th Australian winner in 67 editions of the Herald Sun Tour in Melbourne come Sunday evening.

"It's really special," he said. "I really love the Sun Tour – it's the third time time that I've done it – and to be an Australian racing here, and to wear the leader's jersey going into the final stage, I'm a bit lost for words."

How it unfolded

It was Team BridgeLane's Ben Hill who attacked from the start of stage 4 in Mansfield, instigating a 20-strong breakaway, which was quickly brought back by the bunch.

Ten kilometres into the 106.6km stage, however, EF Pro Racing's Jonas Rutsch – who had been part of the day's first move – succeeded in slipping away, and was joined by BridgeLane's Ayden Toovey.

They were soon joined by Toovey's teammate Hill again, plus Black Spoke Pro Cycling Academy's Ethan Batt, Ben Perry (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Conor Murtagh (Oliver's Real Food Racing), and they became eight riders at the head of affairs when Michael Rice (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast) and David Williams of the Kordamentha Australian National Team also got across to join them.

After losing the green jersey as the race's best sprinter on stage 3, Hill made sure that he took maximum points at the first intermediate sprint after 21km on what was his fourth day out of four in a break.

With 50km covered, Williams let a small gap open on a descent, and suddenly found himself unable to get back to his seven breakaway companions, despite a huge effort.

Shortly afterwards, Rutsch had a front-wheel puncture, and a very quick disc-brake wheel change by neutral service had Rutsch on his way again swiftly. The remaining six riders didn't wait – but perhaps should have done, given the young German's powerful engine – but the 22-year-old used that power to get back, all guns blazing, on the next short descent.

The break was allowed to build up a maximum lead of almost four minutes, while, behind them, Sunweb controlled the front of the bunch.

Hill was again able to take maximum points at the second and final intermediate sprint with 29km to go, completely unopposed, and just ahead of the final climb, Murtagh was the first to drop away from the lead group, followed shortly afterwards by Batt and Rice once on the climb.

Hill – having done enough to take back the green points jersey – did one last turn on the front to help his teammate Toovey, and then also lost contact, leaving Rutsch, Perry and Toovey to push on, but with their lead rapidly dropping down.

With 8.5km to go, Rutsch attacked, taking only Perry with him, while Toovey lost contact. Behind them, Sunweb's Storer and Rob Power led the case group for Hindley in third wheel, followed by Berwick and EF's Neilson Powless, while Mitchelton continued to keep their powder dry for Howson.

But not for long: the team's New Zealander, Dion Smith, attacked with 5km to go, catching Perry and Rutsch, with only Rutsch capable of following.

Israel Start-Up Nation's James Piccoli then attacked from the chasing group with just 3km to race, and caught and passed the leading duo, seemingly with enough of a gap to potentially win the stage.

He was pursued by Mitchelton's Simon Yates, striking out for the stage win, and clearly feeling better than he had when he lost six minutes at Falls Creek two days previously.

Yates was unable to get across to Piccoli, however, and with a kilometre to go, Berwick attacked, and only Hindley could follow, and the two blew past first Yates and then Piccoli, before the two best climbers at this year's race duked it out for the victory, with Hindley coming out on top.

Nero Continental's Jay Vine emerged as the best of the rest to take third place on the stage, just nine seconds down, followed by Team Sapura Cycling's Jesse Ewart for fourth – two more UCI Continental-level Australian riders beating a whole host of WorldTour riders, and earning themselves promotions to fifth and sixth place on the GC, both 1:26 down on Hindley, while EF Pro Cycling's Neilson Powless did enough to retain fourth place overall.

Results

General classification