Hindley sews up Herald Sun Tour title as Groves takes final stage

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Team Sunweb's Jai Hindley took what the 23-year-old Australian described as the biggest win of his career at the Herald Sun Tour in Melbourne on Sunday, finishing safely in the bunch on a fifth and final stage won by Mitchelton-Scott's Kaden Groves ahead of teammate Dion Smith and EF Pro Cycling's Moreno Hofland.

It was Groves' second stage win of the week, which meant that the sprinter equalled climber Hindley's haul of victories on the two mountain stages at this year's race – at Falls Creek on stage 2 and Mount Buller on stage 4, where the general classification was won.

Hindley held a four-second overall lead over Mitchelton's Damien Howson after the second stage, with St George Continental youngster Sebastian Berwick a further two seconds back in third place. The podium places switched after stage 4 to Mount Buller after Berwick finished second on the stage to Hindley, and those positions from Saturday were maintained until after Sunday's final stage, after which Hindley could be crowned the winner, taking the 2020 title by 17 seconds from Berwick – who lost seven seconds on the run-in to the line – and 36 seconds from Howson.

"I'm super relieved to finish the race off and get the win, and repay all the boys for all the hard work they've done this week," Hindley said soon after crossing the finish line next to Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens.

"It's pretty amazing to get my name on that trophy," he added when reminded of some of the past winners of Australia's oldest stage race. "There are some pretty big names on there, so for me this is a huge win. It's the biggest win of my career, and I'm thrilled to get it."

How it unfolded

As expected, Ben Hill (Team BridgeLane) attacked from the gun, keen to wrap up his lead in the green points jersey competition at the day's intermediate sprints, with the first coming after five laps of the 4.05km circuit, which would be covered 22 times for a stage distance of 89.1km.

The bunch seemed unsure about letting him get away so early, making for a fast, aggressive start for everyone, and a flurry of attacks from various riders were shut down.

EF Pro Cycling's James Whelan initiated the first break that stuck on lap 2, and seven riders got clear with him: Hill, Oliver's Real Food Racing's Brendon Davids, Hiroshi Tsubaki (Kinan), Alex Cataford (Israel Start-Up Nation), Jay Vine (Nero Continental) and Jesse Ewart (Team Sapura Cycling).

What might have otherwise been a processional final stage was spiced up by the fact that Vine and Ewart, who had made the break, were on equal time overall in fifth and sixth place, respectively, and so wanted to compete against Hill in the intermediate sprints for the bonus seconds on offer, while Hill was chasing the points.

The seven-man breakaway had built up a lead of half a minute after three laps, and when Michael Freiburg (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast) made it across, it made eight riders at the head of affairs, heading towards the first of the day's two intermediate sprints.

Hill led it out for the sprint after five laps, with Vine and Ewart on his wheel, but they remained in that position across the line, meaning that Hill took the maximum six points for the points jersey that he wanted, while Vine took a two-second time bonus to leapfrog Ewart into fifth place overall, leaving Ewart a second behind overall, in sixth.

After that, the eight riders settled down to maintain their lead, working well together to keep their lead hovering around the 40-second mark, although Hill soon decided to  drop back, having done enough to secure the green jersey.

Behind them, the bunch was controlled by race leader Hindley's Sunweb team, and Vine went clear through the second and last intermediate sprint to take the three bonus seconds and extend his overall lead from Ewart.

With two laps of the circuit to go, the seven were still hanging out on their own by about 12 seconds, but the day out in front had taken its toll on them, and on the penultimate climb of Anderson Street, only Ewart and Vine were left.

The two riders came through with one lap to go with a small gap over the chasing peloton, still led by Sunweb squad, but as Ewart and Vine were swept up, Mitchelton-Scott took control to deliver their sprinter, Groves, to victory, with the team's Dion Smith carrying enough speed through the line to finish ahead of EF Pro Cycling's Moreno Hofland.

"The guys did a perfect job of keeping me fresh on every stage, and delivering me to the finishes as smoothly as possible, so I think the result is pretty good for the week," said Groves after taking his second stage victory of the week.

"We've been on the podium on almost every stage, so it's been a successful week for the team."

Results

General classification