Richie Porte solos to Tour Down Under win

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Richie Porte (Team Sky) won a "very special victory" on the 151.5km race to the top of  Willunga Hill by 10 seconds over Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) who regains the overall classification lead at the Tour Down Under. Porte attacked with 2km to race and was joined by Cadel Evans (BMC) before riding away from his rivals to claim his first win of 2014 on the packed slopes of the day's climb.

It appeared that Porte's attack was going to give him both the stage and the overall lead but his gap was narrowed with Gerrans and Ulissi attacking in the final 100m and he now sits fourth overall with just tomorrow's street race around Adelaide to come. With nine bonus seconds on offer in intermediate sprint points and 10 seconds on the finish line, the final day of racing could provide further exciting racing.

"The guys were absolutely incredible today, it was a little bit of a shame on the Corkscrew stage being a little bit out of position and I lost some time. But I felt great coming into today and the team had a plan and the boys were absolutely incredible all day," Porte said after claiming the win.

"This result is more than I hoped for. It was a very stressful day with crosswinds but I had my team doing an incredible work for me. Ian Stannard, Bernhard Eisel, Luke Rowe, the Classics' guys… I just had to sit in their back pocket all day. I panicked a little bit and Stannard said he'd drop me at the right place."

Porte is building for his season objective, victory in the Giro d'Italia in May, but showed his class when the roads start heading upwards and was grateful to repay the faith Sky have placed in the Tasmanian. "It's January, I'm not yet in top form just yet but to win in Australia on this climb is a very special victory," Porte said.

"Winning here means everything for me. Sky is such a great team. It's a great way to repay them for the belief they have in me."

Simon Gerrans entered the race needing to find eight seconds to end the stage in the leaders' ochre jersey and did just that. He now enters the final day with a one second lead over Evans which is a similar scenario to 2012 when he last won the race.

"All the way up the climb, I always knew what I had to do. I needed to save energy for the very last part. Earlier on, we had Matt Goss at the front, then Daryl (Impey) and Simon (Clarke) looked after me. It's a dream result to get the jersey back," Gerrans said in the aftermath of the race.

"It's only by one second though. Actually it's one second more than two years ago (against Alejandro Valverde) but it's still going to be tight and nervous tomorrow. I'm very pleased to be back in the lead." 

The day had begun with riders trying to make the day's break with Mark O'Brien (UniSA) starting proceedings but he missed out. In the break were Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Jens Voigt (Trek Factory Racing) Jose Lobato (Movistar) and Mikhail Ignatyev (Katusha).

The break built a lead of eight minutes after 50km of racing with the peloton deciding to let the four riders go which meant that there was no possibility of Gerrans gaining bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint points. Orica-GreenEdge decided the break's time was up and started to up the tempo as BMC, Sky and Garmin-Sharp came forward to help out with the chase.

Voigt crested the first ascent of Willunga Hill but the break was reeled in on the descent back into Willunga so that when the race went up the climb for a second time it was all together. The crowds on the climb was one of the largest seen at the race cheering on every cyclist on both ascents.

As the climb started to head upwards, on the front of the peloton was BMC and Evans and the race leader then tried to distance his rivals. With 2km to go, Porte put the hammer down and was briefly joined by Evans before increasing his speed while Gerrans remained cool with Daryl Impey by his side.

Evans began to fade and sat up to join Ulissi and Gerrans and the three headed for the finish line and in another impressive showing at the race, Diego Ulissi beat Gerrans in the sprint for second place who he now trails by five seconds in the overall. Evans finished the stage in sixth place alongside Robert Gesink (Belkin) and Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) after they caught him in the final hundred meters and the three crossed the line together.

Gerrans ended the stage in the box seat for his third overall Tour Down Under victory and GreenEdge sport director Matt White said after the race the team are confident ahead of tomorrow's criterium stage.

"Even if Cadel hadn't been dropped today, we were pretty confident we could have gotten three seconds tomorrow. Now we don't have to, and we can play it defensive," White said.

"Over the last three years, he's done well on this climb. It's a climb that suits him. This climb is always won in the last kilometre, so long as he didn't get distanced too much in the steep part at the bottom, he could attack at the top. Simon is very smart, and he rode a very calculating climb."

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