Santos Tour Down Under 2015: Stage 4

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January 1 - January 25, Glenelg, Adelaide, Road - WorldTour

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Welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 4 of the 2015 Santos Tour Down Under 

Today's fourth stage of the 2015 Tour Down Under starts in the seaside suburb of Glenelg and heads south to Sellicks HIll and Myponga before turning back towards to the city on an Eastern route that will finish in Mount Barker 145km later.

BMC's Rohan Dennis is the leader of the race having won stage three to Paracombe yesterday.

Here is Dennis celebrating his win yesterday with teammate Cadel Evans winning the sprint behind for second place

With just under 30 minutes under we get underway for today's stage, let's look at the classifications as they currently stand

With just under 30 minutes under we get underway for today's stage, let's look at the classifications as they currently stand

With just under 30 minutes under we get underway for today's stage, let's look at the classifications as they currently stand

Cyclingnews' Jean-François Quénet caught up with Maxime Bouet before the stage today, read about the Frenchman by clicking here 

Over in Argentina, it was stage four of the Tour de San Luis today

 

 

With Dennis leading the general, young rider and KOM jerseys, he obviously can't wear them all.

With Dennis leading the general, young rider and KOM jerseys, he obviously can't wear them all.

The Hour Record has received plenty of attention this week with the two leaders of the Tour Down Under both making an attempt at the mark set by Matthias Brändle back in October.

We getting very close to the start of stage three today and the locals must be excited as this is the first time in ten years that Glenelg has hosted a stage of the Tour Down Under.

Rohan Dennis had this say having signed on for the first time in the leader's ochre jersey.

And here is Dennis in the leader's jersey

We are about to start stage 4 of the race

There is a 7.2km neutral zone today before we start racing

The one KOM of today's stage is located at Main South Road, Sellicks Hill at 44.2km

The first iiNet Sprint is at Adelaide-Goolwa Road, Ashbourne after 89.6km

The second iiNet Sprint is at Venables Street, Macclesfield after 117.1km

The one Powerade Hydration Station of the stage is at Nangkita Road, Mt Compass.

Before the stage Cadel Evans also had a few words to say, explained what he said to Dennis on the final climb of the day.

The race is officially under way in Marion!

With all the riders finishing yesterday's stage and no riders abandoning this morning, the size of the peloton is 131 riders

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Puncture for Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team)

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 Jeremy Roy (FDJ) puncture

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) launched an attack but its all back together now

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Another puncture, this time it's Olivier Le Gac

Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin) is with the race doctor post-crash

Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin) will play no more part of the race now with race radio announcing he is abandoning

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Mathew Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge) is after a new rear wheel

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So far this morning it has been attack, attack, attack and BMC are weathering all the blows. Team Sky will be sitting back and letting them work while protecting Richie Porte and keeping him fresh for tomorrow's climb up Willunga Hill 

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Rear puncture for Bert-Jan Lindeman

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With this break looking to be the one of the day, let's see what some of the riders had to say on the startline

Barry Markus (Lotto-Jumbo): "This might be my day if it's a sprint finish. Yesterday I suffered the heat like many Europeans but today the conditions are good for us."

Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida): "We strongly hope for a sprint finish today. We also hope the wind will not blow too strongly. We intend to profit from other team's work and set up a sprint finish for Bonifazio. Cimolai and myself are the lead out men."

Sebastien Chavanel (FDJ): "We hope for a sprint finish and we'll work om it towards the end. We continue to look for coordination to lead out our sprinters for the whole season. Here it's neo pro Lorrenzo Manzin. He is finding the rhythm of the pro peloton really well. It's a good start of his career."

You can read about Manzin by clicking here

The first race leader of the TDU, Bobridge, is now the virtual leader on the road/ Bobridge started the day 39 seconds down on race leader Rohan Dennis 

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Are you after a new set of wheels? Read our Zipp 404 Firestrike Clincher review by clicking here

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Bobridge reclaims his KOM lead with first place up the climb today

Having secured the blue polka dot jersey, Bobridge has sat up and is now waiting for the peloton to pick him up with BMC still leading the chase

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Here's some news you might have missed out on regarding the UCI's suspension of Zorzoli from anti-doping work. Click here to read the article

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Here's what yesterday's third place getter, Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpcein had to say on the start line: "We've been here almost two weeks, so we've had some great training and some fine weather. The racing's been hard, but we're here to make a good race. I'm up there on GC, and hope to end up on the podium. We also want to try to win a stage with Marcel. Tomorrow will be the big day for GC."

Ian Stannard of Team Sky also shared his thoughts: "It's been good so far. We've been doing a lot work, but that's what we're here for. We're motivated to ride for Richie. It was a tough day for the GC yesterday, but we still have three days of racing. BMC rode a great race, so congrats to them."

 

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When we know more about Lawson Craddock's crash we will let you know

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Puncture for Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r)

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So ahead of the first intermdaite sprint point let recap the situation:

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Number one iiNET sprint results at Macclesfield:
1: Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge)
2: Luke Rowe (Team Sky)
3: Mark Renshaw (Etixx-Quick Step)

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Impey picked up three bonus seconds with that sprint win but remains tenth on GC for now

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The second iiNET Sprint is coming up but these three will scoop up the bonus seconds so don't expect the GC guys to content the sprint when they come through

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Result from the second iiNET Sprint at Macclesfield:
1:Maxim Belkov (Katusha)
2:Ruslan Tleubayev (Astana)
3:Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step)

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Cedric Pineau (FDJ) is today's most competitive rider.

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The peloton has split into three groups with Kittel in the third group, two minutes the main bunch. Nathan Haas is leading a group of ten back to the main bunch

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There has been little sign of IAM Cycling today having been ever present at the front of the bunch all week

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This could be a dangerous move so BMC have come forward to chase them back

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Steele von Hoff wins the stage while a crash brings down the bunch behind

1 Steele von Hoff (Aus) UniSA-Australia
2 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica GreenEdge
3 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling

Steele von Hoff upstages the WorldTour sprinters will his second win of the season and first WorldTour victory over Impey and Wippert

A crash in the final 150m saw an FDJ rider hit the ground first but none of those riders will lose time on GC.

You can find our race report by clicking here which will updates as we receive the full results and photographs.

Thanks for joining us for live coverage of today's stage

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