Santos Tour Down Under 2015: Stage 6
January 1 - January 25, King William Road, Adelaide, Adelaide, Road - WorldTour
Welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the sixth and final stage of the 2015 Santos Tour Down Under.
It is one hour until the final stage of the Santos Tour Down Under starts in the heart of Adelaide.
Yesterday Richie Porte (Team Sky) repeated his Willunga Hill heroics of 2014 to claim the stage win ahead of Rohan Dennis.
Porte now sits in second place overall, two seconds behind Dennis who is poised to claim his first WorldTour stage race.
Watch the highlights of stage five by clicking here ahead of the processional final stage for the sprinters
Sitting in third place overall is Cadel Evans (BMC) while Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) is in fourth place overall.
Over in Argentina, the Tour de San Luis is also coming to a conclusion.
Catch up the full results and report of stage six by clicking here
Today's course takes place on the familiar roads of Adelaide's northern city centre with a slight change to the 2015 route. The rider will make their way down King William Road further than before with the new turn around point at Victoria Square.
Cyclingnnews spoke to Orica-GreenEdge's sport director Matt White to get his thoughts on the stage
Matt White says: "Its the not the circuit that we used in 2014 or the traditional circuit we've used for the last few years but I guaranteed it will be flat and fast. Depending on how general classification is standing, this will determine the nature of this last stage. With several editions of the Tour Down Under having come down to the wire with 19 bonus seconds still available on the final day, anything can still happen."
Winner - The mantle of the new sprint king down under is up for grabs.
The question for today is can anybody beat Marcel Kittel of Giant-Alpecin? He will start the day as the outright favourite and his team will be working hard to ensure it all finishes with a bunch sprint
Last year it was Andre Greipel who won the stage but he isn't taking part in the 2015 edition of the race.
Three riders have attacked
Lasse Norman Hansen (Cannondale-Garmin), Laurent Didier (Trek) and Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) are the three leaders out in front
The riders comes through to start lap two and the peloton is in one long line as more attacks are launched
In its previous 16 editions, the Tour Down Under has only enjoyed a South Australian winner on three occasions. Pat Jonker in 2004 and Stuart O'Grady back in 1999 and 2001
Lap 3/20: A Lotto-Soudal rider has joined the leaders now while a Katusha rider is also trying to get across
Lap 3/20: The riders in that break are Greg Henderson (Lotto-Soudal), Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin), Calvin Watson (Trek), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale)
Lap 3/20: Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) is trying to bridge to the leaders who have a 15 second lead over the peloton
Lap 4/20: The gap is out to 24 seconds now
With three bonus seconds on offer to the first rider over the line at the intermediate sprint points, will Team Sky try and get Richie Porte over the line first to move into the lead?
It will be a tactical affair and one that BMC are well prepared for. Last year they were in a the reverse position as Evans' started the day one second down in Simon Gerrans so will know how hard it is to steal time on this stage
Lap 4/20: Impey has his Orica-GreenEdge teammates controlling the gap to the break with the South African looking to secure the points classification and move up the GC
As the break comes through to start Lap 5, they have a 21 second lead over the GreenEdge controlled peloton
This is Alexis Gougeard's second year in the pro peloton having made his debut with Ag2r last year. The 21-year-old claimed two wins last year and you can read about him by clicking here
Lap 5/20: The five riders lead is at 19 seconds but the with first sprint point of the day coming up, the peloton may look to make the catch on this lap
Lap 6/20: The five riders have 15 seconds now as Team Sky move up to help GreenEdge control this gap
Calvin Watson has been very active in this race having made it into several breakaway. Is he the new Jens Voigt for Trek?
Lap 7/20: The peloton comes through to start a new lap the gap is just 13 seconds with the average speed of the race 44km/h
Lap 7/20: The members of the quintet are looking back to check how close the peloton is as it sucks them up
Lap 7/20: The members of the quintet are looking back to check how close the peloton which is just behind it
Lap 7/20: The breakaway heads to the turn around point at Victoria Square and it's just a 10 second gap
Lap 8/20: Meyer is still driving this as GreenEdge are after the points for Impey to claim the points jersey
GreenEdge caused a small split there with Mat Hayman dropping off Impey to win that quiet easily in the end as Michael Schar (BMC) grabs third
iiNET sprint results
1: Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge)
2: Mat Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge)
3: Michael Schär (BMC)
Lap 9/20: Those riders in the break are Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto-Soudal), Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo), Christopher Juul Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Lars Boom (Astana)
Lap 10/20: At the half way point of the race, Miles Scotson (UniSA) is trying to bridge across to the leaders on the road
None of the riders in this break are a threat to any classifications so the peloton may just let them enjoy some TV time with 45km left to race
Giant-Alpecin and Drapac are now controlling the peloton as the two teams with sprinters that will challenge for the win
Lap 12/20: The breakaway riders are all taking turns on the front and as a consequence the gap has grown again to be 1:15 minutes
Lap 12/20: BMC are at the head of the peloton now as the sprinters teams are losing control of the chase or are they decided to leave it late and let the break enjoy some time out in front?
There is no Australian representation in the break but we do have a Brit, American, Dutchman, Italian and two Danes
Lap 13/20: The breakaway's advantage is reaming steady at 1:12 minutes with everyone seemingly happy with how things stand for now
Last year they were known as NetApp-Endura but in 2015 they go by Bora-Argon 18
Check out a gallery of the team training in Spain by clicking here
Lap 14/20: The final KOM of the Tour Down Under is coming up and then it will be all for the final sprint
Lap 15/20: The riders have gone through the KOM point and with no riders challenging for that classification, Jack Bobridge will win the award when he crosses the finish line
Lap 17/20: The gap is down to under 30 seconds now so the peloton will be able to see them on the long straight very soon
Lap 17/20: Drapac are working hard on the front as they are looking to drop off Wouter Wippert for the win today
Lap 17/20: The chance of Richie Porte stealing the three seconds he needs to win the race overall is getting slimmer by each lap as the sprinters team's work hard to bring this breakaway back
Lap 17/20: The break lost 14 seconds of its advantage on that last lap and it is just 20 seconds between the six leaders and the main bunch
Lap 18/20: Giant-Alpecin are moving to the front now as the peloton passes under the KOM banner, the lead is just 8 seconds
Lap 19/20: The peloton makes the catch of the break as they pass under the finish line but it is a Tinkoff-Saxo rider launching a counter attack
Lap 19/20: Team Sky are driving the bunch which has slimmed it considerably but no GC men look to have been caught up
Top ten on the stage
1 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling 1:56:09
2 Heinrich Haussler (Aus) IAM Cycling
3 Boris Vallée (Bel) Lotto Soudal
4 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Tinkoff-Saxo
5 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica GreenEdge
6 Niccolò Bonifazio (Ita) Lampre-Merida
7 Steele von Hoff (Aus) UniSA-Australia
8 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
9 Rudiger Selig (Ger) Team Katusha
10 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) FDJ.fr
2015 Tour Down Under general classification
1 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 19:15:18
2 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky 0:00:02
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:20
4 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:22
5 Rubén Fernandez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:24
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:31
7 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica GreenEdge 0:00:35
8 Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:52
9 Jarlinson Pantano (Col) IAM Cycling 0:00:53
10 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:57
That was Drapac's first ever win at the Tour Down Under and first ever WorldTour win for Wouter Wippert
Heinrich Haussler was well positioned for the fast finale but the fast finish of Wippert elevated the 24-year-old into first place by a bike length
Keep on clicking back for the full results and photos from today's stage which concludes the Tour Down Under for another year
Thanks for joining our live coverage of the race this year. We hope you have enjoyed it and will join us throughout the season as we continue to provide live coverage of the world's biggest cycling races
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