Santos Tour Down Under 2015: Stage 6

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January 1 - January 25, King William Road, Adelaide, Adelaide, Road - WorldTour

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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.

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.

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

Just ten minutes until we start the stage 

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.

The riders are on the start line and just about ready to start the 91km stage

The riders are off!

90km remaining from 90km

Three riders have attacked 

Lasse Norman Hansen (Cannondale-Garmin), Laurent Didier (Trek) and Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) are the three leaders out in front

Four riders are trying to bridge across the the leaders at the moment

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) is one of the four riders trying to catch the trio

At the first ascent of Montefiore Hill, it is all back together again

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 2/20: Three riders are trying to force a gap and have 200 metres on the peloton

Lap 2/20: The riders that are away are from Lotto-Jumbo, Trek, Tinkoff-Saxo and Ag2r

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)

The two intermediate sprint points today are at the finish/start line on lap's 8 and 12

Lap 3/20: Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) is trying to bridge to the leaders who have a 15 second lead over the peloton

The two KOM points of the stage take place on Montefiore Hill at laps 10 and 15

Lap 3/20: The leaders have a 18 second gap

Lap 3/30: Orica-GreenEdge are leading the peloton with BMC sitting in right behind them

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?

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 gap has gone out to 17 seconds for the leaders

Lap 7/20: Cam Meyer is the rider doing all the work for GreenEdge at the moment

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 

Wouter Wippert (Drapac) puncture

Lap 8/20: Meyer is still driving this as GreenEdge are after the points for Impey to claim the points jersey

The break has been caught just before the sprint point

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

Lap 8/20: Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) and a Tinkoff-Saxo rider are trying to get clear now

iiNET sprint results
1: Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge)
2: Mat Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge)
3: Michael Schär (BMC)

Lap 9/20: Five riders are now clear of the peloton

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

Lars Boom takes the first KOM point of the day

Giant-Alpecin and Drapac are now controlling the peloton as the two teams with sprinters that will challenge for the win

Lap 11/20: The break is working well and now have one minute over the peloton

Lap 11/20: The lead is continuing to grow and is now at 1:10 minutes back to the peloton

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 12/20: Lars Bak takes out the second sprint point with little contest from the breakaway

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

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 14/20: The gap has come down to under a minute now with the leaders advantage at 55 seconds

Back in the peloton, Giant-Alpecin, BMC, Orica-GreenEdge and Drapac are controlling this chase

2ND iiNET sprint result
1: Lars Ytting Bak
2: Alex Howes
3: Lars Boom

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 16/20: The leaders gap is down to 47 seconds now

Here are the second and final KOM results
1: Lars Boom
2: Lars Ytting Bak
3: Peter Kennaugh

We are into the final five laps of the race now

Lap 17/20: The gap is continuing to come down and is it 37 seconds now

Manuele Mori (Lampre-Merida) has crashed and abandoned the race

There has been another crash in the peloton on a tight left-hander as the pace quickens

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

Etixx-Quick Step are moving up now as they look to get ready for the finale with Mark Renshaw

Marco Coledan has been named as the Trek rider who crashed on that last lap

Manuele Boaro is the most aggressive rider from today

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

Manuele Boaro is the rider making the attack

Lap 19/20:  Boaro is out by himself by 100m but the teams are getting organised with 10km left

Lap 19/20: Etixx-Quick Step are driving this bunch now

Lap 19/20: A big crash has brought down half the bunch

Lap 19/20: Team Sky are driving the bunch which has slimmed it considerably but no GC men look to have been caught up

Lap 19/20: Marcel Kittel has been caught out in that crash so he won't be contesting the finish now

Final Lap: Lampre-Merida are at the front now for Niccolò Bonifazio

Team Sky are working hard to cause a split

Final three kilometres for the front bunch!

GreenEdge are taking over at the front for Impey now

It is a very fast and frenetic finish as the teams are spread all over the road

Wouter Wippert wins the final stage ahead of Haussler

Top ten on the stage

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

Find the early report and results for the stage by clicking here

Keep on clicking back for the full results and photos from today's stage which concludes the Tour Down Under for another year

Rohan Dennis (BMC) is the overall winner of the Tour Down Under

12km remaining from 90km

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