Tour Down Under: Porte seals overall victory in Adelaide

Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) closed out the best week of his career with his fourth stage win at the Tour Down Under. The Australian won the final stage ahead of World Champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Marko Kump (Team UAE Abu Dhabi).

Ewan wasn’t the only Australian to celebrate with Richie Porte (BMC Racing) safely crossing the line to win the Tour Down Under for the fist time in his career. Ewan and Porte were the only riders to win stages of this year’s race with the BMC leader dominating at Paracombe and Willunga, while Ewan closed out all four sprint stages.

The battle for the GC went down to the wire with regards to the rest of the podium, with Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) winning a mid-stage time bonus that bumped him ahead of Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) and into third. Esteban Chaves finished second in the overall, 48 seconds down on the unstoppable Porte.

The final stage, however, belonged to Ewan who has already crossed the line first in seven races this year, four of them at the WorldTour level. The 22-year-old was simply too good for the opposition once more on the final stage, and after another strong leadout from Orica Scott he held off the last desperate challenge from Peter Sagan.

The World Champion, not a natural bunch sprinter, has nevertheless been Ewan’s closest competitor throughout the week and although he is still searching for his first win of 2017, he is conscious that bigger goals lie ahead this spring. His Bora team do leave Adelaide with something to celebrate after Sagan led McCarthy out for an intermediate sprint. The time bonus gained was enough to help McCarthy jump into third overall.

How it happened

The two-hour Criterium in central Adelaide involved a number of subplots. Although Porte had to only stay upright to win the final podium positions, and the King of the Mountains competition were far from over.

It was little surprise then to see Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) power clear soon after the start. The former Giro d’Italia podium finisher was wearing the KOM jersey but needed to take home points in order to permanently wrestle the jersey from Porte. The Belgian swung clear with and Gianluca Brambilla (Quick - Step Floors).

The pair worked well together, leading the peloton through the opening laps before the bunch finally reacted as the intermediate sprint, and McCarthy’s chances of a podium were before the KOM points.

And it was Sagan who turned leadout man, helping his Australian teammate to edge out Ewan.

De Gendt would have his glory though, with Adam Hansen delivering him to the line to take the crucial KOM points.

A brief let-up in pace saw Johannes Frohlinger (Team Sunweb). Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data), Jaco Venter (Dimension Data), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Francois Bidard (AG2R La Mondiale), and Jack Bauer (Quick-Step Floors) go clear.

The Kiwi – making the break for the third time in as many days, was once again the last man standing, powering clear after the break’s advantage had dropped from just under a minute to a slender 18 seconds.

However, with two laps remaining, even the heroic efforts from Bauer couldn’t stop the inevitable as Team Sky, BMC Racing and Orica Scott swarmed the front of the bunch.

Sky pressed, and Sagan mustered up another valiant attempt but in the end it was futile. This has been Ewan’s and Porte’s race from start to finish.

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