Tour Down Under stage 5 - Live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of finale stage 5 of the Tour Down Under to Mount Lofty!

We're just moments away from the final stage of the Santos Tour Down Under. What a week it's been, and it's not over yet. Today's stage is the final chance for the GC riders to make their mark. 

Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) could be among those chasing the stage victory to try and make a mark. The Australian champion said before the stage: 

"Hopefully I’ll have a bit of a loose leash and can go up the road and try and have some fun tomorrow. I was out of the GC race after Corkscrew so it would be nice if I could go up the road tomorrow and get a result but we will look at how close the GC is and obviously the climbers will still want to go at us. I think it will be quite an aggressive day. I think definitely Jayco want to have something from this tour and they want to win it so I’m expecting them to take it up to UAE for sure and hopefully us boys can make something happen with Ethan and if I can show the Aussie jersey and be up there that would be awesome.”

The official start may not have been signaled yet, but already fans are staking their claim on the roadside plots up Mount Lofty and cyclists making their way up on the closed roads.

We're still riding through the neutral zone before Stuart O'Grady drops the flag at KM 0. 

We're about just four minutes away from the start of the final stage. 

The key feature is that they're climbing Mt Lofty five times today. So it's expected to see lots of GC attacks earlier in the race.

The race leader, Jay Vine, has 15 seconds on his challengers. It's going be a hard day for him to police the peloton and manage the onslaught.

We're approaching the turn where the neutral section will end. Soon racing will be underway. 

And we're off and racing! The course starts on an incline, and Honore is pulling hard at the front, working to protect his KOM jersey, (even though this climb isn't part of the KOM). He'll be looking to get into whatever break gets up the road. 

There was a small group of 10 that snuck away, but that didn't last long. 

The attacks have settled down for now, but the pace is still high. 

More attacks have started. This time it's Lluis Mas for Movistar who is having a stab. Victor Lafay is going as well. 

Taj Jones, who had that hard crash yesterday, is drifting off the back of the peloton. Looks like he may be a DNF today with the fresh injuries impacting him.

And it's back together in the peloton now. 

We're through the finish for the first time and on the descent now. Movistar has been active since the start of the race and continues to keep the tempo high. 

There's 100km to go, and the next lap will have KOM points on offer. 

A small group of four is off the front that contains Michael Matthews. No time gap yet.

Matthews looking for the points jersey with the intermediate sprint. And he does get the max points across the line. 

After the intermediate sprint, a group of 12 has formed off the front, but the peloton is still unsettled. 

88km to go

A big group of about 13 rider has 20 seconds. The best rider on GC is Chris Hamilton, who is over five minutes back.

This is a good break for Jay Vine so they might actually be allowed to stay away. Depends on how bad Education First feel the threat is to Mikkel Honore's KOM jersey.

Luis Leon Sanchez is trying to cross to the break for Astana with 4km to go the top of the climb. 

The gap is down to 15 seconds for the large group up the road. 

Mount Lofty is a relatively short climb at 1.5km, but it averages 6.8 percent. They'll climb this five times.

But the gap is growing again as it looks like the chase from EF Education has stalled. 

Johan Jacobs, Matthew Dinham, Chris Hamilton were 1, 2, and 3 over KOM point.

Hepburn, Lapeira, Brustenga, Bidard, Lafay, Gaze, Swift, Roosen, Jacobs, Hamilton, Dinham, Haller and Le Berre are the riders off the front. They have about 40 seconds on the peloton. 

The break includes two Team DSM riders, Chris Hamilton and new signing Matt Dinham who spoke to Cyclingnews on the sidelines of yesterday’s stage, where he foreshadowed that stage 5 would be an opportunity for the duo: 

“I have felt really good on the climbs so far and obviously Chris Hamilton has been climbing really well so far so I think we should have a good crack at tomorrow's stage and see what we can do,” Dinham said.

Hamilton may be a familiar face on the WorldTour, but it's the opening race with the team for 22-year-old Dinham, who also has those mountain bike handling skills to help him through the descents.

Bahrain is on front of peloton at the moment. Pello Bilbao in third on GC, so they might be trying to launch him across to the break. 

The break has 51 seconds, but the peloton isn't easing off of this. 

We're inside the final 60km of this year's tour. The gap to the 13 up the road is down to 30 seconds. The peloton isn't giving this group much of anything. 

Bahrain Victorious is really doing some damage to the peloton in anticipation of Bilbao perhaps attacking later on in the race. He's 15 seconds away from the ochre jersey. Also, there are 10 bonus seconds at the finish line. 

The riders are heading through the feed zone and filling up their pockets with snacks and bottle cages with bidons.

Jay Vine's UAE team has a big task today to keep his 15 second lead safe. 

42km to go

The leaders are heading down the descent toward the second intermediate sprint at Uraidla. 

One of the riders to watch out for is Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën):

“Sunday is going to be really more down my alley because it is hard all day, really lumpy roads and I think the teams and us can make the race hard, create some more seconds to make sure you can definitely be in the top ten but hopefully can be in the top 5."

We're only 35km away from home, and the aggressiveness in the peloton has skyrocketed. The gap is just 20 seconds.

We're inside 30km to go, and the peloton is finally catching the 13 off the front. 

The peloton is at the base of Mt. Lofty for the penultimate time. 

The attacks are flying out of the peloton again. Imanol Erviti from Movistar is having a go, but everything has been marked so far. 

20km to go

Max Schachmann has been on the attack several times with less than 20km to go. 

A group of eight has 15 seconds on the peloton. 

Matteo Cattaneo has accelerated out of the front group. 

A look at the earlier break today. 

Cattaneo is off the front with a small gap. He has about 10km to go!

Cattaneo has been reabsorbed and now Ewen Costiou ( Team Arkea) attacks. 

Rutsch is giving it another go after yesterday's time in the break. 

More attacks from the front group as the peloton bears down on them.

It's going to come back together as they head up a little climb that takes them from Algate to Stirling. 

The ochre jersey of Jay Vine is in a great position as they start climbing again. 

Yates and Bilbao are marking each other closely. 

Just 5km to go in the Tour Down Under! 

There are about 30-40 riders left in the main bunch. Nans Peters is attacking. 

Ah, that was an attempt to get closer to his team leader, Ben O'Connor. 

Team DSM is moving up to the front of the peloton with 4km to go. 

But Rohan Dennis is the one driving the pace at the front. It will be hard to attack with his engine setting a hard tempo. 

Jayco is now at the front with 2.5km to go. 

There's been a crash at the back of the peloton. Sean Quinn is involved. 

Yates finally launches an attack. Immediately Vine responds. 

Ben O'Connor has also gone with Yates. Bilbao hasn't been seen yet. 

The trio has opened up a gap of about 10 seconds. And Yates attacks from the front again. 

He can't shake O'Connor and Vine. They'll go into the finish together for a sprint. 

O'Connor is leading it out. Yates is at the back. 

Vine winds it up, but Yates pips him on the line for the stage win. 

Jay Vine (UAE Emirates) has won the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under! 

Simon Yates won the final stage of the Tour Down Under ahead of overall winner Jay Vine. 

After a week of racing in the Adelaide Hills, Jay Vine (UAE) is the overall winner. Mikkel Honore (EF Education Easypost) takes home the king of the mountains jersey, Michael Matthews (Jayco-Alula) wins the sprint jersey and Magnus Sheffield (INEOS) is the best young rider. 

Here is the moment Jay Vine is crowned the winner of the Tour Down Under. 

This was the sprint to the Mount lofty finishline. 

It was close but Yates won it.

But Vine kept the leader's jersey.

Thanks for following live coverage of the Tour Down Under. 

To read out full stage report and results, and to see our growing photo gallery, click below.

Vine wins Tour Down Under, Yates takes final stage