Tour Down Under 2014 - Stage 5

The Tour Down Under continued today with its Queen stage from McLaren Vale to the famous Old Willunga Hill. The Hill has seen many classic battles over the years, 2010 with Luis Leon Sanchez, 2012 between Gerrans and Valverde, and this year it promised to be a good fight with Cadel Evans leading Simon Gerrans by just a few seconds.

A four man breakaway escaped early on in the day, it contained Jens Voigt (Trek), Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma), Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha). Their lead ballooned to over nine minutes at one point in the stage, and they wiped out the bonus seconds on offer at the intermediate sprints. 

The first time up Old Willunga Hill was frantic for the race, with three of the breakaway still out front, then attacks from riders such as Adam Hansen and Axel Domont meaning it was hard to see which riders were where. After the first lap the race came back together, and a split in the group combined with pushing of the pace from Orica-GreenEDGE meant Cadel Evans was left with just two teammates.

Voigt attacked again on the second time up Old Willunga Hill, but was soon brought back. Richie Porte jumped away, followed by Simon Gerrans and Diego Ulissi. Race leader Cadel Evans tried to follow, but soon lost contact. Porte continued alone, and ended up winning the stage by ten seconds, ahead of Diego Ulissi and Simon Gerrans.

Cadel Evans finished sixth, four seconds down on Gerrans, but a four second bonus on the line for Gerrans means that the 2012 Tour Down Under champion now leads Evans by a solitary second. Today is the day of Richie Porte however, with the Australian taking a victory on home soil; 

"The guys were absolutely incredible today... I felt great today. The team had a plan and the boys were absolutely great today, to win on this climb in Australia is very special."

Tomorrow, the tense Tour Down Under will finally be decided, can Cadel Evans grab the seconds needed to regain his lead? We'll see.