Gerrans Wins Tour Down Under Fifth Stage

Last updated : 26 January 2013 By Kev Monks

The Australians were cheering on their National Day as Orica Green Edge's Simon Gerrans won the fifth stage of the 15th Santos Tour Down Under.

Today's stage saw three laps of Aldinga Beach and two of Old Wallunga Hill and saw the race leave McLaren Vale heading on a 149.5km stage for Old Wallunga Hill.

On Australia Day, the stage started without Daryl Impey and saw Uni SA riders on the attack from the start as soon as kilometre zero was reached.

At speeds of 53kmph, a group of ten riders, which included the likes of Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM), Matt Goss (Orica GreenEdge), Martin Kohler (BMC) and Jack Bobridge (Blanco), started to get away from the peloton which had race leader Geraint Thomas and British Champion Ian Stannard near the front as they went down Aldinga Beach for the first time.

With 126.8kms to go, Thomas De Gendt, Jens Mouris, Calvin Watson, Koen De Kort, Klaas Lodewyck, Manuele Boaro and Thomas Marczynski,  were part of a seven man group off the front of the race.

Thirteen kilometres later, they built up a lead of 3.23 which meant that De Kort was the virtual leader on the road.

The first Jayco sprint at Snapper Point and saw Thomas De Gendt get himself into the right place to take the three points ahead of Boaro and Jens Mouris.

With 81kms left and heading out to start the last circuit of Aldinga Beach, the lead had gone out to four minutes.

Team Sky's Berni Eisel was taking some massive turns at the front of the peloton with help from Lotto's Belisol's Andre Greipel at the halfway point in the stage.

Sky then changed tactic and decided to let the other teams do some work to bring back the escapers who had built up a lead of 4.15 with 65kms to go.

That did the trick and the gap dropped dramatically by half, giving Geraint Thomas his ocre leaders jersey back.

The second sprint came again at Snapper Point after 103kms in temperatures more suited to the Europeans than the Australians and again it was De Gendt who just beat Calvin Watson.

That complete, it was time to start on the two laps of Old Wallunga Hill. The peloton which had been on the road for two and a half hours, had the escapers, a minute ahead in sight.

As the riders got in Wallunga, only Vacansoleil's Thomas Marczynski was  out on his own and starting the 3km climb up to the summit of Old Wallunga Hill where the finish line was, for the first time.

The two Movistar riders in Herrada and Capecchi caught Marczynski along with an AG2R rider in Bonnafond but Jurgen Roelandt attacked after the Pole was dropped and joined the quartet.

Eros Capecchi took the points as they crested the summi to take his tally to fourteen, some two behind Thomas and six behind Jack Bobridge in the King Of The Mountains competition.

Speeds reached 100kmph as the quartet descended back down towards the vineyards.

They had a 45 second lead with 5.5kms to go  Radio Shack's 41 year old Jens Voigt was pulling the peloton along and with 2.8kms left, the quartet's break was finished.

Tiago Machado who was only fifteen seconds down, attacked whilst Geraint Thomas was led up the hill by Edvald Boason Hagen. Third placed Javier Moreno moved up to the leaders.   

With every second counting, Moreno was caught by Simon Gerrans and Thomas Slagter. 

Gerrans and Slagter sprinted it out and it was the day of the Aussie as Simon Gerrans won in a time of 3.36.25 with Slagter taking the six seconds bonus to take the race lead with one stage to go.

Geraint Thomas is now fifth in the General Classification.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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