Team Sky's Richie Porte gave it his best shot at winning the Santos Tour Down Under by taking Stage Five but he failed to shake off race leader Rohan Dennis and is second going into the final stage.
Previous visits to Old Willunga Hill have been seen over the years as where the battle for General Classification is decided and with two visits up the hill and only seven seconds between Rohan Dennis and Cadel Evans, this year's stage was expected to be no different.
This was a 151.5km stage from the Main Road, near Tatachilla Road in McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill, which is visited twice, started without Giant Alpecin's Lawson Craddock who was out with a broken sternum, rib and wrist, Lorenzo Manzin of FDJ who spent last night in hospital with lacerations to his knee and Kenny De Haes of Lotto Soudel, who has badly injured fingers/hand.
There was only 500m of a neutral zone for the riders to go through, watched by big crowds and off they went. There were attacks from the start and King Of The Mountains leader Jack Bobridge was in a group of nine riders which got away but was shut down within a kilometre of the attacking starting.
Jordan Kerby of Drapac, Greg Henderson of Lotto Soudal joined Bobridge on the front and the trio soon had a lead of 1.07 and 3.04 with 139kms left.
With twenty two kilometres gone and the riders heading past the beach on a sunny day with a slight wind, the gap was out to 5.18.
The gap went out as far as 5.33 but it was down to 4.51 when they reached the hydration station on Kell Street, Willunga.
Maarten Tjallingii of Dutch registered Lotto Jumbo team abandoned as the three escapers headed for the first Iinet sprint on the The Esplanade at Snapper Point persued by a peloton who had covered the first fifty kilometres at an average speed of 46kmh.
There were 63kms gone when Jordan Kerby rode through to take the three seconds ahead of Henderson and Bobridge.
The gap steadied around five minutes and was still at 4.23, by the time the three escapers went through the 61kms to go mark.
Heading towards the second sprint at Snapper Point, the peloton had reduced the lead of Kerby, Henderson and Bobridge to 3.00 with fifty kilometres left.
Henderson took the sprint ahead of Bobridge and Kerby as behind them, BMC controlled the peloton.
With 44.5kms left, Jordan Kerby of Drapac left Henderson, the most aggressive rider of the day and Bobridge to it, the average speed was still 42.5kmh and for Bobridge, there was the goal of getting to the top of Willunga for the first time and taking the sixteen points which would be enough to give him the King Of Mountains title.
Ten kilometres later and Kerby was back in the peloton whilst Luke Durbridge needed a new bike and Graeme Brown of Drapac, a new back wheel.
Coming into Willunga and their lead was down to 1.40. On the 3km climb of the Old Willunga Hill with gradients of 20% and Henderson told Bobridge to go for it.
Away went the Uni SA rider past the massive crowds, the fastest man in the world over 4,000 metres was grimacing as he went over the steepest part of the climb whilst behind him, Astana led the peloton who were 1.23 back with Cadel Evans in fifth wheel.
Rohan Dennis who could still take the KOM title moved up to sixth place but Bobridge was fighting his way through the crowds and he went over the top first to lead by fourteen points and he started on the final lap of 22.3kms.
Astana were on the front and they caught Bobridge with twenty kilometres left. Bobridge sat in the peloton on the descent for which the riders were hitting speeds of 100kmh.
Astana were still on the front with three riders including Lars Boom trying to bring Luis Leon Sanchez to the final climb. Cadel Evans and Richie Porte were also handily placed in a front group of forty riders.
Bobridge was on the back wheel of Rohan Dennis as the rider approached Willunga for the final time.
Astana, who lost one rider put the hammer down and caught out Team Sky but not Cadel Evans and the race leader Rohan Dennis or two riders from FDJ.
The rest of the front group caught up to the Evans and Dennis group and Orica Green Edge with Simon Clarke working hard took over just ahead of Geraint Thomas of Team Sky, who took a turn on the front. as the final climb up Old Willunga Hill started.
Thomas pulled off with 2.2kms left and although the pace was high, there was no attacks until Porte went with 1.1kms to go. Evans tried to follow but could and left Rohan Dennis to chase him.
The battle between Porte and Dennis was on. Porte pulled clear and he stormed away and won the stage in 3.37.22 and the ten second bonus, Dennis was second plus six seconds bonus but nine seconds back with Fernandez third, sixteen seconds back, followed by Evans, Tom Dumoulin, Pozzovivo, Machado, Moser, Izagirre and Jeannesson.
Porte said to Paul Sherwen: "i know this climb well and it suits me. I don't think I have the jersey but my team were fantastic and full credit to Rohan. It was so nice to win but so disappointing not to have taken the jersey.
Dennis who leads Porte by two seconds. "i saw Cadel get on Richie's wheel but could not hold it. I got it onto Richie's wheel but I too could not hold. Richie had better legs than me today but my team were awesome."