Richie Porte has erased the memories of 2015 to snatch stage honours and the overall race lead after the Staging Connections Stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under.
TDU: Porte wins stage 2
Photo credit: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo
Porte pounces in Paracombe to snare lead
Tasmanian Richie Porte has erased the memories of 2015 to snatch stage honours and the overall race lead after the Staging Connections Stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under.
“I had nightmares from two years ago when we played cat and mouse there and it didn’t work,” said Porte who on that occasion was riding for Team SKY and placed sixth. “But the boys from BMC Racing Team are just incredible, they looked after me the whole day (and) I finished it off up to Paracombe. “It’s good to get a win this season and now we try and defend this (leaders) jersey.”
Porte broke clear in the final 1500 metres to win the 148.5 kilometre stage into Paracombe by an impressive 16 second margin from Spaniard Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar) who overtook third placed Esteban Chaves of ORICA-SCOTT in the final 400 metres. Yesterday the race battled searing heat but this morning it was a chilly start in the Adelaide Hills hamlet of Stirling and conditions stayed mild throughout the day providing perfect conditions for the 105 thousand fans who flocked to the spectator friendly stage that included five laps of an undulating 20 kilometre circuit.
“We didn’t really race that hard around Stirling which is a bit of a shame but at the end of the day I think I got a good gap on GC (overall),” said Porte. “I know it’s not over, there’s a few quite hard stages but the guys, the team, are fantastically strong so I’m quite confident.”
Porte looked behind several times as he kicked clear to gauge the impact of three attacks he launched in the wake of a big effort from Dutchman Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb). “Credit to Kelderman, he put in a big turn at the bottom there and kind of blew it apart but you know I’ve got good climbing legs and didn’t really want to wait around.”
Porte is happy with the way he rode clear of his rivals but recognises there is work still to be done if he is to claim the race crown. “There’s some stressful days coming up so I won’t be counting our chickens until they hatch.” Porte goes into tomorrow’s Hansgrohe Stage 3 with a 20 second lead over Izaguirre with Chaves, a further two seconds back.
“It was a good effort by (Gorka)Izaguirre, but Porte was stronger today,” said Movistar Team Manager José Luis Arrieta. “Porte made one more acceleration and Gorka could not follow but it’s a good sign for the team and we will keep fighting. Willunga (on Saturday) is a different climb, but we will race to at least keep (a place on) the podium.”
As expected sprinter Caleb Ewan lost his overall race lead instead working today to help his team mates including Chaves. “Richie (Porte) made three accelerations very fast, but I could not stay with him. It is like this,” said Chaves. “The guys worked really well for me today. I am happy for the third, and we will continue to try for the win.”
While Chaves acknowledges 20 seconds is a significant margin to claw back, he refuses to concede defeat. “You never know what will happen and we will keep fighting like always,” said the popular Colombian. “Willunga is like seven minutes (of climbing) but today was harder, because it was climbing all day. I am excited (about the coming days) so we will see.”
At the start of the stage it took a little time for the race to warm up. But ten kilometres into the first circuit Czech rider Ondrej Cink (Bahrain – Merida) and 2011 Tour champion Cameron Meyer (UniSA-Australia) launched the first attack of the day. They rode out to a 35 second lead before the ORICA-SCOTT team upped the tempo on the front of the bunch to reel them in ahead of the first iiNet intermediate sprint at Heathfield (24km).
However it was Team SKY’s Ben Swift who pounced for the points and the three second time bonus ahead of Australian Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Sean de Bie of Lotto-Soudal. German Jasha Sutterlin broke clear soon after the sprint and the bunch was content to let the Movistar rider go. By the 50 kilometre mark he was 4:30 ahead but as he approached the 65 kilometre mark for the second iiNet sprint of the day, again at Heathfield, his lead was diminishing. Sutterlin nabbed the points with Michael Kolar second across the line with his Bora-Hansgrohe team mate Rudiger Selig behind him in third.
The bunch settled down after the sprint allowing Sutterlin’s lead to stretch out past four minutes again as he raced over the last of the five laps. But any hopes of him staying clear were dashed as the peloton hit top speed and 20 minutes later reeled him in.
“It wasn’t exactly part of a team plan that I’d go away solo but nobody went and nobody came across so I ended up alone,” said Sutterlin who, for his efforts, was named the Most Competitive Rider of the day. “I kept going until about 30km before the finish and then I just did my best to hold the wheels in the peloton and help my team-mates.”
That set the race up for a thrilling finale as the peloton swept down the long, twisting descent of Norton Summit Road.
Mads Pedersen came unstuck on the way down but the Trek-Segefredo rider was soon back on his bike. As the race headed into the final 20 kilometres Rohan Dennis needed a new wheel which put a spoke in his hopes of repeating his 2015 win in Paracombe but with support from Miles Scotson he rejoined the race soon after and recovered to place fourth on the stage 19 seconds behind BMC Racing team mate Porte.
The Subaru King of the Mountain contest of the day was a short, steep 1.6 kilometre Category 2 climb that crested 400 metres from the stage finish line and it was Porte who collected the points on his way through ahead of Chaves. That means Porte also leads the Subaru KOM classification. Meantime Team SKY’s hope for overall honours, Sergio Henao, also had to overcome mechanical mishaps in the closing kilometres.
“I had some bad luck with a puncture on the final descent and then we changed the wheel that one punctured too,” said Henao. “What can you do? That’s racing and we have to turn the page.
“We had the team working to bring me back but it was a big effort,” explained the Colombian climber. “There is still Willunga, so we have to stay concentrated and see if we can arrive to the podium. Maybe first place on GC (overall) is too far, but the podium is still possible.”
Porte’s performance today also gives him the lead in the iiNet Sprint category, on a count-back with both him and Ewan both on 15 points.
… continued after advert
Stage 2
1 PORTE Richie BMC 03:46:06
2 IZAGUIRRE Gorka MOV 16
3 CHAVES Johan Esteban ORS ST
4 DENNIS Rohan BMC 19
5 HAAS Nathan DDD ST
6 ULISSI Diego UAD ST
7 *GUERREIRO Ruben TFS ST
8 *STORER Michael AUS ST
9 WOODS Michael CDT ST
10 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon AST ST
11 EARLE Nathan AUS ST
12 HENAO Sergio Luis SKY ST
13 HERRADA Jesus MOV ST
14 MCCARTHY Jay BOH ST
15 POZZOVIVO Domenico ALM ST
16 VALLS Rafael LTS ST
17 *MAS Enric QST ST
18 KELDERMAN Wilco SUN ST
19 GESINK Robert TLJ ST
20 *RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan KAT ST
21 *EIKING Odd Christian FDJ 29
22 STETINA Peter TFS 30
23 PANTANO Jarlinson TFS 35
24 VISCONTI Giovanni TBM ST
25 BEVIN Patrick CDT ST
26 MORTON Lachlan David DDD ST
27 VAKOC Petr QST ST
28 *HINDLEY Jai AUS ST
29 *HAMILTON Lucas AUS ST
30 CINK Ondrej TBM ST
31 DEVENYNS Dries QST ST
32 *HAMILTON Chris SUN ST
33 BAKELANTS Jan ALM ST
34 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte CDT ST
35 BYSTROM Sven Erik KAT 47
36 *SOLER GIMENEZ Marc MOV 50
37 ROUX Anthony FDJ ST
38 GERRANS Simon ORS ST
39 *O’CONNOR Ben DDD 55
40 BRAMBILLA Gianluca QST 57
41 BAUER Jack QST ST
42 IMPEY Daryl ORS ST
43 ARMEE Sander LTS ST
44 THOMAS Geraint SKY ST
45 HERRADA LOPEZ Jose MOV ST
46 MARTENS Paul TLJ ST
47 MEINTJES Louis UAD ST
48 CAPECCHI Eros QST ST
49 GONCALVES José KAT 01:06
50 BAK Lars Ytting LTS ST
51 VALGREN Michael AST 01:21
52 LAMMERTINK Maurits KAT ST
53 CHEVRIER Clement ALM 01:24
54 *SHAW James LTS ST
55 DIDIER Laurent TFS 01:26
56 MACHADO Tiago KAT ST
57 DE BIE Sean LTS 01:34
58 CARUSO Damiano BMC ST
59 *JENNER Samuel AUS ST
60 SWIFT Ben UAD ST
61 ARASHIRO Yukiya TBM 01:48
62 ZAKHAROV Artyom AST ST
63 BRAJKOVIC Janez TBM 02:06
64 LAENGEN Vegard Stake UAD ST
65 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM 02:18
66 *MAISON Jeremy FDJ 02:24
67 *VERMEULEN Alexey TLJ 02:25
68 GESCHKE Simon SUN 02:52
69 MEYER Cameron AUS 02:59
70 DE LA PARTE Victor MOV 03:16
71 *MUHLBERGER Gregor BOH 03:21
72 HANSEN Adam LTS ST
73 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ 03:28
74 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Jacques DDD 03:31
75 GASTAUER Ben ALM ST
76 SAGAN Peter BOH 03:42
77 WYSS Danilo BMC 03:57
78 MOINARD Amael BMC ST
79 MORI Manuele UAD 03:59
80 MARCATO Marco UAD ST
81 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ 04:16
82 VICIOSO Angel KAT 04:50
83 VELITS Martin QST 05:33
84 DE GENDT Thomas LTS 06:01
85 SUTTERLIN Jasha MOV ST
86 DE KORT Koen TFS ST
87 *SCOTSON Miles BMC 06:03
88 VENTER Jaco DDD 06:57
89 THEUNS Edward TFS 07:08
90 PLANCKAERT Baptiste KAT 07:17
91 *MANZIN Lorrenzo FDJ 07:33
92 BIDARD Francois ALM ST
93 ARNDT Nikias SUN 08:27
94 *HOFSTEDE Lennard SUN ST
95 BARBERO CUESTA Carlos MOV ST
96 GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam TBM ST
97 *SCOTSON Callum AUS ST
98 *BONIFAZIO Niccolo TBM ST
99 HOWES Alex CDT 09:23
100 BRESCHEL Matti AST ST
101 *EWAN Caleb ORS 09:28
102 FENG Chun Kai TBM ST
103 DURBRIDGE Luke ORS 10:17
104 HOWSON Damien ORS ST
105 CLARKE William CDT ST
106 SCULLY Thomas CDT ST
107 *BAUHAUS Phil SUN 10:56
108 KOLAR Michael BOH 10:59
109 BENNETT Sam BOH 11:01
110 SELIG Rudiger BOH ST
111 RENSHAW Mark DDD 11:23
112 DE VREESE Laurens AST ST
113 WAGNER Robert TLJ ST
114 KLUGE Roger ORS ST
115 VENTOSO Francisco BMC ST
116 TIRALONGO Paolo AST ST
117 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan TLJ ST
118 *HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian SKY ST
119 FARRAR Tyler DDD ST
120 VAN ASBROECK Tom CDT ST
121 KUMP Marko UAD ST
122 POSTLBERGER Lukas BOH ST
123 COURTEILLE Arnaud FDJ ST
124 ELISSONDE Kenny SKY ST
125 BERARD Julien ALM 11:51
126 STANNARD Ian SKY 13:13
127 ROWE Luke SKY ST
128 *BOUWMAN Koen TLJ 14:41
129 *VAN POPPEL Danny SKY 14:51
130 GATTO Oscar AST 17:15
131 FROHLINGER Johannes SUN ST
132 *PEDERSEN Mads TFS ST
Overall
1 PORTE Richie BMC 07:10:14
2 IZAGUIRRE Gorka MOV 20
3 CHAVES Johan Esteban ORS 22
4 MCCARTHY Jay BOH 24
5 HAAS Nathan DDD 27
6 ULISSI Diego UAD 29
7 EARLE Nathan AUS ST
8 DENNIS Rohan BMC ST
9 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon AST ST
10 VALLS Rafael LTS ST
11 GESINK Robert TLJ ST
12 POZZOVIVO Domenico ALM ST
13 KELDERMAN Wilco SUN ST
14 *GUERREIRO Ruben TFS ST
15 HENAO Sergio Luis SKY ST
16 WOODS Michael CDT ST
17 *MAS Enric QST ST
18 *STORER Michael AUS ST
19 *RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan KAT ST
20 HERRADA Jesus MOV ST
21 *EIKING Odd Christian FDJ 39
22 STETINA Peter TFS 40
23 BEVIN Patrick CDT 45
24 *HAMILTON Chris SUN ST
25 VAKOC Petr QST ST
26 PANTANO Jarlinson TFS ST
27 *HAMILTON Lucas AUS ST
28 BAKELANTS Jan ALM ST
29 VISCONTI Giovanni TBM ST
30 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte CDT ST
31 *HINDLEY Jai AUS ST
32 CINK Ondrej TBM ST
33 MORTON Lachlan David DDD ST
34 DEVENYNS Dries QST ST
35 BYSTROM Sven Erik KAT 57
36 GERRANS Simon ORS 58
37 ROUX Anthony FDJ 01:00
38 *SOLER GIMENEZ Marc MOV ST
39 *O’CONNOR Ben DDD 01:05
40 BAUER Jack QST 01:07
41 THOMAS Geraint SKY ST
42 BRAMBILLA Gianluca QST ST
43 MARTENS Paul TLJ ST
44 IMPEY Daryl ORS ST
45 MEINTJES Louis UAD ST
46 ARMEE Sander LTS ST
47 CAPECCHI Eros QST ST
48 HERRADA LOPEZ Jose MOV ST
49 GONCALVES José KAT 01:14
50 BAK Lars Ytting LTS 01:16
51 VALGREN Michael AST 01:31
52 LAMMERTINK Maurits KAT ST
53 CHEVRIER Clement ALM 01:34
54 *SHAW James LTS ST
55 MACHADO Tiago KAT 01:36
56 DIDIER Laurent TFS ST
57 SWIFT Ben UAD 01:41
58 DE BIE Sean LTS 01:43
59 *JENNER Samuel AUS 01:44
60 CARUSO Damiano BMC ST
61 ARASHIRO Yukiya TBM 01:58
62 ZAKHAROV Artyom AST ST
63 BRAJKOVIC Janez TBM 02:16
64 LAENGEN Vegard Stake UAD ST
65 MONTAGUTI Matteo ALM 02:28
66 *MAISON Jeremy FDJ 02:34
67 *VERMEULEN Alexey TLJ 02:35
68 GESCHKE Simon SUN 03:02
69 MEYER Cameron AUS 03:09
70 DE LA PARTE Victor MOV 03:26
71 *MUHLBERGER Gregor BOH 03:31
72 HANSEN Adam LTS ST
73 BATTAGLIN Enrico TLJ 03:38
74 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Jacques DDD 03:41
75 GASTAUER Ben ALM ST
76 SAGAN Peter BOH 03:52
77 WYSS Danilo BMC 04:07
78 MOINARD Amael BMC ST
79 MARCATO Marco UAD 04:09
80 MORI Manuele UAD ST
81 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ 04:26
82 VICIOSO Angel KAT 05:00
83 VELITS Martin QST 05:43
84 SUTTERLIN Jasha MOV 06:08
85 DE KORT Koen TFS 06:11
86 DE GENDT Thomas LTS ST
87 *SCOTSON Miles BMC 06:13
88 THEUNS Edward TFS 07:18
89 PLANCKAERT Baptiste KAT 07:27
90 VENTER Jaco DDD 07:37
91 *MANZIN Lorrenzo FDJ 07:43
92 BIDARD Francois ALM ST
93 ARNDT Nikias SUN 08:37
94 *BONIFAZIO Niccolo TBM ST
95 BARBERO CUESTA Carlos MOV ST
96 GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam TBM ST
97 *SCOTSON Callum AUS ST
98 *HOFSTEDE Lennard SUN 09:27
99 *EWAN Caleb ORS 09:28
100 BRESCHEL Matti AST 09:33
101 HOWES Alex CDT ST
102 FENG Chun Kai TBM 10:01
103 CLARKE William CDT 10:27
104 SCULLY Thomas CDT ST
105 BENNETT Sam BOH 11:07
106 SELIG Rudiger BOH 11:10
107 DURBRIDGE Luke ORS 11:17
108 *BAUHAUS Phil SUN 11:21
109 KOLAR Michael BOH 11:22
110 RENSHAW Mark DDD 11:33
111 KUMP Marko UAD ST
112 WAGNER Robert TLJ ST
113 COURTEILLE Arnaud FDJ ST
114 VENTOSO Francisco BMC ST
115 VAN ASBROECK Tom CDT ST
116 KLUGE Roger ORS ST
117 ELISSONDE Kenny SKY ST
118 *HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian SKY ST
119 TIRALONGO Paolo AST ST
120 POSTLBERGER Lukas BOH ST
121 FARRAR Tyler DDD 11:59
122 BERARD Julien ALM 12:01
123 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan TLJ 12:23
124 ROWE Luke SKY 13:23
125 STANNARD Ian SKY 13:55
126 HOWSON Damien ORS 14:02
127 *BOUWMAN Koen TLJ 14:51
128 *VAN POPPEL Danny SKY 14:55
129 FROHLINGER Johannes SUN 17:25
130 *PEDERSEN Mads TFS ST
131 DE VREESE Laurens AST 18:26
132 GATTO Oscar AST 21:00
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