With Richie Porte (Sky) riding away to the stage victory, Evans (BMC) came under pressure from Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Italian Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) during the final two kilometres on Willunga Hill, and was unable to respond to the accelerations of the duo.
Porte was untroubled as he crossed the finish line 10 seconds ahead of Ulissi and Gerrans at the end of the 151.5km 5th stage from McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill.
Evans came through four seconds later with Robert Gesink (Belkin) and Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE).
With the time bonuses calculated, Gerrans now leads the general classification by a single second ahead of Evans with Ulissi third at 5 seconds and stage winner Porte pulling himself up to fourth at 10 seconds.
“I’ve just managed to sneak back into the lead on GC (general classification) so it’s been a great day,” said Gerrans.
“I tried to conserve as much as I could on the climb because there was quite a strong head wind. The second you put your nose into the wind you really died.
“Cadel was obviously a bit nervous there because he did a lot of work, and when we jumped at the finish he was unable to respond.
“I picked it right from the start that Richie (Porte) would be the favourite for today. He’s been quiet all week and he’s a very explosive climber so I thought it would be right up his alley.”
The break of the day contained Jens Voigt (Trek Factory Racing), Mikhail Ignatyev (Katusha), Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), with the quartet building a stage lead of over eight minutes while soaking up the bonuses seconds on offer at the two intermediate sprints at 60km and 103km.
Reduced to three riders after losing Lobato, the efforts of the break came to an end after the first ascension of Willunga Hill, with the ageless Voigt the last to resist.
The first climb of Willunga saw Axel Domont (AG2R) jump ahead of Adan Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) to pull into equal first place in the king of the mountains classification, but the latter was confirmed as the overall winner ahead of the final city stage in Adelaide on Sunday.
More to Come
Stage 5: 151.5km, McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill
1 Richie Porte (AUS) Sky 3hr 42min 20sec
2 Diego Ulissi (ITA) Lampre-Merida 0:00:10
3 Simon Gerrans (AUS) Orica GreenEDGE
4 Robert Gesink (NED) Belkin 0:00:14
5 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEDGE
6 Cadel Evans (AUS) BMC
7 Nathan Haas (AUS) Garmin-Sharp 0:00:16
8 Egor Silin (RUS) Katusha
9 Adam Hansen (AUS) Lotto-Belisol
10 Geraint Thomas (GBR) Sky 0:00:20
General Classifcation
1 Simon Gerrans (AUS) Orica-GreenEDGE 18hr 02min 19sec
2 Cadel Evans (AUS) BMC 0:00:01
3 Diego Ulissi (ITA) Lampre-Merida 0:00:05
4 Richie Porte (AUS) Sky 0:00:10
5 Nathan Haas (AUS) Garmin-Sharp 0:00:27
6 Robert Gesink (NED) Belkin 0:00:30
7 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEDGE 0:00:34
8 Adam Hansen (AUS) Lotto-Belisol 0:00:37
9 Geraint Thomas (GBR) Sky
10 Egor Silin (RUS) Katusha
Share
