PORTE LEADS CHARGE
THE greatest climber the Tour Down Under has ever seen, Richie Porte, is back in the ochre jersey but bracing for an all-out assault from defending champion Daryl Impey in the first 40km of Stage 4 today.
Porte powered his way to a six-second overall lead yesterday by winning a hilltop finish to Stage 3 at Paracombe. But that can evaporate on the road to Murray Bridge today if Mitchelton-Scott is able to control the threat of an early breakaway and lead Impey to two separate three-second time bonuses on the road. The first intermediate sprint comes 18km into the stage at Cudlee Creek and the next 12km later at Williamstown.
There is also a chance that Impey — who climbed strongly to finish sixth behind Porte, Robert Power and Simon Yates at Paracombe — may contest the sprint finish in Murray Bridge before repeating the tactics from Glenelg to Victor Harbour tomorrow.
That would set up yet another mouth-watering final day on Old Willunga Hill to decide the race.
“Who knows?” Porte said when asked if he would put himself in a race-winning position last night.
“Historically this has been the queen stage when it’s been in the race, but two more stages to go before Willunga, the race is not over yet, there are time bonuses on the road and I expect that Mitchelton will go for them.
“We have fast guys like Kiel [Reijen] and Mads [Pedersen] but look, we will just take it one day at a time.
“If that’s how the race goes that’s how it is, but Willunga, we’re going to have to do a good race there.”
As the peloton swung right up Torrens Hill Road, Porte attacked almost from the bottom of the climb and rode solo to the line while pushing into a fierce headwind.
“Other than that headwind in the final it was really good, the team were fantastic and it was a good battle,” he said. “I felt good in the final and would have liked to have taken a little more time on Daryl but you’ve got to take the victories when you can.
“I think I lost a bit of time in the last 300m, but it was nice to get the gap I did.”