Porte wins Tour Down Under for 2nd time

ADELAIDE, Australia, Jan 26, (AP): Richie Porte of Australia won the Tour Down Under cycle race for the second time Sunday, though for the first time in seven years he failed to win the grueling stage to the top of Willunga Hill.

Porte finished second behind unheralded Englishman Matthew Holmes on a stage he has won for the last six years after a massed breakaway on the 151.5 kilometer (95 mile) finishing stage threw the overall race standings into turmoil.

Two-time defending champion Daryl Impey of South Africa entered the last of six stages with a 2 second lead over Porte on general classification in the first World Tour event of the season.

But Impey’s chances of an unprecedented third-straight win dissolved on the second of two climbs up Willunga Hill while Porte launched his trademark attack on the second climb to put the overall result beyond doubt.

Porte’s chance of extending his winning streak on the Willunga stage was lost when Holmes, riding a World Tour event for the first time, swept passed him over the crown of the hill and beat him to the finish line by three

Porte seconds.

The 26-year-old from Wigan was part of a 26-rider break which sowed panic among teams whose riders were in contention for the tour win. The breakaway maintained a lead of more than four minutes over the peloton until the first of the two climbs up Willunga Hill.

With so many riders in the break, including leading riders such as Andre Greipel, the peloton was fully stretched to close the gap. At one point the young American Joey Rosskopf, who started the day 58 seconds behind Impey on general classification and was in

leading by 0.08 at the final split time but the Italian lost her balance as she hooked a gate and slid off the course.

Viktoria Rebensburg, who led the discipline standings going into the race, finished outside the top 10, while the winner of the previous super-G, Sofia Goggia, skipped the race to rest her bruised right ankle following the Italian’s crash in Friday’s downhill.

With two wins and Saturday’s fourth place in another downhill, Shiffrin left the Bulgarian resort with 250 points, extending her lead in the overall standings to 370 points over Brignone and 395 over Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who finished Sunday’s race in sixth.

Shiffrin’s sixth victory of the season was her 66th career win, leaving her one short of Marcel Hirscher’s tally. The Austrian record eight-time overall champion, who retired in the offseason, is third on the all-time winners list, behind Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Lindsey Vonn (82).

The women’s World Cup travels to the 2014 Olympic venue in Rosa Khutor for a downhill and super-G next weekend.

the leading group, held a virtual lead of more than 3-1/2 minutes on the road. Porte’s teammate, the world road champion Mads Petersen, did a superb job of leading the peloton’s chase for the breakaway and it was through his efforts that Porte was able to finally launch his winning attack on the second climb. The break began to fall apart on the first climb up Willunga Hill and completely broke up on the second as Porte drove to the front of the race. Impey couldn’t go with him and dropped back to finish 30 seconds behind Porte in fifth place.