2024-01-23 02:11:18
The sixth and final stage of the Santos Tour Down Under takes place at Mt Lofty, which debuted last year. The race was reduced to a four-person small group sprint, with Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech) taking both the section victory and the overall victory.
Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech) wearing overall leader jersey photo: CorVos
The final day of the Santos Tour Down Under, the opening round of the 2024 season that lasted all six days. The 24th race concludes with a 128.2km run starting from Unley and running up Mt Lofty, and the real challenge is Mt Lofty, which climbs three times in total (distance 1.3km/average 7.3%/maximum 13.3%).
Lined up in the front row at the starting point will be Stephen Williams (Britain, Israel Premier Tech), who came in 2nd place the day before and will be wearing the overall leader’s jersey. The previous day’s winner, Oscar Only (UK, DSM Firmenich Post NL), was second overall with the same time, and Jonathan Narváez (Ecuador, Ineos Grenadiers), who was third overall, was just 5 seconds behind, out of 131 competitors. The players started running.
Chris Harper (Australia) was the first to pass the class 1 mountain that was set up immediately following, hoping to make it a tough turn for Simon Yates (Jaco AlUla, UK) to take the overall victory. Luke Burns (Australian National Team) finished in 2nd place, successfully winning the mountaineering award jersey which he will wear from the second day of the competition.
Seven people including Simon Geschke (Germany, Cofidis) formed a group to escape. Photo: CorVos
After that, seven riders jumped out from the pack, including Stephen Debod (South Africa, EF Education Easy Post), who ran away in the third stage. Simon Geschke (Germany, Cofidis), who will be retiring from active duty at the end of this year, will also be included in the runaway group, and will have a time difference of 3 to 4 minutes over the main group. After that, Escape and the peloton passed the summit of Mt Lofty for the first and second time without any major dispute.
Ineos Grenadiers, who are aiming for a come-from-behind overall victory from Narváez, increased the pace of the proton and narrowed the time difference to the runaway to 30 seconds. However, regarding 12 people in the main group crashed at the remaining 7km point before the final Mt Lofty. That involved Alessandro Covi, Diego Ulissi (both from Italy), and important assists from Isaac Del Toro (Mexico, UAE Team Emirates), who is ranked 4th overall.
The final day of the tournament was held in a comfortable temperature of 24 degrees. photo: CorVos
In this tournament, Filippo Ganna (Italy, Ineos Grenadiers), who devoted himself to assisting, will lead the Proton. Photo: CorVos
As the peloton speeds up toward the finish, members of the escaping race are swallowed up one by one, but 19-year-old Neo Pro (first year professional) Antonio Morgado (Portugal, UAE Team Emirates) fights to the end. However, the group led by Ineos caught on once more from the EF Education Easy Post and entered the third Mount Lofty (distance 1.3km/average 7.3%/maximum 13.3%) where the section and overall wins were decided.
Harper, who showed high speed at Willunga Hill the day before, continued to narrow down the group at a high pace this day. Then, before the steepest section, 20-year-old Del Toro, the winner of the second stage, made a move.
Narváez and Lawrence Pichy (New Zealand, Groupama FDJ) caught on to this sharp attack, and Williams and Bart Lemmen (Netherlands, Wisma Riesabijk), who had been separated, joined later. Julien Alaphilippe (France, Soudal Quick-Step) and Simon Yates (England, Jayco Al-Ula), who were unable to improve their conditions, dropped out, and the race was narrowed down to the first five riders.After passing the summit of Mt. Lofty, Pichy jumped out on the flat section and took the lead alone.
Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech) begins his sprint just before the finish line photo: CorVos
Stephen Williams (Britain, Israel Premier Tech) won the section and the overall victory photo: CorVos
However, four people, led by Del Toro, who showed light dancing, caught the Pissie. Then, on the gentle descent to the finish, Williams made a move, and del Toro was unable to react to this step, and Narvaez, who was trying his best to rotate his legs, was unable to reach him. For this reason, Williams drove calmly from start to finish, listening to the movements of those around them, and with their victory on the final day of the tournament, they clinched the overall victory.
Williams is 27 years old and made his professional debut in 2019 with Bahrain Merida. “Today’s finish had the perfect layout for me. I’m good at catching on to the guys in front of me on the climbs, and luckily I was able to take the initiative myself at the end. I took the plunge with 250m left when the car stopped. This was a team effort, not just me. It was the best start to the season,” said Williams, celebrating his first overall victory on the World Tour. .
Athletes from Israel Premier Tech celebrate with Stephen Williams (UK) photo: CorVos Stephen Williams (UK, Israel Premier Tech) wins overall victory in his first World Tour stage race photo: CorVos
Jersey with 4 awards including Del Toro, who made a name for himself by winning the section and winning the Young Rider Award. Photo: CorVos
Narváez came in 2nd place overall, while Only was behind and fell significantly in the overall rankings, leaving Del Toro, who won the Young Rider Award, on the podium in 3rd place overall.
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