Tom Dumoulin held his third place overall today in the Tour Down Under despite a crash in the closing kilometre of the fourth stage to Mt Barker. Koen de Kort sped down the left side of the road after 144.5 kilometres and avoided the incident to finish 10th.

Dumoulin moved to third overall after the uphill finish to Paracombe yesterday. He sits nine seconds behind overall leader Rohan Dennis (BMC). Simon Geschke holds 11th overall.

Cadel Evans (BMC) is seven seconds behind in second place and Daryl Impey (Orica), who moved up with the bonus seconds today, sits fourth at 13 seconds. Impey finished third in the sprint won by Steele Van Hoff (UniSA) over Wouter Wippert (Drapac).

Marcel Kittel will have his chance to sprint again in Adelaide after winning the opening criterium, the People’s Choice Classic. Today, he lost contact with the group as it twisted and climbed its way through the countryside and did not contest the sprint.

None of Team Giant-Alpecin’s men was involved in the closing crash. However, American Lawson Craddock fell early in the stage, abandoned and went to the hospital for examinations.

The team’s leaders face the final test for the overall on Saturday when the race climbs to Willunga Hill. On Sunday, the race finishes in Adelaide.

“The stage went all right in terms of strategy,” race coach Addy Engels said. “A small break went free and there was no need for us to control. Then Orica closed gap to take the bonus seconds. After that, a small break went free again and still it was OK for us.

“Marcel was not on his day and was dropped at 30 kilometres out with small group. We had already decided to go for overall classification today.”