Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) consolidated his position as the most successful rider in the Tour Down Under by winning a dramatic 4th stage of the 2014 to take his 15th ever victory in the Australian event, with teammate Jurgen Roelandts making it a 1-2 for Lotto Belisol. Orica-GreenEDGE rode a very aggressive race to set things up for Simon Gerrans in the intermediate sprints, with the Australian champion scoring 5 bonus seconds to reduce his deficit to Cadel Evans (BMC) to 7 seconds.

 

With 14 stage wins in the race already on his palmares, Andre Greipel is the most successful rider in the Tour Down Under history but after being narrowly edged out in both the People's Choice Classic and on stage 1 of the race he had to wait unusually long to take his first win of the 2014 season. Today he finally got things right when he took a truly dominant win in the sprint after a dramatic day on the roads to the windy coastal town of Victor Harbor.

 

After yesterday's impressive performance by Cadel Evans, Orica-GreenEDGE and Simon Gerrans found themselves with a 12-second time gap to the 2011 Tour de France champion to close. With Gerrans being the faster sprinter of the two overall contenders, the team had a plan to use the intermediate sprints and their bonus seconds to reduce the deficit ahead of tomorrow's queen stage to Willunga Hill.

 

The plan was perfectly executed when they kept things together all the way to the first sprint point at the 25,5km mark after a very hectic and fast start that saw several riders getting dropped. Gerrans put the icing on the cake by crossing the line first to score 3 bonus seconds and the team even managed to place Matthew Goss in 2nd and so prevented their main rivals from taking the 2 bonus seconds as well.

 

After the frenetic start, things slowed down, with a 5-rider breakaway being allowed to go up the road. It was later whittled down to just the duo of Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) and Axel Domont (Ag2r) and they managed to build up a gap of 5 minutes, the biggest advantage so far for any breakaway in this year's Tour Down Under.

 

With the peloton now on the beautiful Fleurieau Peninsula and changing direction, they hit a section with crosswinds as they neared the day's only categorized climb. Orica-GreenEDGE again decided to take the bull by the horns and their fierce increase in pace caused a split in the peloton.

 

Two groups were formed and while all the GC contenders had made it into the front group, most of the sprinters - most notably Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) - had been left behind. This prompted Lotto Belisol to kick into action and with the assistance of Orica-GreenEDGE, they neutralized the attack.

 

Gerrans was beaten into second by fellow GC contender Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp) but scored another 2 bonus seconds. From there Lotto Belisol kept the pace high all the way to the finish to make sure that the second group never returned.

 

Finally, the Belgian team did what they do best when they executed their perfect and well-drilled lead-out to deliver Greipel to a truly dominant win. Lead-out man Jurgen Roelandts even held onto 2nd to make it a 1-2 for Lotto Belisol while Elia Viviani (Cannondale) beat Gerrans into 4th, just denying him the chance to take another 4 bonus seconds.

 

With today's time gains, Gerrans is now only 7 seconds behind Evans on GC and things are heating up ahead of tomorrow's queen stage of the race. The 151,5km from McLaren Vale includes two late passages of the famous Willunga Hill, with the finishing line being located on the top after the second time up the ascent. Gerrans won the exact same stage last year and will be eager to erase the final small deficit while Evans will be happy to be back in his favoured terrain.

 

A flat stage

Precious seconds were on offer early in today's stage that departed from the cosmopolitan Adelaide suburb of Unley and headed out through the Adelaide Hills to the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula for a 149 kilometre stage with 115 thousand fans treated to some sensational racing action. The stage had one categorized climb 52,8km from the finish but was mostly flat. The stage was expected to deliver the first big showdown between the sprinters but in the coastal area the potential dangers of crosswind always loomed.

 

The race started with a long 10km uphill drag out of Unley and this set the scene for a dramatic and fast start of the race. Many teams had seen their GC dreams being crushed on the Corkscrew climb yesterday and so a lot of formations wanted to be part of the early action. At the same time, Orica-GreenEDGE was intent on keeping things together for the first intermediate sprint at the 25,5km mark.

 

No success for the first attackers

The first riders to try an attack were Calvin Watson (Trek), Evan Huffman (Astana) and Bjorn Thurau (Europcar) but the trio didn't have much success. Instead, it was perennial attacker Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) who made a move, and he was chased by 10 pursuers.

 

While Frank Schleck (Trek) went back to his team car for some assistance, the moves were all neutralized as BMC patrolled on the front of the peloton. Huffman, Thurau, Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) and Jack Bobridge (Belkin) were the next to try but again BMC and Sky brought things back together.

 

Verona and Gaudin with a move

Carlos Verona (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) who lost the lead in the young riders' competition yesterday, made the most promising move so far when he attacked on his own. Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar) set off in pursuit and Damien Gaudin (Ag2r) tried a similar move.

 

Gaudin was the only of the two Frenchmen to accomplish his mission and while the duo dug deep in an attempt to open up a bigger gap, the fierce pace saw the peloton split into two groups, with the second one trying desperately to get back on. The front duo managed to build up a 20-second advantage when Orica-GreenEDGE first showed their intentions.

 

Orica-GreenEDGE take control

The Australian team hit the front and after 13km of racing, they had reeled in the front group. Luke Durbridge kept the pace high by putting his time trialing skills to good use and this made sure that no one managed to escape before the sprint point, with most riders realizing that any successful attack could only be launched after the intermediate sprint.

 

The group of dropped riders returned to the front peloton in time for the sprint where Orica-GreenEDGE executed their plan perfectly by having Gerrans and Goss crossing the line as the first two riders. Haas was third to add one bonus second to his tally and solidify his 4th place on GC after coming in 2nd on yesterday's stage.

 

The break is formed

After the sprint, Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) attacked and he was joined by Bobridge and Bradley Linfield (UniSA). However, Bakelants was too dangerous for BMC to let go and so the American team neutralized the move.

 

While the Lotto Belisol team lost an important rider as Olivier Kaisen abandoned the race and Jack Haig (UniSA) had a rear wheel change, Michal Valgren (Tinkoff-Saxo), Axel Domont (Ag2r), Cameron Wurf (Cannondale), Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) and Wes Sulzberger (Drapac) attacked. The composition of the break suited the major teams who finally decided to take a short breather and allow the break to open up a bigger advantage.

 

The break splits up

For a long time, Thurau was in lone pursuit of the break but as he failed to make the junction, he decided to fall back to the main group. After a bit more than 50km of racing, the gap had stretched out to almost 5 minutes, the biggest for any break in this year's edition of the race.

 

Surprisingly, Domont and Wurf decided to attack their companions far from the finish and they quickly built a solid advantage over their fellow escapees. While BMC had again taken control of the peloton and kept the gap stable at around 4.30, the three chasers kept losing ground and finally decided to sit up to wait for the bunch.

 

Lotto Beliso start to chase

Lotto Belisol decided to start their chase and joined BMC on the front and the gap started to come slightly. As they approached the day's only categorized climb 52,8km from the finish, however, it was again Orica-GreenEDGE who put the hammer down.

 

A combination of strong crosswinds, the ascent and a fierce pace saw the peloton split into pieces, with two major groups being formed. All the GC contenders made the selection but sprinters like Kittel, Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Caleb Ewan (UniSA) were all missing from the first group.

 

Hansen defends his mountains jersey

Domont beat Wurf at the top of the climb to take the maximum 10 points to briefly become the virtual leader of the mountains classification. When Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) sprinted ahead of the Orica-GreenEDGE train to place 3rd and score 4 points, however, the Australian just did enough to defend his position at the top of the leaderboard.

 

Orica-GreenEDGE's pace had seen the gap drop to less than a minute as the first 60-rider group was now speeding towards the seconds intermediate sprint. 42km from the finish it was all over for Domont and Wurf while the seconds group was now 45 seconds behind.

 

Lotto Belisol riding hard

Lotto Belisol didn't want Kittel to get back in contention and so they joined Orica-GreenEDGE on the front. They combined forces with Michael Matthews who had done an awful lot of work for the Australian team.

 

At the sprint, Orica-GreenEDGE again tried to set up Gerrans but this time he could only manage second behind Haas. Another GC contender, Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) scored one bonus second by crossing the line in 3rd.

 

Evans nearly hits the deck

Evans' race could have ended at this point as he survived a dangerous situation. Being well-placed on Gerrans' wheel for the sprint, he suffered an untimely mechanical that forced him to change his bike. When he swerved to the left to stop at the side of the road, he was nearly taken down by several riders and showed amazing bike handling skills to avoid the tumble.

 

After the sprint, it was all Lotto Belisol on the front while four BMC riders paced Evans back to the main group. As Elia Viviani was one of only a few sprinters to have made the selection, they also lend a hand to the pace-setting as did Drapac who had Jonathan Cantwell in the group.

 

The battle is on

With 12km to go, the second group had given up and was now 7.30 back. The battle for position was now on in earnest, with Lotto, Sky and Drapac all showing their faces on the front of the peloton.

 

Inside the final 5km, Wurf tried another move. When he was quickly brought back, it was the Omega Pharma-Quick Step duo of Jan Bakelants and Serge Pauwels who escaped. At one point, Bakelants appeared to potentially repeat his feat from Corsica in last year's Tour de France but a fierce pace that caused a split in the peloton brought things back together.

 

Dominant win for Greipel

Lotto Belisol delivered Greipel perfectly to the line and no one came even close to matching his fierce speed. Roelandts held onto 2nd after finishing his lead-out while Gerrans was narrowly edged into 4th by Viviani and so missed out on the bonus seconds.

 

The second group crossed the line with a time loss of 13.55.

 

Result:

1. Andre Greipel 3.33.07

2. Jurgen Roelandts

3. Elia Viviani

4. Simon Gerrans

5. Nathan Haas

6. Daryl Impey

7. Maxime Bouet

8. Nikolay Trusov

9. Anthony Roux

10. Francesco Gavazzi

 

General classification:

1. Cadel Evans 14.19.46

2. Simon Gerrans +0.07

3. Diego Ulissi +0.14

4. Nathan Haas +0.23

5. Robert Gesink +0.29

6. Geraint Thomas

7. Daryl Impey +0.33

8. Brent Bookwalter

9. Rory Sutherland

10. Richie Porte

 

Points classification:

1. Simon Gerrans 62

2. Diego Ulissi 42

3. Cadel Evans 35

4. Nathan Haas 32

5. Andre Greipel 29

 

Mountains classification:

1. Adam Hansen 24

2. Axel Domont 22

3. William Clarke 20

4. Cadel Evans 16

5. Simon Gerrans 12

 

Young Rider Classification:

1. Jack Haig 14.21.04

2. Carlos Verona +1.19

3. Kenny Elissonde +13.38

4. Luca Wackermann +13.55

5. Danny Van Poppel +17.12

 

Teams classification:

1. BMC 43.00.38

2. Orica-GreenEDGE +1.24

3. Garmin-Sharp +1.45

4. Team Sky +2.19

5. Drapac Cycling +3.42