Saturday 26 January 2013 at 14h25

Today was the Tour Down Under 2013's queen stage with the double climb (one of which being towards the finish) of Willunga Hill. The race route was the same as usual and as announced when he won the third stage, Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) showed up in front at the finish of this stage. The young Dutch rider was not able to win today's stage since Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) turned out to be the strongest man in the uphill sprint, but he did a perfect operation in the general classification where he now has the first place, the day before the last stage which should end in a sprint. Chances are high that in his second year as a pro rider, Slagter will thus win this first UCI WorldTour race in 2013.

The summary of stage 5/ McLaren Vale > Old Willunga Hill

Contrary to the previous days, today's breakaway was not formed right from the start. The race started with several attempts but each of these attacks were reeled in by the peloton. Each of them, except the one with a
duo of Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team riders, Thomas de Gendt and Tomasz Marczynski who were joined by 5 other riders: Jens Mouris (Orica-GreenEDGE), Klaas Lodewyck (BMC Racing Team), Manuele Boaro (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), Koen de Kort (Argos-Shimano) and Calvin Watson (UniSA-Australia), about 25 kilometers after the start.

These 7 leading riders created a gap up to 4'40" after 74 kilometers but while approaching the two climbs of Old Willunga Hill (3 km at 7.5%), the gap rapidly goes down when the peloton riders rather quickly, with speeds going up to 56.4 km/h!

When the leading group starts the first climb, the peloton is only about thirty seconds behind them and Tomasz Marczynski is the only one to insist and who's leading alone for a while. During the climb he's reeled in by Eros Capecchi and Jose Herrada (Movistar Team) and Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R La Mondiale) however and these 3 riders get company from Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Belisol) to form a new leading group with 4 riders. Capecchi arrives first on top and the gap on the peloton is about 25 seconds at that time.

In the descente the gap first goes down before going back up to 45 seconds at 5.5 kilometers from the finish. Not enough however to allow the leading group to stay ahead until the finish. At the foot of the final climb, the 7 riders only have a 15 seconds lead over the peloton and Guillaume Bonnafond thus decided to give it all and try to go for victory alone while the other riders of the leading group were taken back.
Ivan Santaromita (BMC Racing Team) and Tiago Machado (Radioshack-Leopard), who got company from Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), get back on him and form a new leading trio. When these three riders are reeled in by the peloton as well, it's Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE)' turn to attack. Javier Moreno (Movistar Team) who tried to follow him is rapidly taken over by Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) and the Dutch rider thus forms the last competition for Gerrans. The Australian rider turns out to be the strongest in the uphill sprint but Slagter realises a perfect operation by taking 6 bonus seconds. Since Geraint Thomas ends the stage at 28 seconds from the leading duo, Tom-Jelte Slagter easily takes over the lead in the general classification.

The classifications after the 5th stage of the Tour Down Under 2013

Here are the classifications after this stage:

Stage classification for 5/ McLaren Vale > Old Willunga Hill

The top 5 of this stage was as follows:

1/ Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 3h36'25"
2/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team)
3/ Javier Moreno (Movistar Team) - +0'10"
4/ Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'12"
5/ Tiago Machado (Radioshack-Leopard) - +0'13"

General classification

The general classification is now thus lead by Tom-Jelte Slagter, followed by Javier Moreno. Except for any unexpected events during the last stage, the Dutch rider will thus win the Tour Down Under 2013, 15th edition of the Australian race!

1/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - 16h35'33"
2/ Javier Moreno (Movistar Team) - +0'13"
3/ Ben Hermans (Radioshack-Leopard) - +0'25"
4/ Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'28"
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +0'29"

The other classifications

In the best young riders classification, Tom-Jelte Slagter of course retains the lead, still ahead of Ion Izagirre, with a 28 seconds gap.

The King of the Mountains classification shows a small change in the top 5 with Javier Moreno taking over the lead with 22 points, ahead of the former leader Jack Bobridge who's stuck at 20 points. In the sprinters classification, Tom-Jelte Slagter is now leading, with 41 points, ahead of Javier Moreno who has 37 and Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Merida) who has 34 points.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under 2013

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