Steele von Hoff wins the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2015 in a crash disturbed sprint
Friday 23 January 2015 at 09h11

The 4th stage of the Santos Tour Down Under 2015 didn't see one but two breakaways on the Australian roads. At 9 kilometers from the finish, the peloton however came back together and the stage would thus have ended in a bunch sprint with the best sprinters of the peloton of the South-Australian race. A crash however disturbed some of them to be part of the battle for the stage victory and in the end Steele von Hoff (UniSA Australia) won the sprint of a small group of survivors. There were no noticeable changes in the general classification except for Daryl Impey climbing up to the 4th place by winning one of the two intermediate sprints and finishing second in the stage.

The summary of the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2015: Glenelg > Mount Barker - 144.5 km

In the first 20 kilometers of the 4th stage of the Santos Tour Down Under 2015 between Glenelg and Mount Barker we saw a big number of attacks today but they all remained without success. After 23 kilometers, a group of 4 finally gets away from the peloton, with Michael Hepburn (Orica-GreenEDGE), Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), Cedric Pineau (FDJ) and Jack Bobridge (UniSA Australia) and when they get close to the only difficulty of the day, their gap reaches its maximum at 2'25". Jack Bobridge, who already raffled all prizes in the first stage of this Tour Down Under, took the points on the top of this climb and thus took over the lead in the King of the Mountains classification.

This was apparently the main goal in this stage for Bobridge and he thus dropped back just after this climb. When the gap of the remaining leading trio goes under one minute, Cédric Pineau decides to attack, probably hoping to stay clear. Hepburn and Kennaugh get back on the French rider but the peloton takes back these 3 leading riders, at a bit under 70 kilometers from the finish.

This was the occasion for Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) to win the intermediate sprint and the corresponding 3 bonus seconds for the general classification.
Just after this sprint Ruslan Tleubayev (Astana), Maxim Belkov (Katusha Team) and Pieter Serry (Etixx-QuickStep) decided to go off and they create a gap up to 2'20" at about fourty kilometers from the finish. When Maxim Belkov wins the second intermediate sprint and the gap goes under one minute at about 25 kilometers from the finish when the breakaway loses Ruslan Tleubayev. The remaining duo sees its gap drop rapidly and is taken back at 9 kilometers from the finish.

After an attempt from Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) which was neutralised by the peloton, everything seemed to be ready for the stage to finish as expected in a bunch sprint but several riders crashed (including notably the young sprinter Lorrenzo Manzin of the FDJ team and Kenny de Haes [Lotto-Soudal]) in the last few hectometers and in the end there were thus only 7 riders who battled for the sprint. Steele von Hoff (UniSA Australia) was one of them and he won the stage, ahead of Daryl Impey.

The classifications of the Tour Down Under 2015 after the 4th stage

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The classification of the 4th stage: Glenelg > Mount Barker

Here's the top 10 of this stage which had its finish disturbed by a crash:

1/ Steele von Hoff (UniSA Australia) - 3h24'28"
2/ Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE)
3/ Wouter Wippert (Drapac Professional Cycling Team)
4/ Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling)
5/ Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale)
6/ Niccolo Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida)
7/ Rudiger Selig (Katusha Team)
8/ Gianni Meersman (Etixx-QuickStep)
9/ Eugenio Alafaci (Trek Factory Racing)
10/ Koen de Kort (Team Giant-Alpecin)

The general classification after the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2015

At the top of the general classification we see just some minor movements. Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) made the main move by taking the bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint and at the finish by taking the 2nd place:

1/ Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) - 13h41'34"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'07"
3/ Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin) - +0'09"
4/ Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) - +0'13"
5/ Richie Porte (Team Sky) - +0'15"
Post by Cycling, Tour Down Under.

The video summary of the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2015

Tomorrow's stage: McLaren Vale > Willunga Hill

The 5th stage of the Tour Down Under 2015 tomorrow is the classical stage between McLaren Vale and the famous Willunga Hill, over a distance of 151.5 kilometers. That's maybe where the general classification will be decided since the sprinters will most logically lose some time and the classification could thus be shuffled up the day before the final stage which should finish in a sprint in Adelaide. See the race route of the 5th stage of the Tour Down Under 2015.

photo illustration of the article: Ed Dunens, creative commons licence

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under 2015

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