Plenty of breaks during the first 130 km of the stage each time brought back by the bunch but at the Kerby Hill climb (22.9km to go) 11 riders got some distance between them and a peloton who had most of the sprinters in their ranks. With Richie Porte the leader in their midst but also 2 Deceuninck-Quickstep riders who didn’t work as they knew that Sam Bennett was among a deflated 50 strong bunch less than a minute away…the chasers with most of the sprinters had 20km road to get them back and reeled them back with 6km to go. Again a difficult finale with 2 roundabouts saw some of the sprinters losing position and Simone Consonni and Giacomo Nizzolo took at least 10 meters with 25 meters to go but Sam was eating away at their advantage and so close to nearly overtaking them…his turn of speed so fast that another 5 meters would have seen him winning, but hey…3 podiums out of 5 stages is something to write home about. Nevertheless, a great win for the Italian Giacomo Nizollo (NTT) who had the better of the other Italian Simone Consonni (Cofidis) Richie Porte lost his Ochre Leader Jersey to the South African Daryl Impey (MTS) and only 2 seconds between them going into the last stage tomorrow with a tricky hilly finish at Willunga Hill after 151km stage! The Belgian Jasper Philipsen (UAE) leads the points competition (Sam 4th) American Joey Rosskopf (CCC) leads the KOH and Team Mitchelton-Scott the best team so far.
