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The sixth and final stage of the Santos Tour Down Under takes place at Mt Lofty, which took place for the first time last year. The race was reduced to a four-person small group sprint, with Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech) taking both the group win and the overall win.
Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech) wears the overall leader’s jersey, photo: CorVos
The opening round of the 2024 season, the Santos Tour Down Under, which lasted all six days, was also on its final day. The 24th race concludes with a 128.2km run starting in Unley and running up Mount Lofty. The real challenge is Mount Lofty, which climbs three times in total (distance 1.3 km/average 7.3%/maximum 13.3%).
In the front row at the start is Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech), who came second the day before and will wear the overall leader’s jersey. The previous day’s winner, Oscar Only (Great Britain, DSM Firmenich Post NL), finished second overall with the same time, and Jonathan Narváez (Ecuador, Ineos Grenadiers), who came third overall, was just 5 seconds behind out of 131 participants. The players started running.
Chris Harper (Australia) was first to cross the Class 1 mountain set up immediately afterwards, hoping to make it difficult for Simon Yates (Jaco AlUla, UK) to take overall victory. Luke Burns (Australian national team) took second place and successfully won the Mountaineer award jersey, which he will wear from the second day of competition.
Seven people, including Simon Geschke (Germany, Cofidis), formed an escape group. Photo: CorVos
Seven riders then jumped out from the crowd, including Stephen Debod (South Africa, EF Education Easy Post), who ran away on the third stage. Simon Geschke (Germany, Cofidis), who is retiring from active service at the end of the year, will also be included in the breakaway group and has a time difference of 3 to 4 minutes from the main group. The racer and the peloton then passed the summit of Mt Lofty for the first and second time without any major disputes.
Ineos Grenadiers, aiming to move ahead of Narváez for the overall victory, increased the Proton’s pace and reduced the time difference to the breakaway to 30 seconds. However, around 12 people from the main group fell in the remaining 7km before the final Mt Lofty. Alessandro Covi, Diego Ulissi (both from Italy) and important assists from Isaac Del Toro (Mexico, UAE Team Emirates), who is in 4th place overall, were involved.
The last day of the tournament took place at a pleasant 24 degrees. Photo: CorVos
In this tournament, Filippo Ganna (Italy, Ineos Grenadiers), who dedicated himself to assist, will lead the Proton. Photo: CorVos
As the peloton approaches the finish, the members of the escaped race are swallowed up one by one, but 19-year-old neo-pro (first year pro) Antonio Morgado (Portugal, UAE Team Emirates) fights to the end. However, the group led by Ineos again beat the EF Education Easy Post and entered the third Mount Lofty (distance 1.3km/average 7.3%/maximum 13.3%), where the section and overall victories were determined .
Harper, who had shown a high pace at Willunga Hill the day before, continued to push the group together at a high pace this day. Then, before the steepest section, 20-year-old Del Toro, the winner of the second stage, took a step.
Narváez and Lawrence Pichy (New Zealand, Groupama FDJ) caught this sharp attack, later joined by separate Williams and Bart Lemmen (Netherlands, Wisma Riesabijk). Among others, Julien Alaphilippe (France, Soudal Quick-Step) and Simon Yates (England, Jayco Al-Ullah) withdrew as their conditions did not improve and the race was limited to the first five riders. Pichy jumped onto the flat section and took the lead alone.
Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech) begins his sprint shortly before the finish line, photo: CorVos
Stephen Williams (Great Britain, Israel Premier Tech) won the section and overall. Photo: CorVos
But four people, led by Del Toro, who showed off his easy dancing, caught Pissy. Then Williams takes a step on the gentle descent that continues to the finish, and del Toro cannot respond to this step, and Narváez, trying with all his might to turn his legs, cannot reach him. Because of this, Williams drove calmly from start to finish, listening to the movements of those around him, and won on the final day of the tournament, securing the overall victory.
Williams is 27 years old and made his professional debut with Bahrain Merida in 2019. “Today’s finish had the perfect layout for me. I’m good at catching up with the guys in front of me on the climbs and luckily I was able to take the initiative myself at the end. I got in 250 meters from the finish. “The car stopped. This was a team effort, not just me. It was the best start to the season,” said Williams and celebrated his first overall victory on the World Tour.
Israel Premier Tech athletes celebrate with Stephen Williams (UK) Photo: CorVos Stephen Williams (UK, Israel Premier Tech) wins the overall victory in his first World Tour stage race Photo: CorVos
Jersey with 4 awards, including Del Toro, who made a name for himself by winning the section and the Young Rider Award. Photo: CorVos
Narváez took 2nd overall, while Only fell back and dropped significantly in the overall standings, leaving Del Toro, who won the Young Rider Award, on the podium in 3rd overall.
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