It was Australia Day today, the official national day of Australia (every year on the 26th of January). What a good occasion to see an Australian rider win the Tour Down Under 2014. That was almost guaranteed with two Australian riders at the first positions of the general classification before the start of this last stage which would end in a sprint today. Even better, an Australian rider won it and established a new record: Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) is the first rider to win the Tour Down Under for the 3rd time! (after 2006 and 2012).

So far Gerrans shared the record of 2 victories with André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) who won the last stage today but who ends up at the 46th position in the general classification this year, over 11 minutes behind Gerrans.

The summary of the 6th and last stage of the Tour Down Under 2014: Adelaide > Adelaide

It was as usual a circuit stage in Adelaide which ended off the Tour Down Under 2014. This year however, the circuit was different and that was due to a cricket game taking place at the Adelaide Oval at the occasion of Australia Day. Indeed, Adelaide Oval is in the middle of the circuit which is usually used for the last stage and it was thus really impossible to organise the two events at this location.

It was thus on a new circuit of 4.75 kilometers that the riders turned around 18 times and it all started with plenty of action. Indeed, in the leading trio which got formed right from the start, Angelo Tulik (Team Europcar) crashes and Maxim Belkov (Team Katusha) runs into him and also ends on the ground. Will Clarke (Drapac Professional Cycling) doesn't get involved in the crash and gets company from Julien Bérard (AG2R La Mondiale) a bit later since the French rider was chasing behind the initial breakaway.
While Angelo Tulik had to leave the race, Belkov manages to get back on them and the new leading trio had a 1'15" gap on the peloton at the end of the 2nd lap. While the gap reaches its maximum around 2 minutes in the 8th lap and the peloton doesn't seem too worried about these 3 riders in front (Julien Bérard was the best placed rider at over 8 minutes), the leading trio sees the peloton coming back on them quite rapidly while approaching the last crossing of the finish line anyway.

This all happens in the 16th lap and even though Maxim Belkov tries to desperately stay out of the claws of the peloton, the whole breakaway comes to an end in this lap. We're then all ready for a bunch sprint and even though several teams show they're ready to go for victory, the sprint train of the Lotto-Belisol team is the most well organised and it brings André Greipel, almost easily, to victory. For the 3rd time in row the German rider thus wins the last stage of the Tour Down Under but the real record comes from Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) who wins the Tour Down Under for the 3rd time in his career, a first for the Australian race!

The results of the Tour Down Under 2014

The result of the 6th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014

Here's the top 10 of this last stage of the Tour Down Under 2014:

1/ André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) - 1h55'16"
2/ Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
3/ Andrew Fenn (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
4/ Koen de Kort (Team Giant-Shimano)
5/ Jonathan Cantwell (Drapac Professional Cycling)
6/ Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE)
7/ Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp)
8/ Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Belisol)
9/ Michal Kolár (Tinkoff-Saxo)
10/ Mathew Hayman (Orica-GreenEDGE)

The general classification of the Tour Down Under 2014 and the other classifications

Here's the top 5 of the general classification:

1/ Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 19h57'35"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'01"
3/ Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) - +0'05"
4/ Richie Porte (Team Sky) - +0'10"
5/ Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp) - +0'27"

In the other classifications we see Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) win the King of the Mountains classification in which he took the lead right from the first day and never lost the jersey ever since. The winner of the race, Simon Gerrans, also wins the points classification while the best young rider this week was Jack Haig (UniSA-Australia) who participated in his first Tour Down Under and ended it at only 2'08" from Simon Gerrans.
The best team was Orica-GreenEDGE.

The video of the 6th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014

Hereunder you'll find the video of the 6th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014:


© photos Santos Tour Down Under:
> article illustration: John Veage
> crash: Stuart Smith
> breakaway and Simon Gerrans as the overall winner: John Veage

door Thomas Vergouwen
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