Richie Porte looked to have pulled back valuable seconds before being swallowed up in the final two kilometres of the Tour Down Under’s fourth stage.
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On a day when reigning champion Daryl Impey outsprinted race leader Patrick Bevin to claim the stage win, Porte and fellow climbers Michael Woods, George Bennett and Wout Poels attacked up the 129.2km stage’s iconic corkscrew climb, putting a healthy lead on the peloton with six kilometres to go.
But the 16-rider group was able to rein the quartet back on the 5km descent to the finish line in Unley, allowing Bevin to maintain his 21-second buffer on the 2017 Tour Down Under champion.
South African Impey needs eight seconds to become the first rider to go back-to-back in the Tour’s 21-year history, while Luis Leon Sanchez narrowly missed a stage win for the third day running and is 11 seconds off the pace.
“We took a nice gap over the top there but that’s just how it plays out here,” Porte said after the stage.
“There’s a big group behind, there’s a motorbike in between and next thing it’s the group all together – we worked well together, it was going to be hard to stay away.
“But it was a good day, the team were fantastic all the guys did their job really well, they put me in a really good position there coming into the final so hats off to them.”
The Hadspen 33-year-old said he was feeling fresh leading into the decisive sixth stage up Willunga Hill – a stage he has won for the past five years running.
“I felt good,” Porte said.
“I was very comfy on the climb, I think there was four of us left so I think that’s a good sign for Sunday.”
Saturday’s 149.5km fifth stage from Glenelg to Strathalbyn starts at 12 noon AEST.