Richie Porte cemented a position in the top 10 of the Giro d'Italia with a powerful performance up the slopes of the Mount Etna volcano.
The 37-year-old Launceston veteran finished 16th on the 172-kilometre fourth stage from Avola to leap from 13th to ninth place overall.
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Intriguingly, Porte is the highest place INEOS Grenadier, having recorded the same time as seventh-placed Richard Carapaz, who sits 11th on general classification, two seconds behind the Tasmanian.
Porte is 2:04 off the lead of Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) but just 22 seconds off fourth place.
In what is expected to be his 17th and last Grand Tour as a pro, Porte played a pivotal role in the INEOS gameplan for the tour's first mountain-top finish, delivering Carapaz to the line and holding on to boost his own place in the overall standings.
The two-time Olympian is contesting his fourth Giro, 12 years after winning the young riders' classification in his first.
Expected to retire at the end of the season, the 2020 Tour de France podium placegetter's final race will be the Tour of Britain in September.
Cyclingnews praised the teamwork of the INEOS squad.
"Sicilian-born former Giro d'Italia leader Salvatore Puccio and British national champion Ben Swift did much of the spadework keeping the day-long break of 14 within an acceptable distance time-wise, then Jhonathan Narvaez, Pavel Sivakov and Richie Porte upped the pace hard in the group on the steepest sections of the climbs," it reported.
Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
