Sunday January 21, 2024 at 7:00 AM
Stephen Williams took the overall victory on the final day of the Tour Down Under. The Briton from Israel-Premier Tech started the final stage to Mount Lofty as the leader and successfully defended his ocher yellow jersey. On the final climb he fought a fierce battle with Jhonatan Narváez, Isaac Del Toro and Bart Lemmen. Williams won the stage and the final classification; Lemmen finished fourth in the stage and fifth in the final classification.
The program included a hill ride with more than 2,800 meters of altitude to Mount Lofty, with three times that climb (6 km at 3.3%, but the last 1.3 kilometers at 7.3%) on the route in the last 60 kilometers. Stephen Williams defended the leader’s jersey against Oscar Onley, who was in the same time as his compatriot. Jhonatan Narváez and Isaac Del Toro followed at five seconds, followed by Julian Alaphilippe, Bart Lemmen and Simon Yates at sixteen seconds from Williams.
The stage was colored by seven attackers until deep into the final. Gil Gelders (Soudal Quick-Step) was the only Belgian at the front, and he was with António Morgado (UAE Emirates), Franck Bonnamour (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Stefan De Bod (EF Education-EasyPost) , Maurice Ballerstedt (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Jacopo Mosca (Lidl-Trek). They held out until the final climb of Mount Lofty.
Tension on the final climb of Mount Lofty
Five kilometers before the finish, the peloton sighted the last remaining escapees. Morgado and Gelders made one last attempt to stay out of the hands of the big men, but the neo-pros also saw that it would not work. The favorites went to Mont Lofty to determine who would win the stage and who would win the final classification.
It became a real waste race in the last two kilometers. The first attack came from Del Toro and he only had four riders with him. Narváez was on his wheel, while Williams and Lemmen struggled to catch up. Laurence Pithie was also along and he was able to pull away from the other four. However, after Del Toro accelerated again, he was caught.
Fourth place Lemmen on debut in the WorldTour round
Lemmen fought his way to fourth place in the last 500 meters. He had to watch Williams in a three-way sprint won the stage victory on Mount Lofty and overall victory in the Tour Down Under. Narváez and Del Toro were left behind and were allowed onto the final podium. Lemmen finished on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike in fourth place in the final stage and fifth in the general classification.
Bart Lemmen competed for the final podium in the final – photo: Cor Vos
Pithie completed the top 5 of the final stage. Behind them it was Alaphilippe who led the next group, ten seconds behind Williams. Dutchmen Bauke Mollema (ninth) and Lars Boven (tenth) finished in that group and finished in the top 10. Willunga Hill winner Oscar Onley was also in that group; he finished 21st and managed to just keep Lemmen behind him in the rankings.
View the images of the final stage of the Tour Down Under 2024 here
Robbie McEwen and Mark Beretta discuss how the final moments of the Tour delivers an outstanding Hahn How Good Moment ????@SantosLtd #TourDownUnder
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2024-01-21 03:57:00
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