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2019 Santos Tour Down Under (World Tour), Australia

Stage 4 results:
January 18, Unley - Campbelltown, 129.2 km

Back to 2019 Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under podium History

Friday, January 18: Stage 4, Unley - Campbelltown, 129.2 km

Stage 4 map | Stage 4 photos

Daryl Impey

Daryl Impey takes the fourth stage. Sirotti photo

The race: Here's the organizer's stage report.

Impey wins in fine style while Bevin keeps his lead

“The Corkscrew”, that’s what they talk about from the moment the race route is unveiled. It’s a tough climb. It’s not long but it’s steep and the crest of the hill comes a little over 5km from the finish. Get up it at the front and you can win but, as is usually the case when Corkscrew Road is included in the route, the climbers make the show, the power riders win the stage.

It happened again in stage four of the 2019 race.

A quartet of four strong climbers –Richie Porte, Wout Poels, George Bennett and Michael Woods –opened up a gap on the talking point of the day, the Corkscrew, but their advantage wasn’t enough to hold on and fight for the win.

“We come here to win the race,” said Impey’s Mitchelton-Scott team manager, Matt White. “If we win a stage or not doesn’t factor into it: we want the title and with Daryl we know we’ve got someone capable of pulling it off.”

Today he got the win and elevated himself from fifth to second overall.

The climbers put on the show. The sprinters –including yesterday winner, Peter Sagan –were victims of the steep gradient. And a powerful rider like Impey overcame a host of star riders to celebrate another success in South Australia.

Away from Unley, up the climb and into the Adelaide Hills and onward to Gorge Road, that’s the format for the lead-up to the highlight of the fourth stage. The Corkscrew climb isn’t long but it’s steep–and, before the fourth stage of the Santos Tour Down Under (sponsored by 100%), it was the talk of the peloton.

There was an early escape. It came almost immediately after the neutral zone and featured ‘local’ birthday boy, 25-year-old Miles Scotson of the Groupama-FDJ team. Also in the move was Thomas De Gendt (of course) of Lotto-Soudal, Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale), Jasha Sütterlin (Movistar) and UniSA’s under-23 national champion Nick White.

The sprint points in Echunga (29km) were earned by White ahead of and Sütterlin and Scotson; and, for the second passage, De Gendt, beat Pernsteiner and Cosnefroy.

Their advantage stretched to five minutes and then CCC Team put all seven riders on the front of the peloton to keep the escapees honest.

With about 60km to go in the stage, rain fell for the first time in this year’s race. The forecast had been for a shower and much of the talk before stage was about what may happen in the descent of the Corkscrew, inside the final 6km of the stage, was done on wet roads.

Although the road leading to the climb is mostly downhill, and often raced extremely fast, there were no incidents in the peloton which was 1:15 behind the break with 25km to go.

Various teams took charge of the bunch: first CCC, then EF Education first along with Mitchelton-Scott, Bahrain-Merida, and Trek-Segafredo.

It was warm at the start, but nothing like the opening days of the 21st Santos Tour Down Under. With temperatures around 26 degrees Celsius in Unley, it was the humidity that made it uncomfortable more than the heat. Still, it warmed up as the stage progressed and the brief showers abated before the peloton got to Gorge Road, the surface was dry and the threat of slippery conditions not as severe as it could have been.

Scotson is from Campbelltown, the site of the stage finish and he was clearly motivated to get to Corkscrew ahead of the peloton. He was speeding towards the climb, doing longer turns than others in the break but all up front were contributing to the pacesetting.

The effort by Scotson was significant, so much so that, with 15km to go, not even De Gendt could follow. The 2017 Australian champion split the lead group with a strong turn of pace with only Pernsteiner able to match the local.

Katusha-Alpecin and Jumbo-Visma arrived at the front of the bunch shortly before the turn onto Corkscrew Road. Meanwhile, up front Scotson was insistent and Sütterlin, also a time trial specialist, eventually caught and past the rider at the front.

Groupama-FDJ sent four to the head of the peloton with 12km to go, not to chase but in an attempt to stall the bunch but Team Sky responded by putting three men at the front.

Turning into Corkscrew Road the peloton’s deficit was 1:00 and Scotson could start believing in his chances of victory... but his earlier efforts cost him and he couldn’t maintain an advantage.

All along, Bevin –in the leader’s jersey –held good position even if his team-mates left him a little isolate near the end.

The first attack from the peloton was from Remi Cavagna of Deceuninck-Quickstep and Scotson and Pernsteiner responded with one last effort only to be swallowed up by the young French rider before the top.

Again, Kenny Elissonde sparked the other climbers into action with 6.5km to go in the stage but he was towing the bunch rather than attacking it. There was method in the approach as Wout Poels was the next to surge before Michael

Woods (EF Education First) went into action with Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) on his wheel. The Tasmanian was followed by George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma).
Woods, Porte, Bennett and Poels swapped turns in the final kilometre of the climb and then came daylight... and a gap of about 15 seconds to the peloton.

The four leaders maintained a slight advantage on the technical descent, reaching speeds of around 70km/h, each swapping relatively even turns but the remnants of the bunch could see them just up the road.

With 2km to go, only nine-seconds separated the foursome from the group that included Bevin, Impey and a host of other riders with strong reputations.

Under the ‘Flamme Rouge’ there was a group of 18 and, in case there was any doubt about his form, Paddy Bevin demonstrated that there’s a reason he’s in the race lead. The NZ TT champion opened up his sprint about 300m from the line and it became a drag race with last year’s TDU champion, Daryl Impey.

The South African champion was third in stage three and, with a fantastic turn of speed in the final metres of stage four, a winner in Campbelltown.

Impey got his stage win. Bevin retains his lead of GC and the battle resumes on Saturday... but, this year, not on the roads of McLaren Vale –that comes on Sunday in 2019.

Complete Results:

Stage 4 photos

129.2 km raced at an average speed of 42.257 km/hr

1	IMPEY Daryl	Mitchelton-Scott	3hr 3min 27sec
2	BEVIN Patrick	CCC Team	s.t.
3	SÁNCHEZ Luis León	Astana	s.t.
4	GUERREIRO Ruben	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
5	FERNÁNDEZ Rubén	Movistar	s.t.
6	BENNETT George	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
7	ULISSI Diego	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
8	WOODS Michael	EF Education First	s.t.
9	HAMILTON Chris	Team Sunweb	s.t.
10	VAN BAARLE Dylan	Sky	s.t.
11	DEVENYNS Dries	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
12	GIBBONS Ryan	Dimension Data	s.t.
13	HINDLEY Jai	Team Sunweb	s.t.
14	POELS Wout	Sky	s.t.
15	POZZOVIVO Domenico	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
16	POGAČAR Tadej	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
17	HAMILTON Lucas	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
18	PORTE Richie	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
19	POLANC Jan	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
20	DENNIS Rohan	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
21	MAS Lluís	Movistar	@ 21sec
22	MEYER Cameron	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
23	LUDVIGSSON Tobias	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
24	SLAGTER Tom-Jelte	Dimension Data	s.t.
25	MÜHLBERGER Gregor	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
26	PERNSTEINER Hermann	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
27	O'CONNOR Ben	Dimension Data	s.t.
28	STRAKHOV Dmitry	Katusha-Alpecin	0:32
29	SAGAN Peter	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
30	SUNDERLAND Dylan	UniSA-Australia	s.t.
31	PRADES Eduard	Movistar	s.t.
32	CAVAGNA Rémi	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
33	HARPER Chris	UniSA-Australia	s.t.
34	VALGREN Michael	Dimension Data	s.t.
35	MORABITO Steve	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
36	HAGEN Carl Fredrik	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
37	STORER Michael	Team Sunweb	s.t.
38	CARRETERO Héctor	Movistar	0:34
39	LATOUR Pierre	Ag2r La Mondiale	0:49
40	GESINK Robert	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
41	HOFSTEDE Lennard	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
42	OSS Daniel	Bora-hansgrohe	@ 1min 2sec
43	BETTIOL Alberto	EF Education First	s.t.
44	KUZNETSOV Vyacheslav	Katusha-Alpecin	1:05
45	SCOTSON Miles	Groupama-FDJ	1:15
46	MCCARTHY Jay	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
47	CHEVRIER Clément	Ag2r La Mondiale	1:25
48	KNOX James	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
49	HANSEN Adam	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
50	BYSTRØM Sven Erik	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
51	PANTANO Jarlinson	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
52	MARCZYŃSKI Tomasz	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
53	BAK Lars Ytting	Dimension Data	1:48
54	DE LA PARTE Víctor	CCC Team	2:05
55	SÜTTERLIN Jasha	Movistar	2:21
56	VALLS Rafael	Movistar	s.t.
57	BALLERINI Davide	Astana	2:53
58	LADAGNOUS Matthieu	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
59	FRANKINY Kilian	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
60	FRÖHLINGER Johannes	Team Sunweb	s.t.
61	DUPONT Hubert	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
62	ARASHIRO Yukiya	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
63	HAUSSLER Heinrich	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
64	WHITE Nicholas	UniSA-Australia	s.t.
65	WHELAN James	EF Education First	s.t.
66	HOELGAARD Daniel	Groupama-FDJ	3:10
67	DE GENDT Thomas	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
68	STETINA Peter	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
69	VINCENT Léo	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
70	ELISSONDE Kenny	Sky	s.t.
71	LEEZER Tom	Jumbo-Visma	3:23
72	MULLEN Ryan	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
73	BOARO Manuele	Astana	s.t.
74	DLAMINI Nic	Dimension Data	s.t.
75	HAYMAN Mathew	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
76	OWSIAN Łukasz	CCC Team	4:04
77	PHILIPSEN Jasper	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
78	MORTON Lachlan	EF Education First	s.t.
79	ROSSKOPF Joey	CCC Team	s.t.
80	WYNANTS Maarten	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
81	HEPBURN Michael	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
82	EDMONDSON Alex	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
83	OLIVEIRA Ivo	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
84	EWAN Caleb	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
85	KNEES Christian	Sky	s.t.
86	DE VREESE Laurens	Astana	s.t.
87	GIDICH Yevgeniy	Astana	4:34
88	ZAKHAROV Artyom	Astana	s.t.
89	DOWSETT Alex	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
90	DE KORT Koen	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
91	POTTER Michael	UniSA-Australia	s.t.
92	SUTHERLAND Rory	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
93	TOOVEY Ayden	UniSA-Australia	s.t.
94	CASTRILLO Jaime	Movistar	s.t.
95	DAVIES Scott	Dimension Data	s.t.
96	BLYTHE Adam	Lotto-Soudal	5:36
97	DOULL Owain	Sky	s.t.
98	BODNAR Maciej	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
99	CLARKE Will	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
100	BAGDONAS Gediminas	Ag2r La Mondiale	5:40
101	LEA Jason	UniSA-Australia	s.t.
102	DURBRIDGE Luke	Mitchelton-Scott	6:07
103	DOCKER Mitchell	EF Education First	s.t.
104	SCULLY Tom	EF Education First	s.t.
105	HALLER Marco	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
106	VENTOSO Francisco José	CCC Team	s.t.
107	VAN DER PLOEG Neil	UniSA-Australia	6:41
108	WALSCHEID Max	Team Sunweb	s.t.
109	ROWE Luke	Sky	6:55
110	SIEBERG Marcel	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
111	HALVORSEN Kristoffer	Sky	s.t.
112	DEBUSSCHERE Jens	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
113	HAAS Nathan	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
114	BAUHAUS Phil	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
115	BOL Cees	Team Sunweb	6:59
116	LINDEMAN Bert-Jan	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
117	VAN POPPEL Danny	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
118	COSNEFROY Benoît	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
119	HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich	Deceuninck-Quick Step	7:38
120	SABATINI Fabio	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
121	MØRKØV Michael	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
122	VIVIANI Elia	Deceuninck-Quick Step	7:39
123	GATTO Oscar	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
124	MARECZKO Jakub	CCC Team	s.t.
125	DENZ Nico	Ag2r La Mondiale	8:18
126	REIJNEN Kiel	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
127	PETERS Nans	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
128	MCLAY Daniel	EF Education First	s.t.
129	PÖSTLBERGER Lukas	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
130	FOMINYKH Daniil	Astana	8:47
131	SAJNOK Szymon	CCC Team	s.t.
132	KLUGE Roger	Lotto-Soudal	8:49

GC after Stage 4:

526.5 kilometers raced so far at an average speed of 39.316 km/hr

1	BEVIN Patrick	CCC Team	13hr 23min 30sec
2	IMPEY Daryl	Mitchelton-Scott	@ 7sec
3	SÁNCHEZ Luis León	Astana	0:11
4	HAMILTON Chris	Team Sunweb	0:21
5	GIBBONS Ryan	Dimension Data	s.t.
6	POLANC Jan	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
7	BENNETT George	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
8	GUERREIRO Ruben	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
9	ULISSI Diego	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
10	WOODS Michael	EF Education First	s.t.
11	POELS Wout	Sky	s.t.
12	DEVENYNS Dries	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
13	VAN BAARLE Dylan	Sky	s.t.
14	POGAČAR Tadej	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
15	POZZOVIVO Domenico	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
16	HINDLEY Jai	Team Sunweb	s.t.
17	PORTE Richie	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
18	DENNIS Rohan	Bahrain-Merida	s.t.
19	HAMILTON Lucas	Mitchelton-Scott	0:28
20	SAGAN Peter	Bora-hansgrohe	0:39
21	LUDVIGSSON Tobias	Groupama-FDJ	0:42
22	MEYER Cameron	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
23	O'CONNOR Ben	Dimension Data	s.t.
24	SLAGTER Tom-Jelte	Dimension Data	s.t.
25	MÜHLBERGER Gregor	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
26	PERNSTEINER Hermann	Bahrain-Merida	0:47
27	STORER Michael	Team Sunweb	0:48
28	MAS Lluís	Movistar	0:49
29	PRADES Eduard	Movistar	0:53
30	STRAKHOV Dmitry	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
31	VALGREN Michael	Dimension Data	s.t.
32	HARPER Chris	UniSA-Australia	s.t.
33	MORABITO Steve	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
34	HAGEN Carl Fredrik	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
35	SUNDERLAND Dylan	UniSA-Australia	@ 1min 0sec
36	CAVAGNA Rémi	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
37	LATOUR Pierre	Ag2r La Mondiale	1:10
38	GESINK Robert	Jumbo-Visma	1:17
39	KUZNETSOV Vyacheslav	Katusha-Alpecin	1:26
40	MCCARTHY Jay	Bora-hansgrohe	1:36
41	KNOX James	Deceuninck-Quick Step	1:46
42	HOFSTEDE Lennard	Jumbo-Visma	2:00
43	BAK Lars Ytting	Dimension Data	2:16
44	CARRETERO Héctor	Movistar	2:22
45	SCOTSON Miles	Groupama-FDJ	2:30
46	VALLS Rafael	Movistar	2:49
47	ARASHIRO Yukiya	Bahrain-Merida	3:21
48	WHELAN James	EF Education First	3:40
49	HAUSSLER Heinrich	Bahrain-Merida	3:55
50	OSS Daniel	Bora-hansgrohe	4:05
51	ELISSONDE Kenny	Sky	4:27
52	BYSTRØM Sven Erik	UAE-Team Emirates	5:01
53	TOOVEY Ayden	UniSA-Australia	5:36
54	ROSSKOPF Joey	CCC Team	5:50
55	DAVIES Scott	Dimension Data	5:51
56	PANTANO Jarlinson	Trek-Segafredo	5:53
57	SÜTTERLIN Jasha	Movistar	5:55
58	HALLER Marco	Katusha-Alpecin	6:28
59	DUPONT Hubert	Ag2r La Mondiale	6:29
60	MARCZYŃSKI Tomasz	Lotto-Soudal	6:33
61	DE GENDT Thomas	Lotto-Soudal	6:43
62	STETINA Peter	Trek-Segafredo	7:07
63	VAN POPPEL Danny	Jumbo-Visma	7:20
64	HAAS Nathan	Katusha-Alpecin	7:23
65	GIDICH Yevgeniy	Astana	8:10
66	MULLEN Ryan	Trek-Segafredo	8:23
67	EDMONDSON Alex	Mitchelton-Scott	8:32
68	HEPBURN Michael	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
69	WHITE Nicholas	UniSA-Australia	8:34
70	HAYMAN Mathew	Mitchelton-Scott	9:07
71	LEEZER Tom	Jumbo-Visma	9:20
72	MORTON Lachlan	EF Education First	10:02
73	BAUHAUS Phil	Bahrain-Merida	10:31
74	PHILIPSEN Jasper	UAE-Team Emirates	11:31
75	FERNÁNDEZ Rubén	Movistar	11:47
76	DURBRIDGE Luke	Mitchelton-Scott	11:51
77	BETTIOL Alberto	EF Education First	12:09
78	FOMINYKH Daniil	Astana	12:23
79	SCULLY Tom	EF Education First	12:27
80	KNEES Christian	Sky	12:40
81	LINDEMAN Bert-Jan	Jumbo-Visma	12:43
82	DOCKER Mitchell	EF Education First	12:52
83	FRANKINY Kilian	Groupama-FDJ	13:20
84	FRÖHLINGER Johannes	Team Sunweb	s.t.
85	LADAGNOUS Matthieu	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
86	SABATINI Fabio	Deceuninck-Quick Step	13:22
87	DE LA PARTE Víctor	CCC Team	13:52
88	BODNAR Maciej	Bora-hansgrohe	13:56
89	LEA Jason	UniSA-Australia	14:11
90	CHEVRIER Clément	Ag2r La Mondiale	14:16
91	HANSEN Adam	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
92	SUTHERLAND Rory	UAE-Team Emirates	15:01
93	BALLERINI Davide	Astana	15:44
94	VINCENT Léo	Groupama-FDJ	16:00
95	HOELGAARD Daniel	Groupama-FDJ	16:01
96	DOULL Owain	Sky	16:03
97	DLAMINI Nic	Dimension Data	16:14
98	CASTRILLO Jaime	Movistar	16:18
99	POTTER Michael	UniSA-Australia	16:34
100	EWAN Caleb	Lotto-Soudal	16:49
101	DE VREESE Laurens	Astana	16:55
102	OWSIAN Łukasz	CCC Team	s.t.
103	OLIVEIRA Ivo	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
104	ZAKHAROV Artyom	Astana	17:19
105	ROWE Luke	Sky	17:22
106	DE KORT Koen	Trek-Segafredo	17:25
107	COSNEFROY Benoît	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
108	DOWSETT Alex	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
109	WYNANTS Maarten	Jumbo-Visma	18:11
110	CLARKE Will	Trek-Segafredo	18:27
111	PETERS Nans	Ag2r La Mondiale	18:45
112	BLYTHE Adam	Lotto-Soudal	18:57
113	VENTOSO Francisco José	CCC Team	18:58
114	BOARO Manuele	Astana	19:02
115	HALVORSEN Kristoffer	Sky	19:44
116	DEBUSSCHERE Jens	Katusha-Alpecin	19:46
117	SIEBERG Marcel	Bahrain-Merida	20:10
118	VIVIANI Elia	Deceuninck-Quick Step	20:14
119	BOL Cees	Team Sunweb	20:22
120	WALSCHEID Max	Team Sunweb	20:24
121	MØRKØV Michael	Deceuninck-Quick Step	20:29
122	VAN DER PLOEG Neil	UniSA-Australia	20:30
123	DENZ Nico	Ag2r La Mondiale	21:07
124	REIJNEN Kiel	Trek-Segafredo	21:09
125	GATTO Oscar	Bora-hansgrohe	21:13
126	MARECZKO Jakub	CCC Team	21:24
127	HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich	Deceuninck-Quick Step	21:27
128	KLUGE Roger	Lotto-Soudal	21:40
129	PÖSTLBERGER Lukas	Bora-hansgrohe	22:05
130	MCLAY Daniel	EF Education First	22:07
131	BAGDONAS Gediminas	Ag2r La Mondiale	22:24
132	SAJNOK Szymon	CCC Team	29:42