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Australian Rohan Dennis has a two-second lead over compatriot Richie Porte after a pulsating fifth stage in the Tour Down Under.
Porte won the stage with an outstanding attack with 1.2km left of the Old Willunga Hill climb on Saturday.
The Sky team leader went clear of a select group of about 20 riders on the 3.5km climb and only Dennis could go with him.
Porte, who started the stage 15 seconds behind Dennis on the overall standings, crossed the line nine seconds ahead of him.
But along with time bonuses, Dennis still leads by two seconds.
It is the second year in a row that Porte has won the Santos Tour’s Queen stage.
This is the first time since the Willunga summit finish was introduced in 2012 that the overall lead has not changed hands on the stage.
Sunday’s last stage is the Adelaide street race and it is unlikely to affect the top of the overall standings.
Dennis’ teammate Cadel Evans, who started the day in second place at seven seconds, finished the stage fourth behind Spaniard Ruben Fernandez (Movistar).
Evans is now third in the overall standings at 20 seconds.
This is Evans’ last WorldTour race before retirement on February 1.
Earlier, Astana used strong cross winds to briefly split the field on the run-in to the last climb, with Dennis and Evans also making the selection.
But the main peloton was back together at the foot of the last 3.5km climb.
Only 15 seconds separated the top nine riders at the start of stage five.
Saturday’s stage was raced in mild conditions, as well as the cross winds.
New Zealander Greg Henderson (Lotto Soudal) joined Jack Bobridge (UniSA) and Jordan Kerby (Drapac) three kilometres into the 151.5km stage from McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill.
They led by as much as five and a half minutes.
But shortly after 50km to go, Kerby dropped back to the peloton.
As the peloton closed rapidly, Bobridge went clear by himself at the foot of the first climb, with about 25km left.
The stage-one winner, who led the Tour for two days, had a 50-second advantage over the first climb with another outstanding ride.
He then sat up on the descent and was caught at 133.4km.
Dutch rider Maarten Tjallingii (Lotto NL) abandoned during the stage, another victim of the crashes that marred stage four.
Australian Travis Meyer (Drapac) did not start on Saturday after breaking his hand in the mass pileup at the end of stage four.
Belgian Kenny De Haes (Lotto Soudal) and French FDJ teammates Olivier Le Gac and Lorenzo Manzin also did not start because of the finish-line pileup.
American Lawson Craddock crashed out of the race at the start of the fourth stage.
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