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After two difficult days over hilly terrain in the Tour Down Under, the riders will face a much flatter approach into the finish at the coastal town of Victor Harbor.
Stage 4 starts in the town of Norwood and includes the difficult test of the Norton Summit, a keen piece of road for the cycling fraternity in Adelaide. This will be the first time it will be incorporated into the race.
The climb does not count to the King of the Mountains jersey, but at five kilometres at 5.3 per cent, it will be a stern test for anybody feeling the effects of the first couple of days.
It will be completed after only ten kilometres of racing.
The rest of the 138-kilometre journey consists of two intermediate sprints, the first after 28 kilometres in the town of Mylor, and the second and final in Goolwa with just under 40 kilometres of racing to go.
The only other obstacle on paper is the categorised climb of Crows Nest Road, which is to be summitted with 20 kilometres to go in the stage. It goes for more than eight kilometres at 2.3 per cent, but with the first four kilometres at five and a half per cent.
A major point that needs to be made is that this climb is very close to the finish, and the ocean. Depending on the wind direction, it could either rip the race to shreds, meaning punchy riders like Simon Gerrans and Nathan Haas will be contenders, or it will allow the pure sprinters to get over the top uneventfully.
Either way, this climb is well positioned to cause a bit of havoc in what usually is a fairly simple sprint finish in Victor Harbor.
After a dominant win on the opening stage into Lyndoch, Caleb Ewan has to be the favourite today. While his team has to do most of the chase work, he has the patient Darryl Impey accompanying him to perfectly place him onto other teams’ lead-outs in the finale.
Impey has been superb with positioning Ewan in both the People’s Choice Classic and Stage 1, so I expect it to continue here.
Giacomo Nizzolo struggled on Stage 1 after losing his lead-out, but was the only rider who could challenge him in the People’s Choice Classic. He has the ability to challenge, along with Mark Renshaw, but both will have trouble matching the speed of the Orica-GreenEDGE sprinter.
Other riders to look out for include Koen de Kort (Giant), Ben Swift (Sky), Greg Henderson (Lotto-Soudal), Wouter Wippert (Cannondale Garmin), Adam Blythe (Tinkoff), Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar), Mark Renshaw (Dimension Data), Marko Kump (Lampre) and Steele Von Hoff (Uni SA).
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