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Simon Gerrans is maintaining control of his one-second lead over fellow Australian cycling star Cadel Evans in the final stage of the Tour Down Under.
Three riders who are no threat on the overall standings took the time bonuses at the first intermediate sprint in the sixth and last stage.
Barring some disaster, Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) should be able to keep Evans (BMC) out of the time bonuses and become the first rider in the Tour’s 15-year history to win three overall titles.
Italian Diego Ulissi (Lampre) is third at five seconds overall and is the other big threat to Gerrans’ lead.
Stage six is an 85.5km street race on a new 4.75 circuit through the Adelaide CBD.
Australian Will Clarke (Drapac), French rider Julien Berard (Ag2r) and Russian Maxim Belkov (Katusha) formed the break in the second of 18 laps.
Belkov’s Russian team-mate Egor Silin and French rider Angelo Tulik (Europcar) initially went clear with Clarke, but they crashed early.
Although Clarke punctured, he was able to stay clear of the peloton through to the first intermediate sprint at lap six.
The leading three riders took the three, two and one-second time bonuses.
There was another intermediate sprint at lap 12 with the same bonuses.
Gerrans’ overall lead may be slender but unless something goes wrong he and Orica-GreenEDGE are in control.
One second may as well be one hour.
The top three riders at the finish gain 10, six and four seconds, but it will inevitably be a bunch sprint.
Evans and Ulissi are highly unlikely to contest the finish against sprint aces such as German pair Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel.
Also, Gerrans is a better sprinter than his two key rivals and Orica-GreenEDGE have shown throughout this race that they are the top team.
So Orica-GreenEDGE should be able to either mark Evans and Ulissi out of the time bonuses or make sure Gerrans finishes ahead of them at the second sprint and the finish.
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