Rohan Dennis will ride to win the Tour Down Under, saying it is too risky to gift teammate Cadel Evans a fairytale title.
Dennis retained his overall lead despite a dramatic crash at the end of Friday’s fourth stage at Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills.
Australian Mark Renshaw was among the riders to fall, but was not hurt seriously.
Australian Steele von Hoff outsprinted six other riders who avoided the crash to score the biggest win of his career.
Evans is second overall, seven seconds behind Dennis, and this is the last WorldTour race for the 2011 Tour de France champion before he retires from professional cycling on February 1.
It is a fascinating scenario for the two Australians and BMC teammates going into Saturday’s decisive Queen stage at Willunga.
Whoever is in the lead after Willunga should win the Tour the following day.
Since Willunga started featuring a hilltop finish in 2012, the overall lead has changed hands on the stage every year.
There are eight riders within 15 seconds of Dennis’ lead and he has no plans to do anything other than ride as hard as he can.
“I don’t want to take away from a great send-off that we could give him,” Dennis said.
“But in saying that, if I just sit up and say ‘look, you take it’, and someone takes the win from him, it would look pretty bad.
“We both have to go into the race trying to win it.
“By doing that, we’re better off in the long run and at the finish, no doubt one of us will be on the podium.”
Dennis added they were a united team and they were going for a one-two overall result.
Asked who would be the team leader at Willunga, Dennis said: “Cadel and Rohan”.
Fellow Australian Richie Porte (Sky), the pre-race favourite along with Evans, is fifth overall and one of six riders on 15 seconds.
He won at Willunga a year ago and is feeling confident.
“BMC didn’t have an easy day today (controlling the race) and it’s no secret we like to ride them into the ground a little bit,” he said.
“We just see how it is out on the finish, last year when I won I went quite early but we’ll just see.
“If I’ve got the legs and they don’t it doesn’t matter and vice versa.
“I think it’s going to be a good, fitting finish to the race.”
The big mover on Friday was Orica-GreenEDGE’s top hope, South African Daryl Impey.
He finished second on the stage and also won an intermediate sprint to gain precious bonus seconds.
Impey improved from 10th to fourth overall, 13 seconds behind Dennis.
Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) remains third at nine seconds.
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