Tour Down Under: Ewan wins Stage 6, Gerrans the title

24th January, 2016

Stage result:

Caleb Ewan won Stage 6 of the Tour Down Under, as Simon Gerrans confirmed a fourth tour title on Sunday.

REPORT: GERRANS, EWAN WIN BIG IN TOUR DOWN UNDER

Stage 6 top three
1. Caleb Ewan
2. Mark Renshaw
3. Giacomo Nizzolo

Tour Down Under final standings
1. Simon Gerrans 19h 11:33
2. Richie Porte +9
3. Sergio Henao +11

Stage preview

With Stage 6 all that’s left of the Tour Down Under, Simon Gerrans looks certain to take out the 2016 edition, with a nine-second lead over compatriot Richie Porte. Join The Roar for the finale on the streets of Adelaide from 2:30pm (AEDT).

This week has been a green wash, with Gerrans having won Stages 3 and 4, and his young Orica-GreenEDGE teammate Caleb Ewan sprinting to victory on Stage 1.

Today’s stage is 20 laps of a 4.5-kilometre circuit on the streets of Adelaide – it’s set to be a bunch sprint at the conclusion, and Ewan is the fastest man on two wheels at the moment, meaning four stage wins and the ochre leader’s jersey are likely to be the Australian team’s haul for the 2016 edition of the country’s biggest race.

Porte is second on general classification, his BMC teammate Rohan Dennis failing to mount a challenge to Gerrans yesterday on Old Willunga Hill. The new Aussie time trial champion wanted to become the first person in the race’s history to win back-to-back titles, but his ambitions were left in tatters after he was dropped on yesterday’s second ascent of the famous climb.

As for Porte’s chances of getting the ten-second bonus for taking line honours today to win overall, the Tasmanian summed it up perfectly, saying, “I couldn’t sprint out of sight on a dark night.”

Ewan is the opposite – daylight was second to him after his blistering sprint to win the TDU’s first stage. As long as the breakaway is hauled back, the 21-year-old should take out today’s stage with ease.

Join The Roar for all the action from 2:30pm (AEDT), and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

The Crowd Says:

2016-01-24T06:16:39+00:00

Wombat

Roar Rookie

Sorry, Joe, but Ewan is way "not ready for prime time". He's damned quick without a doubt and a stupendous crit rider, he's generally in hot form at this time of year but really that's not of any real overall significance in the overall picture. He's small, lightweight and lacking the engine to get him within 40-50km of the finish of a major one day race. This small engine sees him pinged off the back of a GT peleton once they drop the hammer (yes, he won 1 Vuelta stage but every other one he completed he was distanced miles before the business end). He hasn't the climbing ability of a Matthews and is dropped as soon as they up-tempo.They could try and build him up physically to build up that engine but this may well impact negatively on his climbing, an area where he is already deficient. At this point, his chances of finishing a GT in the next couple of years are negligible I have little doubt he will win many races, but what will the quality of those wins be ? I'm sure he'll continue to kill em in crits; he'll probably continue to rack em up in 2nd level races against 3rd tier sprinters. He's likely to continue to be in peak form in AUS summer so he's likely to pick up more TdU stages and maybe some more in other one-week tours (Poland & Eneco). He could maybe even sneak another 1-2 early Giro/Vuelta stages but finishing a GT/winning on the Champs Elysses ...... a long long long way off

AUTHOR

2016-01-24T05:05:01+00:00

Tour Down Under: Ewan wins Stage 6, Gerrans the title

Stage result:

Stage preview

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