Cycling: Tour Down Under: Porte wins royal stage – Impey takes the lead

Richie Porte (Australia) has won the fifth leg of the Tour Down Under and nurtured his hopes for a successful title defence at home.

The 32-year-old from the BMC Racing Team won by a demanding 151.5 km from McLaren Vale up to Willunga Hill with an eight-second lead over Daryl Impey (South Africa/Mitchelton-Scott).

Three-time World Champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia) from German Team Bora-hansgrohe had nothing to do with the decision and lost his lead jersey to Impey before the final day, and Porte is second at the same time.

As the best German Jasha Sütterlin (Freiburg/Movistar) finished 48th with a 2:33 gap. In the overall ranking Nikias Arndt (Buchholz/Sunweb) improved slightly from 58. on the 55th. The 26-year-old is trailing Impey and Porte by 13:06 minutes.

The decision at the Tour Down Under will be made on Sunday over 90 km with start and finish in Adelaide.