Tour Down Under 2016: Gerrans cements GC-lead with back-to-back win in stage 4

After a technical finale in the streets of Victor Harbor Simon Gerrans claims his second stage win in a row, this time outsprinting Ben Swift and Giacomo Nizzolo. He also pickes up 1 bonus second at an intermediate sprint, so he now leads Jay McCarthy by 14 seconds and Rohan Dennis by 26 seconds. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 4th stage Tour Down Under

1. Simon Gerrans (aus)
2. Ben Swift (gbr) s.t.
3. Giacomo Nizzolo (ita) s.t.
4. Jay McCarthy (aus) s.t.
5. Leigh Howard (aus) s.t.
6. Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (rsa) s.t.
7. Sergey Lagutin (rus) s.t.
8. Alexey Tsatevich (rus) s.t.
9. Nathan Haas (aus) s.t.
10. Enrico Battaglin (ita) s.t.

42. Richie Porte (aus) + 0.08

GC after stage 4
1. Simon Gerrans (aus)
2. Jay McCarthy (aus) + 0.14
3. Rohan Dennis (aus) + 0.26
4. Sergio Luis Henao (col) + 0.28
5. Steve Morabito (swi) s.t.
6. Ruben Fernandez (spa) s.t.
7. Domenico Pozzovivo (ita) s.t.
8. Michael Woods (can) + 0.32
9. Rafael Valls (spa) + 0.36
10. Richie Porte (aus) s.t.

Race report
An early break is brought back by Orica at the 15 km’s mark in order to give Gerrans the chance to take bonus time at the intermediate sprint. He doe so, by finishing third he snatches 1 second.

Tanner, Shaw and Gougeard break free to race to a 6 minutes gain. The peloton is too late to bring them back before the second intermediate sprint (with 30 km’s left), but a little later their story is over.

In the technical last kilometres Daryl Impey leads Gerrans into the final straight and the Orica-leader delivers on the work by his team with a glorious win over Swift and Nizzolo. Just like yesterday, McCarthy finishes fourth and misses out on bonus seconds.

Richie Porte, Rafael Valls and Michael Woods are suprrised by a late spilt in the peloton and they lose 8 seconds.