GC showdown on Willunga at Tour Down Under stage 5 – LIVE

Ineos is moving closer to the front of the field still led by Picnic. Lidl, Visma are all massing close to the front. 

As we speed towards Willunga, let’s do a quick GC recap – Romo holds fragile four-second lead on 2024 runner-up Narvaez. 

Four seconds, ten seconds, 12 seconds – even 15 seconds doesn’t sound like much when it comes to WorldTour stage racing. But the Tour Down Under general classification margins are as far apart as they are close ahead of the penultimate stage to Willunga.

Read more: Tour Down Under GC battle remains poised on knife-edge before key Willunga stage

Teams are grouping in the peloton, starting to think about their position on the approach to the first time up Willunga Hill. 

No contest – Swift rolls through first ahead of Hepburn and Bleddyn in the intermediate sprint.

The break is racing towards the second intermediate sprint in Snapper Point and the four riders are inside of 1km to the line. Gap is now under 3 minutes, at 2:50

Still Picnic PostNL lined up at the front of the peloton, followed by Movistar with race leader Romo. 

54km to go

Bleddyn, Hepburn, Eenkhoorn and Swift in the break have 3:07 on the field who is slowly ticking down the gap. Peloton is stretched out.

Bernie Eisel, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe DS, shared his thoughts about Finn Fisher-Black with Cyclingnews:

“We’re looking good at around the same time [in GC], which was always the goal. I’d say we had to invest quite a lot already with the sprints and everything so, but we came here with one clear goal. That was stage wins over GC first, and now we can start focusing on … the GC for Finn.”

 “The whole team is around them. We are dead last in team GC, but we have two stage wins and we’re sitting fourth in GC. So it was definitely the start we hoped for. Today it’s about positioning. This is what the boys definitely can do really well. At the same time with Finn, it’s one effort to the top. We are confident. He has the legs, we have the team and with a little bit of luck, hopefully we’ll play for a good podium spot.”

Fisher-Black is 10 seconds down on GC.

The four riders in the break – Bleddyn, Hepburn, Eenkhoorn and Swift – are still working well together and holding the gap at 3:18 with 67km to go.

Bleddyn gets a bottle from the neutral car and uses it to spray his legs to cool down.

Fabio Baldato, UAE Team Emirates XRG DS, told Cyclingnews and other media at the start that Jay Vine has road rash all down his right side and as a former rider, he knows it could cost him 5%. 

“Nothing broken, nothing too bad. After a hard crash like he had, it’s not easy to be 100%. He will do his best. I know he can give great support to Jhonatan. That is important. We need to try to go all in for [Narvaez] today.”

“[Jay] will fight to the end today, he’s a fighter. For sure he will be there”

Baldato’s been at TDU for a long time, with BMC back in the day with Richie Porte, so knows the climb well.

“It’s always 2k to the top is the point to go, where you really can make a difference – where they already did six minute climbing – when the legs are hurting, you need to try to go. It’s up to the rider. I cannot tell from the car ‘now is the moment to go’.”

UAE is focussed on the stage win today, thinking that will be the chance to win the overall.

Geert van Bondt, Soudal-Quickstep DS, on Junior Lecerf who went into the break on stage 4:

“We’re hoping that he will perform well again today. Yesterday, he made that move with Mauro Schmid. He said, OK, let’s go for that bonus second, and then I come back in the peloton, I can move up a little bit [in GC]. He’s still,very young. We were here with him to be top 20 in GC.” 

“On stage 3 he hoped for a little bit more, but on the last 300 meters of the climb, he had it pretty difficult, so he missed the first group a little bit. And then he said yesterday, let’s try to take some extra seconds. Now, of course, we hope he can follow the best riders again and still can move up in GC.  That would be nice for him for his age, and yeah, we hope he can be coming in that top 20 position.”

Lecerf is 32 seconds down in GC.

Picnic PostNL continues to set the pace at the front of the peloton, gap is now at 3:26 to the 4 riders in the break with 74km to go 

Matt Wilson, Picnic-PostNl DS told Cyclingnews at the start in McLaren Vale. Their rider Oscar Onley won the Willunga stage last year.

“Oscar proved last year that he can do a good result. I think he’s going into the stage quite confident. We have to make sure we bring Oscar as fresh as possible into that final, and then it’s all down to the legs.”

“I think Narvaez showed he’s in good form. He will focus on his race, we have to just do our best to get Oscar as fresh as possible into the final. And when the pace is hard, then I think we can get a good result.”

Loe Van Belle (Visma-Lease A Bike) who crashed earlier in the stage, has abandoned. 

85km to go

And Lopez is back into the peloton, single filed behind Picnic 

Jürgen Roelandts, Movistar DS, told Cyclingnews at the start this morning:

“It’s a tough one. I think all the riders know most of the time it comes down to the last time up [Willunga] … we will try to control the race until the last time. If it’s like all the other years that will be the ideal scenario for us.

“We saw last year [Narvaez] was third there in the sprint with Onley and Williams. He’s fast, but at the end of the climb it’s still different. I think it’s all the legs that decide the last climb – let’s get them just there at the bottom of the climb and then may the best guy win. “

Picnic PostNL at the front of the peloton, controlling the gap.

Break does not contest the sprint, they simply roll through led by Eenkhoorn, followed by Hepburn.

Ouch. Lopez is stretching his back, and has given up the chase. 

Break is inside of 1.5km to the intermediate sprint #1 

Break took the turn towards Snapper Point on their way to the first intermediate sprint. They have 4:19 on the peloton with 93km togo.

Lopez is losing time to the four up the road, and he gets another bottle for the neutral motorcycle. He’s now at 35 seconds back. Ouch.

Lopez gets more bottles from the neutral car. The quartet is simply not waiting for him, as he’s 14 seconds behind on the flattest section of the course with 97km to go.

Welsford is at the medical car, getting her right shoulder looked at. Second crash for the sprint leader at the Tour Down Under.

Break chatting on if they should let Lopez catch back on. 

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Photos from the start in McLaren Vale from the Cyclingnews team.

Lopez can see the riders up ahead on the very long and straight road – so close and yet so far. 

The break of 4 now have 4:17 on the peloton, as Lopez is 30 seconds back, still chasing solo with 103km to go.

Crash

Crash at the top of the descent, Harper, Welsford, Loe van Belle were all involved.

Durbridge stopped to help his teammate Harper. Van Belle waited for his team car and is now on a new bike.

Peloton is cresting Willunga and now starting the descent. 

Lopez is going 94kmph on the descent as he chases the 4 up the road.

Hold on – this is a very fast descent!  

Break have crested Willunga and are now descending down in the opposite direction to the finish

Swift is leading the break who are not slowing down to allow Lopez to join back. They are going around 44kmph.

The four at the front have 2:50 on the field. Lopez is 28 seconds behind them with 113km to go, as Torres rejoins the peloton.

Caught in no mans land, Lopez chats with his director as his team car comes next to him. Continue to chase or sit up?

Torres sat up and will rejoin the peloton. 

Lopez is chasing solo now. 

The quartet now have 1:41 with 120 km to go. 

The four are pushing the pace at the front and now Swift is contribution in the rotation now. 

More attacks in the front group. Torres and Lopez waited for the other four riders who had hatched a plan. They accelerated past as soon at they caught the duo and surprise them. 

Lopez takes top points on KOM #1, just in front of Torres who did not really contest, that must have been the conversation.  Break has 2:12 on the peloton 

Lopez and Torres have a quick chat. 

Torres and Lopez see 1km to go to the top. 

The remaining 4 riders in the break are climbing at their own pace. 

Torres and Lopez are cooperating in the pacesetting with 2km to go to top of Wickham Hill. 

Torres gets on Lopez’s wheel, and they’ve opened a gap to the rest of the break.

Lopez attacks the break with 2.6km to the top and Torres is the first to react.

Break is attacking each other, they simply don’t want Torres with them. Meanwhile, Movistar took its place at the front of the peloton followed by PostNL.

5 km to cat.1 Wickham Hill in McLaren Flat, which extends over three kilometres, 6.9% gradient and hits a maximum gradient of 13.3%

Still lots of chatter in the break, which seems to be about Torres, even if Torres is working with the group.

Swift showed that he wasn’t happy with Torres being in the break since he sits only 35 seconds down on GC. Swift is working for his teammate Sheffield.

Break

6 riders off the front: Oliver Bleddyn (ARA Australia), Michael Hepburn (Jayco-AlUla). Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-Quickstep), Pablo Torres (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Juan Lopez (Lidl-Trek) have 1:20 with 132km to go.

Lopez bridged across to the break making it 6 up the road. 

The five riders have a small gap with 136.5km to go. Torres is 35 seconds down on GC.

Eenkhoorn, Hepburn, Ben Swift  and Torres bridge up to Bleddyn 

Bleddyn attacks solo, with a few more riders trying to bridge.

Lidl does’t want to miss it, tries to bridge up and brings the field with him.

Peloton is chasing.  Ineos, Intermache, FDJ, Australia, Jayco all represented in this 7-rider  move.

Hepburn jumps across with a few more riders joining this attack.

Peloton shuts it down and FDJ & Australia counters. 

Big group still has a few seconds, includes Durbridge, Askey.  

More riders trying to join the now 12 riders with a gap. And more action from behind shuts down this attack.

7 riders with a few seconds with more tyring to bridge up. Back of the peloton is single file. 

Soudal continues to accelerate. 

Swift also jumped, and more riders follow.

Another attack by Soudal, this time it’s Pedersen with Durbridge following the move. 

Arkea, Australia, Jayco all covering moves as the peloton goes up a slight uphill.

Eenkhoorn made the first attack with plenty of riders trying to get into the breakaway. It’s going to be pure chaos trying to get away today.

And immediate attack from 3 riders.

And we’re off and racing! 

Last year, Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) won the Willunga stage, and almost beat the strava record.

We’re riding through the 2.4 neutral zone before Stuart O’Grady drops the flag at KM 0. 

Perfect weather to tackle Willunga today, with temperatures at 24C and mostly sunny.

It’s the big day – Willunga! 

Stage 5 of the Tour Down Under in under 10 minutes. The 145.7km stage features two ascents of the iconic climb in the last 25km, making this stage another leg-breaker. Riders get a warm-up on Wickham Hill in the opening of the stage. The category 1 climb precedes a relatively sedate middle 80km before the key Willunga Hill ascents where the winner of the 2025 Tour Down Under will be decided.

Stage 3 winner Javier Romo (Movistar) tops the GC with a 4-second lead on Jhonathan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates XRG), and 10 seconds on Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) and Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).  

A total of 28 riders, including Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Chris Harper and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek) and defending champion Stephen Williams (Israel-PremierTech), are under one minute.

18-year-old Philipsen tops the best young rider classification. Fergus Browning (ARA Australia) leads the mountain classification while double stage winner Sam Welsford (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) leads the points classification.

Welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of stage 5, from McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill, of the Tour Down Under. The stage starts at 11:10am local time or 12:30am GMT and finishes roughly four hours later.