Rohan Dennis has won the Santos Tour Down Under
The final stage was a 90km stage of twenty 4.5km laps starting and finishing in King William Road, Adelaide and saw Rohan Dennis of BMC go into the stage with a two second lead over Richie Porte of Team Sky who had put in a superb performance to win on Old Wullunga Hill on stage five.
Greg Henderson (Lotto-Soudal), Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin), Calvin Watson (Trek), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) formed the first break but never got more than twenty five seconds clear and were caught just before the first sprint which was won by Darryl Impey.
British champion Peter Kennaugh of Team Sky was part of the next break along with Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto-Soudal), Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo), Christopher Juul Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Lars Boom (Astana).
They managed to get 1.15 clear by the time Lars Bak had taken the second sprint on stage twelve.
Two laps earlier and Lars Boom had taken the three seconds on the King Of The Mountains climb at Montefiore Hill and when Boom took the second climb with Peter Kennaugh taking three seconds for a second and third place on the climb, Jack Bobridge was able to be confirmed as the King Of The Mountains competition winner.
Elixx Quick Step, Drapac, Giant-Alpecin all worked to bring the gap down to 28 seconds on lap seventeen.
BMC took up the work on lap eighteen along with Lampre and at speeds of 47kmh, the break was caught on lap nineteen.
Manuele Boaro tried to stay away watched on by massive crowds on the King William Road, many of whom saw a big crash which halted around thirty riders including Marcel Kittel, Luke Durbridge and Simon Clarke.
Those up the front of the peloton avoided the crash and went away to take the bell for the final lap.
IAM Cycling did the work on the final lap for Australian national road race champion Heinrich Haussler but it was Drapac's Wouter Wippert who went off Haussler's wheel on the left to take the win in 1.56.09.
Haussler was second ahead of Boris Valee, followed by Brutt, Impey, Bonifazio, Tleubayev, Selig and Seb Chavanel.
Race leader Rohan Dennis, who lives in Adelaide, finished 28th and with Richie Porte finishing in 24th but on the same time. the BMC rider was confirmed as the Santos Tour Down Under winner with Porte second and Cadel Evans third.
Speaking to Paul Sherwen, Wippers said about his stage victory: "It was a really nervous race with my team sitting on the front. "After a few laps I was a bit tired so I decided to go back but one of my team mates picked up me on the last lap and I went on a run to the front to take the win which i am delighted with."
Race winner Rohan Dennis said to Paul Sherwen: "i had to make sure that I kept within distance of Richie (Porte) and I was just following him, making sure there was no splits between us.
"My team rode awesomely and hats off to them for helping me win. "Cadel, who had been keeping the pressure off me, kept saying follow me and I am so happy to have won."
Final General Classification
| 1 | Rohan Dennis BMC Racing Team | 19:15:18 | |
| 2 | Richie Porte Team Sky | 0:00:02 | |
| 3 | Cadel Evans BMC Racing Team | 0:00:20 | |
| 4 | Tom Dumoulin Team Giant-Alpecin | 0:00:22 | |
| 5 | Rubén Fernandez Movistar | 0:00:24 | |
| 6 | Domenico Pozzovivo AG2R La Mondiale | 0:00:31 | |
| 7 | Daryl Impey Orica GreenEdge | 0:00:35 | |
| 8 | Gorka Izagirre Insausti Movistar Team | 0:00:52 | |
| 9 | Jarlinson Pantano IAM Cycling | 0:00:53 | |
| 10 | George Bennett Team LottoNL-Jumbo | 0:00:57 |
POINTS
| 1 | Daryl Impey Orica GreenEdge | 55 | pts |
| 2 | Niccolò Bonifazio Lampre-Merida | 39 | |
| 3 | Cadel Evans BMC Racing Team | 37 |
KING OF THE MOUNTAINS
| 1 | Jack Bobridge UniSA-Australia | 36 | pts |
| 2 | Rohan Dennis BMC Racing | 34 | |
| 3 | Richie Porte Team Sky | 22 |
YOUNG RIDER
| 1 | Rohan Dennis BMC Racing | 19:15:18 | |
| 2 | Tom Dumoulin Giant-Alpecin | 0:00:22 | |
| 3 | Rubén Fernandez Movistar | 0:00:24 |
Pictures copyright and courtesy of Santos Tour Down Under/Regallo.