Bevin continues Tour Down Under control despite Impey fight back

Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) produced another assured performance on stage 4 of the Tour Down Under on Friday, finishing second to Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) and retaining his lead with just two days remaining in the race.

The New Zealander was put under pressure when a dangerous group of GC rivals attacked and went clear on the Corkscrew climb, but on the long descent to the finish, Bevin allied with Mitchelton to nullify the attack. Although Impey won the stage and reduced Bevin's lead to seven seconds, the CCC rider is still on track for his first WorldTour stage race win.

"This race is hard. I took the onus as much as I had to on the descent, and I knew that as the group got bigger, it got to the point where any time bonus would be good, and certainly better than none," Bevin said at the finish.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I wasn't going to risk losing time to anyone. To lose just four seconds to Daryl is a great result. I don't feel like he's climbing better than I am, and we put time into the pure climbers again."

The stage came down to the predicted battle on Corkscrew and the technical descent to the finish that followed. Team Sky set a frantic pace on the lower slopes before Michael Woods (EF Education), Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo), George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) and Wout Poels (Team Sky) pushed clear in a move initiated by Poels.

At the top of the climb the four riders had roughly 15 seconds' advantage, but with Mitchelton aware that their title defence rested on gaining time, and Bevin joining forces, the gap was cut with just under two kilometres to go.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com