Daryl Impey wins the 20th Tour Down Under

Andre Greipel (Germany/Lotto-Soudal) may have taken his second stage victory of the 20th Tour Down Under on Sunday, but the bigger triumph belonged to Daryl Impey, Mitchelton-Scott’s South African, who earned the all-around win. It’s the greatest stage race accomplishment of Impey’s career; he might have won stages of WorldTour stage races before, but the 2018 Tour Down Under is his first GC title.

#TDU Your 2018 @tourdownunder overall WINNER – @darylimpey ! What a incredible performance from the South African and whole Mitchelton-SCOTT team ? pic.twitter.com/YdWAuKMEHK

— Mitchelton-SCOTT (@MitcheltonSCOTT) January 21, 2018

The Course
The big finale of the Tour Down Under was a criterium course in Adelaide. The riders faced 20-laps of a 4.5-km circuit with crucial intermediate sprints on Laps 8 and 12. Locked together on time at the top of the GC table, Richie Porte and Impey’s battle might have been determined by the bonus seconds of both the intermediate sprints and the finish. Another fight was for the white young rider’s jersey between Sky’s Egan Bernal and five riders four-seconds behind.

#TDU In about 90 minutes, the last stage will start! 90km = 2 hours of very fast racing, probably ending in a bunch sprint! pic.twitter.com/pSHnubPE5H

— Lotto Soudal (@Lotto_Soudal) January 21, 2018

Intermediate Sprints
Several attacks spun away on the first few laps–including one containing Antoine Duchesne–but none could stick. Then a trio of Logan Owen (U.S.A./EF-Drapac), Truls Korsaeth (Norway/Astana) and Laurent Didier (Luxembourg/Trek-Segafredo) rode clear.

Refuel time for @logansowen. He and his two companions have almost 1:30” on the field. #tdu pic.twitter.com/D6ZRcPAFTk

— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) January 21, 2018

While Owen took the first intermediate sprint of the day, further bonus seconds bumped LL Sanchez (Spain/Astana) and Ruben Guerreiro (Portugal/Trek-Segafredo) jumped up into the GC top-10. Ben O’Connor (Australia/Data Dimension) bridged over to Owen. A couple of laps later, as the second intermediate sprint loomed, Duchesne flashed out from the peloton but couldn’t draw enough support to bridge. He did take the final bonus second though.

I found out that it’s really hard to bridge a minute gap alone hahaha ??‍♂️ Still had a nice day in no man land! #nomanland #needmorework #tdu https://t.co/aVWPihtc6Z pic.twitter.com/o0G05wg1Ag

— Antoine Duchesne (@tonythetiger_1) January 21, 2018

BMC, Lotto-Soudal and Mitchelton-Scott all worked to bring back the break. With five laps to go, Owen bolted on O’Connor.

Endgame
On Lap 18, Owen submitted to the will of the peloton. No single team could grab the reins as the 2018 TDU headed towards its climax. Impey was looking to set up Ewan but Quick Step wrested control after the final corner. Greipel fought through the chaos and accelerated to the win, barely edging out Ewan.

#TDU He did it! @AndreGreipel pic.twitter.com/Kqhlrgdf7Z

— Lotto Soudal (@Lotto_Soudal) January 21, 2018

Porte’s runner-up spot is his third in four editions. It was a good race for South Africa with Impey’s GC win and Nickolas Dlamini’s King of the Mountains triumph.

The next WorldTour race is in one week at the one-day Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. The next WorldTour stage race isn’t until the Abu Dhabi Tour from February 21-25.

2018 Tour Down Under Stage 6
1) Andre Greipel (Germany/Lotto-Soudal) 2:01:19
2) Caleb Ewan (Australia/Mitchelton-Scott) s.t.
3) Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.

2018 Tour Down Under Final GC
1) Daryl Impey (South Africa/Mitchelton-Scott) 20:03:34
2) Richie Porte (Australia/BMC) s.t.
3) Tom Jelte-Slagter (The Netherlands/Dimension Data) +0:16