The queen stage with the legendary finish at Willunga Hillit was this Saturday! The fifth step of this Tour Down Under was quite logically the queen queen stage with the two passages at Willunga Hill (3.3 km at 7.3%). In great shape since the start of this week, Jhonathan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates) won the fifth stage, its first success with UAE Team Emirates XRG. He sprinted ahead Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) et Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe). The Ecuadorian also takes the leader's jersey with 9 seconds ahead of Javier Romo (Movistar), 5th this Saturday.
Video – Narvaez wins the sprint at Willunga Hill
The race summary
The first part of the stage is very calm and quite slow. An escape is created with in particular Michael Hepburn (Jayco AlUla) you Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek) but it is taken back even before the first passage to Willunga Hill. Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) is the first to attack, imitated a few meters later by Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla) et Mauro Schmidt (Jayco-AlUla). The two runners of the Jayco isolate themselves at the head of the race. The duo created a big gap but arrived close to the second pass at Willunga Hillthe peloton is sprinting and breaks appear. The two riders are finally caught at the foot of the bump.
At 2.8 kilometers it is the leader himself, Javier Romo who places the first attack. The Spaniard creates a nice gap until the acceleration of Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla). But 1.5 km from the finish, the race leader is still 7 seconds ahead. Plapp, Oscar Only et Narvaez isolate themselves behind and return to Romo. Victory will be decided in a sprint, Romo throws from afar, Narvaez et only seems the fastest but the Ecuadorian is the fastest and raises his arms. Finn Fisher-Blackcoming from behind takes third place, Plapp the 4th and Romo the 5th. New leader of the race, Narvaez counts 9 seconds ahead of Javier Romo on the eve of the last stage.
