A spectacular final stage of the Santos Tour Down Under has seen South Africa’s Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) become the first ever back-to-back champion in the Australian event’s 21-year history.
For the second year running, Impey claimed the opening UCI WorldTour race of the season. He clinched his latest victory after finishing third on the crucial ascent of Willunga Hill, the race’s last stage and summit finish which was won by Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) for a staggering sixth time in his career.
Overall Porte also claimed the runners-up spot in the Santos Tour Down Under for the fourth time, with third place going to Team Sky’s Wout Poels.
"Every year we come here with a strong team with big ambitions, and this year when they said they would back me with a full team to hopefully go ‘back-to-back’ I thought it would be nice,” Impey said afterwards, “but I knew how tough the competition always is at the Tour Down Under.
"But I believed in myself, and the team believed in me, and it's been just fantastic to pull it off.”
"He's definitely been the most consistent rider in this bike race and would have been a really deserving winner as well."
Following the Santos Tour Down Under, the UCI World Ranking has seen no major changes, with no switches of position for the top 20-ranked riders. As of January 20th, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) therefore continues to head the ranking with 4,168 points ahead of Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), with 3,160 points and Viviani, with 3,116. Belgium remains on top of the World Ranking in the Nations classification ahead of France and Italy.
The next UCI WorldTour event will be the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday January 27th. Many of the top names from the Santos Tour Down Under will be taking part in Australia’s biggest one-day event, with Impey set to be one of the big favourites, as well as last year’s victor, Jay McCarthy (BORA-hansgrohe). Will we see another repeat success?