Tour Down Under 2024: Stephen Williams takes out final stage and overall honours
Pre-race underdog Stephen Williams took out the final stage and overall honours of the Tour Down Under in an emphatic finish to the race.
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It was one hell of an underdog win.
Not actually a WorldTour team after being relegated to the UCI ProSeries in 2022, Israel-Premier Tech barely got a mention as contenders or ones to watch before the 2024 Tour Down Under.
Their original designated leader for the race New Zealander Corbin Strong got sick, and the man who eventually claimed the overall win and ochre jersey – Welshman Stephen Williams – was sick himself when he first got to Australia.
And that’s not to mention the daily beefed up police and security presence that has accompanied the team before the start of each day of racing because of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Yet all those within Israel-Premier Tech were supremely confident of their chances in Australia.
“It was special, we came here as the underdogs, nobody was talking about us before the race, we weren’t in any pre-race meetings or any favourites so to pull it all together is great,” team sporting director, two time TDU winner, Daryl Impey said.
Williams even took the chance to poke some fun at the lack of pre-race love for the team.
“I thought with the team we brought here I thought we were nailed on to do something to be honest,” he said.
“With the caliber of riders we brought here we were backing ourselves to come here and perform and we weren’t here to make the numbers up here that’s for sure.”
Williams, 27, was the dominant rider of the all-important weekend – finishing second up Willunga Hill before his Tour-winning victory at the top of Mount Lofty – to go with his third place on Stage 2.
In the end he finished nine seconds ahead of INEOS Grenadiers’ Jhonatan Narvaez and 11 ahead of UAE Emirates’ young gun Isaac del Toro after he repelled their attacks in the final stages of the climb up Mount Lofty and then sprinted away to take the stage and overall win.
But Impey revealed that there was some concern when he arrived in Australia sick, before the team employed some masterful tactics once they realised that the Welshman known as “Stevie Wonder” was really up and running.
“We knew how important it was to come here, we weren’t coming here to not get (UCI) points and we came away with a bagful,” he said.
“Yeah (they knew Williams could be a chance) because we did some efforts out on the course and he was doing really well, when he actually arrived here he was sick so he took two or three days off so we were a bit worried.
“And Corbin was our designated leader and then he got sick and when Stevie got the third place on stage 2 we thought maybe this is a good chance for us and then we used Corbin as a decoy over the next two days so everyone was talking about and looking at Corbin and we were keeping Stevie back out of the limelight.
“And then on Saturday, Corbin stopped and we were able to let it (Williams) out and it happened.”
As the WorldTour teams licked their wounds after getting upstaged by a team, Tour Down Under race director Stuart O’Grady said Israel-Premier Tech were still a serious outfit.
“They are still a team of superstars led by a two-time Tour Down Under winner (Impey),” he said.
“I think they are WorldTour worthy and it is great to see them come out and upstage the WorldTour teams.”
STAGE 5: TDU SET FOR FINAL-STAGE THRILLER AFTER WILLUNGA EPIC
Two Brits are level on time heading into the final day of the Tour Down Under in the tightest battle for the overall win in the race’s history.
While it was dsm-firmenich PostNL’s Scot Oscar Onley who triumphed up Willunga Hill to claim the fifth stage of this year’s race, it will be Israel-Premier Tech’s Englishman Stephen Williams who will wear the ochre jersey for the sixth and final stage up Mount Lofty on Sunday.
It was initially thought Onley, just 21, had claimed the ochre jersey after his stunning effort to shock two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe and Vuelta a Espana winner Simon Yates and take the stage win atop Willunga Hill.
But with Williams, who finished second on stage, level on time with Onley after bonus seconds were added, it had to go to a countback.
Williams had finished third on the second stage of this year’s race and the sum of his positions across all stages was lower than Onley’s.
They are just five seconds ahead of INEOS Grenadiers’ Jhonatan Narvaez and Mexican young gun Isaac del Toro of UAE Emirates.
Alaphilippe and Yates are 13 seconds behind.
Dsm-firmenich PostNL sporting director, Olympic gold medallist Luke Roberts, quickly laid down the gauntlet to Onley’s general classification riders saying Mount Lofty should suit the young Brit better than Willunga Hill.
This was despite Onley just finishing one second off Richie Porte’s fastest time up the iconic climb on Saturday.
“The finish actually suits him better than Willunga,” Roberts said.
“So that is one we want to target and also net us the overall win.”
Williams, who has two-time TDU winner Daryl Impey as his sports director, said it would be a challenge to hold onto the ochre jersey but he was looking forward to it.
“It will be a tough stage, it will be hard to control, everybody is still really close on GC with the top five or six guys all within a handful of seconds so I expect it to be a pretty stressful day,” he said.
“But the guys here have so much experience and class I have no doubt we will do our best to fight for it.
“There is no-one better (than Impey) to have in the car or in my ear, I was speaking to him at breakfast and he gave me a pep-talk.
“We have to be aware, realistically it is going to be a tough day, the last day is always hard when you are in the lead.”
Williams wasn’t really spoken about as a contender for the TDU before it began, but he said he was always confident about his chances coming into the first race of the season.
“I’ve had a good winter, I have been healthy, I knew that this race would suit me and I was confident that with a good team I could do well,” he said.
“It is not over, we have one more day and we will give everything.”
His team Israel-Premier Tech has had police and extra security around their vehicles before the start of each day of racing with tensions high because of the conflict in Gaza.
Williams said that hadn’t impacted riders.
“I think it is always important to start the season on the front foot, whether it is winning stages or just racing in the right way,” he said.
“We put ourselves about in a positive way and we have always been on the front foot and doing that has paid dividends.
“It (the police and extra security every day) is just part of it, it is business as usual here.”
STAGE 4: MEXICAN STAR RETAINS LEAD AS AUSSIE WINS
Four stages are already in the bag, but the 2024 Tour Down Under really starts now.
With Willunga Hill on Saturday and then Mount Lofty on Sunday, the winner of this year’s TDU will be decided on the weekend.
UAE Team Emirates young star Isaac del Toro held onto the ochre jersey for another day – after Friday’s 136.2km fourth stage from Murray Bridge to Port Elliot won by Sam Welsford who continued his dominance of the sprints and claimed his third victory.
The Mexican leads the race from Intermarche-Wanty’s Biniam Girmay by just a second.
But it is those further down the leaderboard that will be the 20-year-old’s biggest rivals ahead of the iconic Willunga Hill climb in stage 5 and then the race’s finish atop Mount Lofty in stage 6.
“I feel good, a little bit nervous but I feel good,” del Toro said.
Starting 11 seconds behind de Toro on Saturday’s 129.3km stage from Christies Beach to Willunga Hill will be general classification rivals Simon Yates of Jayco-AlUla, Jack Haig of Bahrain Victorious and Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quick-Step.
A second ahead of them is INEOS Grenadiers’ Jhonatan Narvaez – who showed on stage 2 that he is climbing well.
Yates finished second in 2023 and his chances of going one better this year have copped a big hit with the withdrawal of Australian national champion Luke Plapp after his heavy crash on Thursday.
With Plapp out – but has suffered no broken bones – and Caleb Ewan winless in the sprints it has been a horror TDU so far for Jayco.
But sport director Mathew Hayman said they could turn it around over the weekend.
“There is a lot of racing to be done and in the past we have gone after this race through the intermediate sprints with Simon Gerrans and Daryl Impey to try and win it,” he said.
“This year we are kind of in the Richie Porte zone you know we have to win this race in the next two days.
“It (Plapp’s withdrawal) is a massive dent, we came into this race with three guys, we saw the form that Chris Harper had at the national championships and had a really strong team and options.
“It has really knocked us, one it is an option for a win but also extra horsepower on those climbs to be able to make a difference.
“We need to ride our own race, but Simon is in good shape at the moment and we will do what we can.
“It hasn’t been a Tour that has gone our way so far, but we can turn it around
We are a bit limited now without Luke Plapp, that puts a big dent into our climbing resources so we will have to see.
“In some ways it hasn’t been the most aggressive racing so far, stage two I was expecting more fireworks so maybe everyone is waiting for Willunga.”
Del Toro said he was excited about what was in store.
“I did it in training and it is a good climb and I hope to do my job well,” he said.
He looked to be in a spot of bother in the final kilometres of the stage on Friday when he found himself at the back of the peloton and had to sprint to regain his position.
But he revealed this was part of him warming up for the biggest test of his race lead so far.
“I just wanted to feel a little bit more stress in the legs so I made a little bit of a sprint to check the legs for tomorrow,” he said.
STAGE 3” AUSSIE ACE OUT OF AFTER HEAVY CRASH
GRAPHIC WARNING: CRASH IMAGE DEPICTS GRAPHIC CONTENT
Reigning Australian road race champion Luke Plapp is out of the Tour Down Under following a heavy crash on Thursday’s third stage.
Plapp, who has won the last three national road titles, was left with his jersey ripped with severe road rash and with swollen elbows and ankles after he hit the deck in the final kilometres of a fast descent to end stage three.
His team Jayco-AlUla said they would monitor him overnight and on Friday morning they announced he would not start the fourth stage of the TDU because of “discomfort and ongoing pain from a large amount of wounds”.
It throws the race for the general classification wide open with Plapp considered by many to be a leading contender for the ochre jersey — currently worn by UAE Team Emirates young gun Isaac del Toro.
The hopes for Jayco — who haven’t been able to win a stage yet at their home race — will now fall firmly on the shoulders of Brit Simon Yates, who finished second last year.
But with Willunga Hill to come on Saturday and then Mount Lofty on Sunday, he will be without a key member of his team and one of the strongest riders in the race.
To compound a horror Thursday for Jayco, star sprinter Caleb Ewan was again outgunned by fellow Australian Sam Welsford.
The Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter already had one stage in the bag after victory on Tuesday in Tanunda and claimed his second of this year’s race as he outgunned INEOS Grenadiers’ Elia Viviani in a chaotic finish to the day.
Ewan, who tried to follow Welsford but could only finish sixth, said it was a tough finish to the race.
“It was pretty hectic going down the Gorge... it was really hard staying in position and unfortunately we lost Plappy pretty early,” he said.
“So there were just three of us there and trying to get as close to the finish there and I was on Sam’s (Welsford) wheel going into the last km but all the other teams were dropping their sprinters onto his wheel so it got really messy going into the last right-hand barrier.
“And when I wanted to open up I was just stuck in the middle, so a bit of an average sprint there.”
Ewan and his teammates were unsure how Plapp was after they finished the race.
“I heard a crash and I heard something (on the radio) about Plappy so I just assumed that he went down,” he said.
“I’m unsure if he is right or not.”
Ewan did say he was starting to feel a bit better after being sick last week, ahead of his last chance to claim a stage at this year’s TDU – Friday’s 136.2km fourth stage from Murray Bridge to Port Elliot.
“I’m happy with how my legs feel now, it is good but obviously it is a lot of pressure now,” he said.
“Just one more sprint to go and hopefully we can nail it.”
STAGE 2: CYCLING’S NEXT BIG THING CLAIMS EPIC STAGE TWO
It was a win that had him quickly labelled as the next big thing in world cycling.
But the sporting director of Mexican young gun Isaac del Toro says it is too early for some of the comparisons to his teammate – two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar – but the rising star does have “a quality that not many have”.
In just his second race at WorldTour level the 20-year-old Mexican UAE Team Emirates rider stunned the peloton in the second stage of the Tour Down Under with a brave and thrilling attack just a kilometre away from the finish in Lobethal to take out the 141.6km stage around the Adelaide Hills.
The win by Del Toro, who won the Tour de l’Avenir that is described as the ‘Tour of the Future’ in 2023, also resulted in him taking the ochre jersey from Australian Sam Welsford after the big sprinter cracked on the final climb up Fox Creek.
Soon after his stunning win Australian cycling great Robbie McEwan said del Toro reminded him of UAE teammate Pogačar – who won two Tour de France’s at the age of 21 and 22.
At 20, del Toro is the second youngest winner in TDU history behind Michael Rogers in 2000 and UAE Team Emirates sporting director Marco Marcato said the team wasn’t all that surprised with his performance despite his tender years.
“Actually now we see more and more riders who are young that are really strong and they already have the personality,” he told this masthead.
“He is a guy like this, he showed that he can be good already despite being so young.
“He won Tour de l’Avenir so it is already a sign that he has a talent, now we will see day by day and for sure he can still can grow during the season.”
Marcato wouldn’t bite when asked about the early comparisons to Pogačar, but did say del Toro had a strong all-round racing profile.
“It is only one day, to make those comparisons no it is something else. But for sure he is a strong guy who has a talent and we will see what he can be,” he said.
“He is a bit complete but he is a guy to discover because he is good moving on the bounce, he sees the race and he is really smart and that is a quality that not many have.”
After winning the race through Australian Jay Vine last year, UAE are again in possession of the ochre jersey.
Del Toro himself said he wouldn’t be the leader for UAE now, even though he was now leading the race ahead of Israel-Premier Tech’s Corbin Strong by three-seconds.
But Marcato said the team would now look to keep the jersey.
“Actually we knew that we could be in this situation after a few days so we are ready and we take it day by day and we take on another plan,” he said.
“We can, we must. Now we are in the lead so we try and keep it until the end.”
Before del Toro’s stunning move to win the stage, he impressed with a stellar effort to try and bridge the gap three-time Australian champion Luke Plapp had created after he tried to split the peloton on the final Fox Creek climb.
Plapp’s bold move nearly came off but the presence of INEOS Grenadiers’ Jhonatan Narvaez in the two-man breakaway meant the Jayco-AlUla star wasn’t able to make it a stage-winning attack.
“I just went all out for the last minute of that climb, it hurt not being able to work with Jhonny but he was going to beat me in the sprint so we had to shut her down,” he said.
“But we came back and Caleb (Ewan) was there in the bunch so he has done an amazing climb.”
Thursday’s third stage is predicted to be a day for the sprinters with a 145.3km ride from Tea Tree Gully to Campbelltown.
STAGE 1: AUSSIE SPRINT STAR SHOCKED IN ‘CRAZY’ UPSET
Pocket rocket Caleb Ewan says a mixture of recent illness and the scorching heat meant he didn’t have the legs to really contend for the first stage of the 2024 Tour Down Under as he was upstaged by fellow Australian Sam Welsford.
After his big move to Jayco-AlUla in the off-season, Ewan featured heavily in the plans of the only Australian WorldTour team to dominate this year’s sprints at the TDU.
But while the team’s plan before the sprint to Tanunda to end the 144km stage around the Barossa Valley – take control of the peloton with 5km to go – was pulled off Ewan couldn’t bring home the win for his new team in the opening race of the season.
Ewan missed the Down Under Classic criterium on Saturday that acts as a precursor to the TDU and said that plus the hot conditions in the Barossa meant he didn’t have the legs to beat Welsford to the line.
“I was in a good position, exactly where I needed to be and I didn’t have to fight for the wheel but when I went to kick I was already on my limit so my sprint wasn’t very good,” he said.
“During the week I should get better. I have been sick for the last couple of days and especially with this heat I was really struggling with my heart rate but hopefully as this week goes on I should get better.
“I don’t struggle with it (the heat) too much usually … I think I freshened up too much over the last few days, I haven’t been doing too much so I think as the week goes on I should be better.”
With Ewan’s legs not there it was Welsford who claimed victory in his first race for new team Bora-Hansgrohe after a near perfect lead-out to counter Jayco’s early move.
“Yeah I think so (Jayco might have gone too early), it is hard to say,” he said.
“The positive of going early is that you are out of the trouble early and your sprinter is safe but you have to invest more energy but you it is hard to get that right in sprints these days.”
Bahrain Victorious’ Phil Bauhaus finished in second with Intermarche-Wanty’s Biniam Girmay in third.
Welsford, 27, said this would give him a lot of confidence as he continues his transition to becoming more of a road rider after an Olympic silver and bronze medal on the track.
“Heaps I think, sprinters feed off confidence and the only time for us to do that is by getting results,” he said.
But he is set to be a key member of Australia’s team pursuit team at the Velodrome in Paris for the Olympics later this year, which is likely to be his last Games.
“Yeah it is possible (the Olympics), hopefully I get to do a Grand Tour before then,” he said.
“I’d like to do the Giro … I think that works out really well if I do the Olympics on the track.
“I still have the passion for the track, I have a silver and a bronze from the Olympics so I am missing that hardest one to get so fingers crossed I can go there.
“It will be my third Olympic cycle so maybe that might be enough for the track and the focus is on the road but we will see how it happens.”
While the stage around the Barossa Valley was decided on the line, there were a number of riders who crashed on the course.
This included a bizarre moment when UAE Team Emirates Alessandro Covi was hit by his own team car after it was hit by another team car near the end of the stage.
But the Italian looked to be OK after he finished the stage.
Wednesday’s second stage of this year’s race will be a 141.6km ride from Norwood to Lobethal.
Welsford, who had never worn a leaders jersey before, said the three laps of the Fox Creek Climb – with an average gradient of 8.8 per cent and max of 17.8 per cent – meant it would be a tough ask to retain the jersey.
“If the GC teams really decide to light it up on us then it could be hard,” he said.
Originally published as Tour Down Under 2024: Stephen Williams takes out final stage and overall honours
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