Porte dominates Paracombe climb to take the lead at the Tour Down Under

Richie Porte has claimed the win on stage 2 of the Tour Down Under with a brilliant solo attack at the base of the Paracombe climb.

Porte crossed the line 16 seconds in front of Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) to claim the leader’s ochre jersey with a 20 second advantage ahead of the final four stages.

The 148.5km stage started with five laps of a circuit around Stirling where Jasha Sutterlin (Movistar) launched a solo attack after the first lap and gained a five-minute advantage.

The peloton picked up the pace after exiting the circuit and caught Sutterlin in the final 40km, making way for the battle for position on the approach to the Paracombe climb.

Porte’s BMC Racing Team teammates brought him to the front and as the peloton reached the base of the climb, Porte put the hammer down and made a solo move.

As he reached the halfway point of the climb, Porte had stretched out his advantage and upon crossing the line had a comfortable lead over his General Classification rivals.

“The BMC Racing Team boys were just incredible this morning. They really looked after me the whole day and it’s nice to win on Paracombe. It’s good to get a win already this season and now we’ll try and defend this jersey.”, said Porte.

“I know I’ve got good climbing legs and I didn’t really want to wait around so to be able to ride away like that gives me good confidence. I knew I had to back myself and I knew I had the form to do it. But to take the time I did, it’s a good position to be in. I might have to sacrifice the Willunga stage on Saturday to defend my lead if I still have the jersey. There’s some stressful days coming up so we won’t be counting our chickens until they hatch. We’ll take it as it comes.”

Tour Down Under 2017 – stage 2 results (Stirling – Paracombe):

General classification after stage 2: