Stage win for Porte Down Under

Team Sky's Richie Porte blitzed Cadel Evans to win stage five of the Tour Down Under on Saturday, while Simon Gerrans reclaimed the overall lead.

Porte had failed to go with Evans (BMC) up Corkscrew Hill during Thursday's third stage as the 2011 Tour de France champion claimed the ochre jersey, but the 28-year-old Tasmanian turned the tables in stage five to launch himself back into contention for the overall title.

But it was Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) who was arguably the big winner on Willunga Hill, south of Adelaide, securing third place on the stage and the four-second time bonus attached to steal the ochre jersey from Evans by a second.

Porte told www.teamsky.com: "The guys were absolutely incredible.

"It was a little bit of a shame on the Corkscrew stage as I was a little bit out of position and lost some time.

"But I felt great coming into today. The team had a plan and the boys were incredible.

"Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas were there to the last minute. They dropped me off right on the front at the start of the climb and victory is credit to all those guys."

He added: "It's January and I'm not in top form just yet. To win in Australia and on this climb is a very special victory."

Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) finished second on the 151.5-kilometres route from McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill to move into third overall, five seconds behind Gerrans.

Porte improved to fourth in the general classification, 10 seconds off the lead, with Garmin-Sharp's Nathan Haas completing the top five - 16 seconds further back - ahead of Sunday's final 85.5km stage around Adelaide.