Slagter is wearing the points jersey today, but he also has the mountain jersey first place. With the 16 points that you can get at the summit of the only categorized mountain today, he can make sure he takes the mountain jersey home!
So he attacks at the start of the race. Ofcouse the others won’t let him get it away, but he will get the mountain points and then drop back.



Our tactic worked, and he made 99% sure that he’ll win the mountain jersey, another success for the team! Meanwhile three riders broke away, but they only got a three minute lead. It will be a sprint today.

B. Vaugrenard (FDJ)
J. Herrada (MOV)
G. Dockx (LTB)

With 25 kilometers to go, the peloton catches them:



With 10 kilometers to go, we organized the sprint train, and we were in front with the whole team! We had an amazing pace!



Going into the sprint it became clear that the form of our sprinters need to be improved, Bos started his jump a bit too late and he and Renshaw miss the chance to win the stage unfortunately, a 4th and 5th place is all that’s left. A disappointment, but we’ll definitely try again in the last stage!

In the end it is Cantwell who wins here, in front of Meersman and Favilli.
There is some good news though, due to our high pace, a big group of about 70 riders dropped and lost a minute.
Casar and Kern were in it, so Slagter moves back to 3rd place!!

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Jonathan Cantwell	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	3h04'19
2	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	s.t.
3	Elia Favilli	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
4	Mark Renshaw	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	TimoMennen
5	Theo Bos	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	TimoMennen
6	Christopher Sutton	Sky Procycling	s.t.
7	Andrew Fenn	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	s.t.
8	Greg Henderson	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
9	Guillaume Boivin	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
10	André Schulze	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

GC top 10:

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Alexandr Kolobnev	Katusha Team	13h15'20
2	Lieuwe Westra	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	+ 4
3	Tom Slagter	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	+ 14	TimoMennen
4	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 18
5	Elia Favilli	Lampre - Merida	+ 24
6	Tony Gallopin	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 30
7	Luke Durbridge	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 32
8	Julian Dean	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 34
9	Christopher Sutton	Sky Procycling	s.t.
10	Baden Cooke	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.

Stage 5: Santos Tour Down Under.









Today is the decisive stage for the GC! We’re going to Wilunga hill!
We got a pretty nice BOTD today, but they won’t get too far, the peloton catches them. A pretty quiet race so far! I won’t bother you but the names, but Jeannesson and Urtasun were the strongest in the breakaway. The peloton had control all race though.

Movistar was riding for Visconti the whole stage. The team did a great job for him! When we reach Wilunga hill a lot of riders attack, but Slagter knew that was too early. He attacked after the first summit! We weren't going to wait and tried a brave attack!



He got a small gap, and when we reach the last climb of the Wilunga hill he has not much left, and the group is closing in!

Unfortunately he couldn’t hang on and thus he won’t win this year’s Tour Down Under. The sprint is won by a very, very strong Cameron Meyer.
Probably helped by the home advantage! (sorry I made a screen, but it didn’t go well so it didn’t take the screen for some reason…)

Westra does a great job taking 2nd place, and the third place goes to Sandy Casar!
Slagter rode pretty good still and got another top 10, the 8th place!
In the GC it is Westra who wins this year’s tour down under. By a margin of 2 (!) seconds on Kolobnev. Third place goes to Favilli. Today’s winner, Meyer takes the 4th place and our own Slagter takes 5th place in the final GC. But he’s still in front in the points jersey and he wins the mountain jersey.

We are very proud of Slagter, with two wins and two top 10s and the mountain jersey he did very well! The points jersey is also still possible, but with Meersman at the same points it’s very tight!

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Cameron Meyer	Orica - GreenEdge	3h33'59
2	Lieuwe Westra	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
3	Sandy Casar	FDJ	s.t.
4	Alexandr Kolobnev	Katusha Team	s.t.
5	Eduard Vorganov	Katusha Team	s.t.
6	Elia Favilli	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
7	Giovanni Visconti	Movistar Team	+ 20
8	Tom Slagter	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	+ 29	TimoMennen
9	Daniele Ratto	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
10	Julian Kern	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Lieuwe Westra	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	16h49'17
2	Alexandr Kolobnev	Katusha Team	+ 2
3	Elia Favilli	Lampre - Merida	+ 26
4	Cameron Meyer	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
5	Tom Slagter	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	+ 45	TimoMennen
6	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 49
7	Daniele Ratto	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 1'05
8	Tony Gallopin	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 1'19
9	Guillaume Boivin	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
10	Sandy Casar	FDJ	s.t.

Stage 6: Santos Tour Down Under.








Today is the last stage of this year’s Tour down Under. The GC looks settled and the chance is huge that there is going to be a mass sprint today. A big group of 10 riders rides away today and they form the BOTD. Only one dangerous guy for the GC, N. Maes. He is 1:23’ away from the leader, Westra.



With about 10 kilometers to go they get caught, Slagter tries a last attack within the last 5 kilometers.



It’s pretty useless, as he isn’t a good enough flat rider. But he shows courage again! We have to prepare for the sprint with Renshaw and Bos. The first has the best form and will be our main man! In all commotion due to a fall it was hard to form a train, so we let our sprinters follow another sprinter.

Renshaw was in the lead for a long time, but with the last 200 meter he gets caught by the others, he still gets a nice 5th place. Bos was in a bad shape today and didn’t compete for the victory unfortunately.

Hunter wins the stage today, Henderson takes 2nd and Boivin takes the 3rd place.
This means Slagter wins the points jersey! He also won the mountain jersey, that is two jerseys for him! The best news of the day is that Kolobnev and Favilli, the 2nd and 3rd rider in the GC, lost time due to the fall! They lose over 3 minutes and Slagter moves back on the podium! A great success for the Blanco team with a 3rd place in a WT race!

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Lieuwe Westra	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	18h49'30
2	Cameron Meyer	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 26
3	Tom Slagter	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	+ 45	TimoMennen
4	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 49
5	Daniele Ratto	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 1'05
6	Guillaume Boivin	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 1'15
7	Sandy Casar	FDJ	+ 1'19
8	Baden Cooke	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 1'20
9	Pablo Urtasun	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
10	Luke Durbridge	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 1'21

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Robert Hunter	Garmin - Sharp	2h00'13
2	Greg Henderson	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
3	Guillaume Boivin	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
4	Arthur Vichot	FDJ	s.t.
5	Mark Renshaw	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	TimoMennen
6	Samuel Dumoulin	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
7	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	s.t.
8	Christopher Sutton	Sky Procycling	s.t.
9	Daniel Oss	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
10	Klaas Lodewyck	BMC Racing Team	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General	Player
1	Tom Slagter	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	0	16	TimoMennen
2	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	0	16
3	Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg	Team Argos - Shimano	0	14

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General	Player
1	Tom Slagter	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	0	44	TimoMennen
2	Alexey Lutsenko	Astana Pro Team	24	24
3	Cameron Meyer	Orica - GreenEdge	0	16
4	Nikolas Maes	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	16	16
5	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	16	16

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time	Player
1	Guillaume Boivin	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 2h00'13	+ 49 (4)
2	Arthur Vichot	FDJ	s.t.	+ 2'08 (9)
3	Klaas Lodewyck	BMC Racing Team	s.t.	+ 32'08 (42)
4	Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 9'27 (20)
5	Geoffrey Soupe	FDJ	s.t.	+ 14'03 (25)
6	Daniele Ratto	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.	+ 39 (3)
7	Jens Keukeleire	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	+ 5'12 (16)
8	Cameron Meyer	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	18h49'56 (1)
9	Hugo Houle	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.	+ 2'08 (11)
10	Luke Durbridge	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	+ 55 (5)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Francisco José Ventoso	Movistar Team	2h36'26
2	Robert Hunter	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
3	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Rubén Pérez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
5	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	s.t.
6	Tyler Farrar	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
7	Simone Ponzi	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
8	Alexander Serebryakov	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
9	Vicente Reynès	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
10	Marko Kump	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Francisco José Ventoso	Movistar Team	3h47'42
2	José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	s.t.
3	Leonardo Duque	Colombia	s.t.
4	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	s.t.
5	Rubén Pérez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
6	Tyler Farrar	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
7	Robert Hunter	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
8	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	s.t.
9	Daniele Bennati	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.
10	Alexander Serebryakov	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	David Belda	Burgos BH - Castilla y León	3h32'03
2	Rui Costa	Movistar Team	+ 2'33
3	Gorka Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'59
4	Giovanni Visconti	Movistar Team	+ 3'38
5	Richie Porte	Sky Procycling	+ 3'58
6	Luis León Sánchez	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	+ 4'21	TimoMennen
7	Imanol Erviti	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Michael Rogers	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.
9	Michael Schär	BMC Racing Team	+ 4'42
10	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Astana Pro Team	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Manuel Cardoso	Caja Rural	3h33'50
2	Linus Gerdemann	RadioShack - Leopard	s.t.
3	Hernâni Brôco	Efapel - Glassdrive	s.t.
4	Rui Costa	Movistar Team	+ 3'36
5	Javier Moreno	Movistar Team	+ 4'18
6	Martin Elmiger	IAM Cycling	s.t.
7	Giovanni Visconti	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	s.t.
9	Francisco José Ventoso	Movistar Team	+ 4'46
10	Luis León Sánchez	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	TimoMennen

Rank	Name	Team	Time	Player
1	Rui Costa	Movistar Team	13h36'04
2	Giovanni Visconti	Movistar Team	+ 1'53
3	Gorka Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'03
4	Luis León Sánchez	Blanco Pro Cycling Team	+ 3'04	TimoMennen
5	Martin Elmiger	IAM Cycling	+ 3'30
6	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	s.t.
7	Michael Rogers	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 3'52
8	Sergio Henao	Sky Procycling	+ 3'58
9	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 4'20
10	José Herrada	Movistar Team	+ 4'56