Tour Down Under: Schmid finishes fifth overall

Traveling from Unley to Mount Lofty, and featuring a total of five climbs, stage 5 of the Tour Down Under was the last opportunity for the GC riders to leave their mark and gain some positions in the standings. Despite the hilly profile and the demanding gradients of Mount Lofty, which was used for the first time, the stage was fast and didn’t lack attacks.
One of these attempts came from Soudal Quick-Step’s Mattia Cattaneo, inside twenty kilometers to go. By that point, the large breakaway group that had animated the day for almost 80 kilometers had been brought back, and the Italian took off together with four other riders, putting around 25 seconds between them and the bunch. The chasers kept them on a tight leash, and despite Mattia’s strong effort, the move was brought to heel, the Italian being the last rider swallowed by the peloton.
As was the case two days ago, three men rode clear and fought for the win, which went to Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula), who beat eventual GC winner Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates). Behind, among those distanced was also Mauro Schmid, who on top of that, was blocked by a crash that happened just in front of him before the flamme rouge.
Staying true to his nature, the Swiss didn’t panic and chased hard, joining the first chasing group with a couple of hundred of meters to go, arriving at the finish in tenth place, just six seconds down. By doing this, Schmid became the third rider in the history of the team to conclude in the top 5 at the World Tour opener, after Allan Davis, who won the event in 2009, and Dries Devenyns, in 2018.
“We knew that attacks would come in the finale, that’s why we planned Mattia’s move, which was a good one, because we anticipated things a bit and put some pressure on the other teams, as he was still in the GC fight. He was reeled in, but nevertheless, his action was still a good one.”
I’m happy with this result, I think it’s good for my first outing of the season and it confirms the progress I have made in this kind of races.
“On the final climb I wasn’t maybe in a perfect position, and then two guys hit the ground in front of me, which forced me to ride hard in order to not lose time in the standings. Having avoided this makes me quite satisfied, it would have been a pity to lose positions due to this incident. I now look with more confidence to our next appointment, the Cadel Evans Road Race. I like the route, we have a good team which includes an experienced Dries, the last rider to win it, so we hope to be up there”, said Mauro after his first top 10 in a World Tour stage race.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
Race details
1 |
Simon Yates Team Jayco AlUla |
2:41:16 |
2 |
Jay Vine UAE Team Emirates |
0:00 |
3 |
Ben O'Connor AG2R Citroën Team |
0:02 |
4 |
Antonio Tiberi Trek - Segafredo |
0:03 |
5 |
Sven Erik Bystrøm Intermarché - Circus - Wanty |
0:06 |
6 |
Jai Hindley BORA - hansgrohe |
0:06 |
7 |
Pello Bilbao López de Armentia Bahrain - Victorious |
0:06 |
8 |
Giovanni Aleotti BORA - hansgrohe |
0:06 |
9 |
Magnus Sheffield INEOS Grenadiers |
0:06 |
10 |
Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step |
0:06 |
39 |
Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal - Quick Step |
1:10 |
45 |
Dries Devenyns
Soudal - Quick Step |
2:12 |
102 |
Stan Van Tricht
Soudal - Quick Step |
9:04 |
118 |
Jannik Steimle
Soudal - Quick Step |
16:03 |
DNF |
Martin Svrček
Soudal - Quick Step |
-02:41:16 |
1 |
Jay Vine UAE Team Emirates |
16:07:41 |
2 |
Simon Yates Team Jayco AlUla |
0:11 |
3 |
Pello Bilbao López de Armentia Bahrain - Victorious |
0:27 |
4 |
Magnus Sheffield INEOS Grenadiers |
0:57 |
5 |
Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step |
0:58 |
6 |
Ben O'Connor AG2R Citroën Team |
1:04 |
7 |
Sven Erik Bystrøm Intermarché - Circus - Wanty |
1:06 |
8 |
Antonio Tiberi Trek - Segafredo |
1:07 |
9 |
Gorka Izagirre Insausti Movistar Team |
1:13 |
10 |
Bryan Coquard Cofidis |
1:13 |
22 |
Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal - Quick Step |
2:22 |
39 |
Dries Devenyns
Soudal - Quick Step |
7:34 |
78 |
Stan Van Tricht
Soudal - Quick Step |
19:35 |
107 |
Jannik Steimle
Soudal - Quick Step |
30:01 |
1 |
Michael Matthews Team Jayco AlUla |
61 pt |
2 |
Simon Yates Team Jayco AlUla |
57 pt |
3 |
Jay Vine UAE Team Emirates |
57 pt |
4 |
Caleb Ewan UniSA-Australia |
47 pt |
5 |
Paul Penhoët Groupama - FDJ |
43 pt |
6 |
Hugo Page Intermarché - Circus - Wanty |
40 pt |
7 |
Bryan Coquard Cofidis |
37 pt |
8 |
Corbin Strong Israel - Premier Tech |
34 pt |
9 |
Rohan Dennis Jumbo-Visma |
30 pt |
10 |
Phil Bauhaus Bahrain - Victorious |
30 pt |
12 |
Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step |
28 pt |
50 |
Jannik Steimle
Soudal - Quick Step |
2 pt |
1 |
Mikkel Frølich Honoré EF Education-EasyPost |
21 pt |
2 |
Jay Vine UAE Team Emirates |
20 pt |
3 |
Simon Yates Team Jayco AlUla |
18 pt |
4 |
Fabio Felline Astana Qazaqstan Team |
11 pt |
5 |
Kim Heiduk INEOS Grenadiers |
10 pt |
6 |
Johan Jacobs Movistar Team |
10 pt |
7 |
Luke Plapp INEOS Grenadiers |
10 pt |
8 |
Alessandro Covi UAE Team Emirates |
8 pt |
9 |
Matthew Dinham Team DSM |
8 pt |
10 |
Dmitriy Gruzdev Astana Qazaqstan Team |
7 pt |
21 |
Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step |
1 pt |
30 |
Jannik Steimle
Soudal - Quick Step |
1 pt |
1 |
Magnus Sheffield INEOS Grenadiers |
16:08:38 |
2 |
Antonio Tiberi Trek - Segafredo |
0:10 |
3 |
Hugo Page Intermarché - Circus - Wanty |
0:54 |
4 |
Reuben Thompson Groupama - FDJ |
1:32 |
5 |
Alex Baudin AG2R Citroën Team |
1:54 |
6 |
Paul Penhoët Groupama - FDJ |
3:24 |
7 |
Iván Romeo Movistar Team |
6:55 |
8 |
Leo Hayter INEOS Grenadiers |
10:14 |
9 |
Alessandro Verre Team Arkéa Samsic |
18:59 |
10 |
Finn Fisher-Black UAE Team Emirates |
24:25 |
1 | UAE Team Emirates | 48:25:34 |
2 | Trek - Segafredo | 1:24 |
3 | Groupama - FDJ | 1:41 |
4 | AG2R Citroën Team | 3:09 |
5 | Soudal - Quick Step | 5:02 |
6 | Intermarché - Circus - Wanty | 5:30 |
7 | Israel - Premier Tech | 6:27 |
8 | INEOS Grenadiers | 7:06 |
9 | BORA - hansgrohe | 8:21 |
10 | Bahrain - Victorious | 8:58 |