Kangaroo causes chaos on final stage of Tour Down Under

“This is incredible… he got hit too, kangaroo.”

While Vine managed to stay in the race, he lost his Danish teammate Mikkel Bjerg to injury after the incident that occurred 95 kilometers before the end of the stage. At least a few drivers also had to withdraw from the race due to crash injuries

Colombia’s Juan Molano also separately walked off the stage, leaving Vine with just two teammates, England star Adam Yates and Portugal’s Ivo Oliveira.

However, the Australian driver was the strongest rider of the race and entered the final stage with a 1 minute and 3 second lead.

His compatriot Pat Jonker is the only other winner of the Tour Down Under by more than a minute, having won by 1:13 in 2004. The overall result was determined by two countdowns.

It was another dramatic day at the Tour; Four people protesting Santos’ decision to become the Tour’s title sponsor were arrested after trying to disrupt the race.

After Saturday’s Willunga stage was shortened from 176km to 131km due to bushfire risk, it became the longest stage in the Tour’s history at 169.8km.

The eight tracks at Stirling in the Adelaide Hills were racing in cooler temperatures than Saturday’s 40-plus bake, but the temperature was still in the 30s.

There was 529 meters of climbing per lap, which meant 3436 meters of leg loss for the stage.

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Australians Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Rob Stannard (Bahrain Muzaffer) were part of a group of four who built a lead of more than three minutes, but they were never given much leeway.

Those left from the break were caught at the beginning of the final lap.

Plapp’s Swiss teammate Mauro Schmid started the stage in second place overall and Jayco AlUla was looking at tactics to take the lead from Vine.

But they knew Vine losing the Tour would come at a huge cost.

Fellow Australian Harry Sweeny (EF Education Easypost) finished third overall with an impressive performance of 1:12.