The Fort Worth Press - Vernon avoids crashes to win Tour Down Under stage in brutal heat

The British NSN sprinter powered clear in the dash to the line in Willunga township to take the penultimate stage ahead of Denmark's Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Australia's Laurence Pithie (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe).

Vine overcame the loss of UAE Team Emirates teammate and defending champion Jhonatan Narvaez in a crash early in the stage to protect his substantial lead in the general classification heading into Sunday's final stage.

Vine, the 2023 winner, finished safely in the pack and holds a 1min 3sec buffer over Swiss Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla) with a further nine seconds to Australia's Harry Sweeny (EF Education-Easypost).

It was Vernon's first World Tour stage win since beating compatriot Matthew Brennan in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya last March.

"I was sitting pretty comfy with 250m to go and I got a gap and held it to the line but everybody was suffering in the heat and the (NSN) boys did a very good job to keep me cool," Vernon said.

Vine had to contend with the shock loss of his closest GC rival Narvaez, who crashed out only a few minutes into the stage and was taken to hospital for concussion observation.

Vine also avoided another crash as the peloton jockeyed for position in a windy section of the course as the temperatures soared to 40C.

"Losing two teammates today was hard not only for today but for tomorrow but everyone else stepped up to help keep me safe," Vine said.

"It's a hard stage tomorrow and we've also got the heat to contend with.

"We did a lot of work today to stay safe and my teammates have once again got to put in a big shift to help me tomorrow."

The forecast searing temperatures and extreme fire danger forced Tour organisers to abandon the demanding Willunga Hill climbs for safety reasons, reducing the stage to a largely flat 131km from its original 176km.

P.McDonald--TFWP