In the final Tour Down Under stage on Sunday, Trek-Segafredo's Richie Porte finished second to win the Tour Down Under overall: British neo-pro rider Matt Holmes, making his first World Tour appearance with his new team, Lotto Soudal, The British neo-pro rider Matt Holmes, who is making his first appearance on the World Tour with his new team Lotto Soudal, found enough power to chase down and beat Porte, ending the Australian's six-game winning streak.

"I got off to a pretty good start," a delighted, but perhaps a bit shell-shocked Holmes told reporters at the finish.

Holmes, who told Cycling News before the race that Lotto-Soudal sport director Hermann Frisson had given him a free role to try his luck on the finishing climb at Paracombe on stage 3, finished a modest 31st, but the Wigan native The 26-year-old from Wigan got another chance on stage 6 and grabbed it with both hands.

Holmes was initially part of a 26-man breakaway group that escaped early in Sunday's 151.5km stage from McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill. Teammate John Dibben (a former Sky rider who, like Holmes, moved to Lotto from British national team Madison Genesis for 2020), along with others in the break, worked hard to keep the gap to the peloton.

"It was really perfect. I think my old coach [Roger Hammond] would be proud. Roger Hammond always said I was 'overdoing it.' I probably ran easier than anyone else in the race," Holmes smiled.

On the final climb, Willunga Hill, Porte launched a powerful attack that put race leader Daryl Impey (Mitchelton Scott) at his mercy.

"When Richie passed me, I had to go with him. He was obviously much faster than me."

Holmes passed Porte in the last few hundred meters and sprinted to the finish line three seconds ahead of the Australian.

Holmes admitted that he had struggled to step up to the World Tour level earlier in the week, but concluded that perhaps the victory six days later was right for him.

"I've tried my best to do well on GC, but I couldn't handle the speed and danger of the group.

"Even last night I said it might not be for me because it was too dangerous," he said.

He added that the win gives him and the team a lot of confidence.

He finished sixth overall in last season's Tour de Yorkshire and was picked up by the Belgian WorldTour team.

"Now they will obviously trust me more and they won't feel bad saying, "Ride for me today."

Asked if there was any chance of becoming a villain by taking the 10-second bonus for a stage win at the finish and upsetting Porte and Impey, who were fighting for a delicately balanced seconds in the overall battle, Holmes said flatly that such a thing was not on his mind.

"No," he laughed. 'I didn't have time to think about it. He was obviously running a different race, so all I could think about was beating him. 0]

Nothing was definite about the upcoming Neo Pro race program, but Holmes hopes that his victory will give him a little more freedom to choose which races he wants to participate in.

"Nothing was definite, but I think from now on I can decide a little more what I want to do. I just want to do short stage races like this one. The Giro d'Italia or the Vuelta a España. But if I want to go to the Tour de France, I think I have to do better than I did today," he smiled.

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