Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) lost the overall Tour Down Under lead to rival Daryl Impey (Mitchelton Scott) on stage 5 to Victor Harbor on Saturday. However, a hectic finale favored the Tasmanian, and Impey could only manage 10th place in the 55-man sprint finish and failed to win bonus seconds of 10, 6, and 4 seconds.

Trek-Segafredo competed in two intermediate sprints with road race world champion Mads Pedersen and Mitchelton Scott to limit Impey's attempts to gain bonus seconds and extend his lead in this stage. However, Impey still earned a five-second bonus second, and Porte was only two seconds behind Pedersen in the overall standings.

With a final uphill finish to Willunga Hill on Sunday, Porte theoretically had the overall win within reach.

Porte has won Willunga Hill for the past six years and knows the effort required for a seventh win. If Porte wins this stage, the title will be his, with a 10-second time bonus plus the ability to shorten the times of Impy and other rivals. Any other outcome would make it a very close race, but he knows he must pull those two seconds back and take at least one more to ensure the overall win.

"Everything is on the line tomorrow. If you win the stage, you win the race. It's not a big loss tomorrow, but it will be difficult," Porte said. Ignoring the fact that things could have been a lot worse if a group of 11 overall contenders that cleared on a late climb had stayed clear and Impey had won an additional bonus second.

"I expected Mitchelton to do that," Porte said of his attack on Kirby Hill with 20km to go.

Porte appeared unsatisfied with his Trek-Segafredo teammate's performance. Neo Pro's Michel Reese and Juan Pedro Lopez performed well this week, but finished in the second group at Victor Harbor.

"Mads did a good job of taking a few seconds early on, but was a little isolated today.

Pedersen took the most aggressive rider award and after fighting for the time bonus, he went on the attack hoping to catch Porte on the later climbs.

"I think I did a good job," Pedersen said. 'My first job was to do a sprint and try to beat Impy. I won the first sprint, but in the second sprint he was too strong. Then I saw a gap to get into the break, so I went for it, looking to get over the climb at the front so I could get to the finish."

"It didn't work out, but it was worth a try," Pedersen said. The gap between Ritchie and Impey is only two seconds, and Ritchie always runs well at Willunga. If he wins, he will win the GC."