Jayco Arulla returned to the strategy board at the Tour Down Under on Saturday, where a fresh leg on Willunga Hill prevailed.

The Australian-registered team entered the local World Tour event looking for an all-stage win, but with one day remaining, victory is still out of reach.

On Saturday's fifth stage, Simon Yates was the star of the show as Chris Harper attacked on one of the Tour's most iconic climbs.

"We needed a super fast climb, and Simon likes to be a little more explosive, so by trying to lure a few guys out with Chris, we gave him a good chance instead of attacking straight from the front," said sport director Matthew Heyman.

Yates attacked in the last kilometer, but was unable to shake off six riders, including 21-year-old stage winner Oscar Only (dsm-Filmenig Post NL), and Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) took the ochre-colored countback leader jersey.

The team was down one rider when Luke Plapp abandoned earlier in the week due to a crash injury, and Yates mourned the loss of his teammate after the stage.

"We wanted to go a little harder in the first one, but now that Plappy is gone, we don't have the guys to do it. It's our fault," Yates said. 'There were still a lot of fresh guys on the last climb and we just tried to make the best out of it. We tried to shake them off with just under a kilometer to go, but it didn't happen."

Yates is in seventh place overall, 13 seconds behind Williams heading into Sunday's finale at Mount Lofty.

The 31-year-old laughed when asked if he could regain time on his compatriot and win the race title with a stage win, but did not rule it out either.

Of Israel Premier Tech, Yates said, "They are a strong team too, so it will be hard to overturn them. But I won the stage championship last year. But I won a stage last year, and I'm going to try again and see what I can do."

Jayco Arulla has been a big part of the peloton in this week's race, omnipresent at the front of the pack. Other teams are letting him do so.

"Yes, they are. We'll give them a hand tomorrow," said Sam Bury, sports director of Israel Premier Tech.

Heyman endorses Yates' form and hopes Mount Lofty will be tougher for his rivals than Willunga.

"He is a very skillful rider and has a lot of experience. He's a very skilled rider and has a lot of experience."

"This Tour was a lot easier than we expected or wanted it to be. We couldn't let the other teams race and we all wanted to leave it to this stage."

"With a little more fatigue in the legs, we'll have a little more gap tomorrow.