On the strength of a vicious attack on Torrens Hill BMC Racing Team's Rohan Dennis soloed to victory and into the race lead Thursday at the Santos Tour Down Under. His BMC Racing Team teammate Cadel Evans finished second. 

Dennis crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of his teammate Cadel Evans and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin). Although the hour record contender had to switch plans in the final, he is very satisfied with his win and the overall lead.

"I started the climb pretty close to last wheel," he said. "I thought maybe I'd be in contention for top ten but my legs sort of took over. It was a hundred metres at a time and just follow, follow, follow and do what Cadel said; attack.

"The plan was for me to attack at the bottom of the climb to put pressure on Richie and a couple of the main contentedness and for Cadel to follow them. Unfortunately I was a bit soft, from Lobethal on I was a little too nervous in the bunch and I thought I'd sit back in the bunch and not come down in any close calls or anything.

"It's an absolute dream come true. To be in a leader's jersey at a WorldTour race is one of my goals this year and a stage win was also one of my goals. From tomorrow, we have to try to hold it [the jersey] for the rest of the week.

"My only win last year, beside the worlds team time trial, was a road race in America. So maybe I need to move away from time trials and do more time trialling. In saying that, my time trialling helped me today to get into that mode of thinking about a threshold and attacking with a turn of speed."

Winning in front of his home country's crowd Dennis also takes the first BMC Racing Team's win of the season.

The 143.2 km stage that was marked by a four man breakaway that gained a freedom of maximum 3 minutes 30 seconds. The last remaining attacker was caught heading to the 1.2 km final climb. BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans who is now second overall, 7 seconds behind his teammate Dennis, is happy how it worked really well for the BMC Racing Team today.

"We had a plan on covering on two bases, but of course I also want to be able to lend a favor to my teammates where I can and where it's favorable", Evans said. "That move really worked for us, and I am sure Rohan is going to be pretty happy. 

“We want to stay where we are. It’s not easy, there is a lot of racing still to go, particularly the stage to Willunga. It's going to more of the same. Today narrows down who we have to watch.

"Everything came together for Rohan today. Obviously he has the physical potential. Hopefully, it will give a big boost as he goes into his hoir record attempt in Grenchen on February 8. We will see if he can maintain. He has a reasonable GC rider in the wings."
 

With three more days to go Evans remains the team leader Dennis said: "Obviously we are both protected riders and Cadel, in my eyes is the protected rider. I just had slightly better legs than him in the finish, he still had just as good as legs as I did but I just made that jump over the top and he's not going to chase me down is a perk of having such a good rider as my teammate.

“There’s still Willunga (Stage 5) and a lot of racing to come.”

Besides the overall classification (Ochre jersey), Dennis also leads the Subaru King of the mountain and the Cycle Instead young rider classification. While his BMC Racing Team teammate Cadel Evans, second overall, tops the Iinet sprint classification. The BMC Racing Team leads the Virgin Australia winning team classification after stage 3 in Santos Tour Down Under. 

Rohan Dennis will attempt the Hour Record on Sunday 8 February at the Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen.