Garmin-Sharp rider explains frantic finish to Stage 4
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Jack Bauer (Garmin-Sharp).(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Race leader Geraint Thomas (Sky) crosses the line with Garmin Sharp teammates Steele Von Hoff and Jack Bauer on Stage 4(Image credit: Sirotti)
Jack Bauer (Garmin Sharp) is presented to the crowd at the 2013 Santos Tour Down Under(Image credit: Sirotti)
Bauer gets out of the saddle during Stage 6 at the 2012 Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Sirotti)
Jack Bauer (Garmin-Barracuda) during Paris-Roubaix(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Taking a tow: Giro leader Ryder Hesjedal and teammate Jack Bauer have a problem when the Canadian's arm warmers are caught up in Bauer's bike(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Jack Bauer (New Zealand)(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
With Rohan Dennis' challenge for overall victory at the Tour Down Under ruled out before the race begun, it was up to last year's 11th-place finisher Jack Bauer to take the leader's role. With just 15 seconds separating himself and race leader Geraint Thomas (Sky) coming into the penultimate stage, Bauer says the plan up Old Willunga will be quite simple: "hang on".
In this video Bauer explains the frantic finish of Stage 4 in which a number of riders were involved in crashes that occurred in the final kilometres. Riders are not respecting the hierarchy within bunch sprints and are riding where they shouldn't, according to to the Garmin-Sharp rider.
"There are some people doing some pretty stupid shit here," said Bauer to Cyclingnews. "People cutting left and right with 300m to go.
"People have fresher legs with a day like today. It's a shorter course, the break went early so we didn't have such a hard day. So, that means when there are fresher legs, there are a lot more people at the end who shouldn't be there.
"A lot of people who aren't sprinters can't control their bikes in the finale and we see what happened today."
Bauer adds that his initial plans for Down Under were to support Dennis. Now that he's the number-one rider on the general classification it's up to him to deliver precious WorldTour points for the team.
"Our plan was to come here in support of Rohan Dennis for the overall classification. With him not even starting the race I had to do what I could over Corkscrew on Stage 2 and try and move into the top ten on GC.
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"Obviously being a WorldTour race here at Down Under the points are up for grabs. They are pretty significant with car placement in the first part of the year going into the early classics."
