Wouter Wippert (Drapac) sprinted to Tour Down Under stage six victory in Adelaide as Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) sealed the ochre jersey.

Wippert out-kicked Australian champion Heinrich Haussler on the city-centre circuit to bag his team’s first ever win in the race after Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) had got caught behind a crash.

Dennis, meanwhile, stayed safely in the bunch to seal overall victory with Richie Porte (Team Sky) unable to bag the bonus seconds he needed to overhaul the two-second deficit.

For Porte to have any chance of claiming the three-second sprint bonuses, he needed the race to stay together early on but a five-man break went clear on the second lap.

Greg Henderson (Lotto-Soudal), Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin), Calvin Watson (Trek) Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) were the men to attack, with Daryl Impey’s Orica-GreenEDGE keeping them at close quarters.

With Impey topping the points classification, the Australian team worked hard on the front and pulled the move back for the South African to sprint to the maximum three-second bonus at the first intermediate sprint on lap eight.

A six-man break then took off with British champion Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) among them and Boaro again bridging the gap.

Lars Boom (Astana), Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto-Soudal) and Christopher Juul Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) rounded off the break, ensuring plenty of firepower on the flat roads.

Unlike the first break, they were given more license to attack and had stretched their advantage to more than a minute as the laps continued to count down.

With the front group taking care of the second intermediate sprint, Dennis only had to stick on Porte’s wheel, which – with the help of team-mate Cadel Evans – he did.

In Evans’ final day in the WorldTour peloton, the veteran Australian was the consummate team-mate for the man quickly looking likely to become his heir apparent.

On the front of the bunch, Giant-Alpecin took up the chase for Marcel Kittel, with Etixx-QuickStep and Orica-GreenEDGE also bringing riders forward.

Drapac and Lampre-Merida also had ambitions for the stage win and brought riders forward as they swallowed up the break with two laps remaining.

Shortly afterwards, on that penultimate lap, Kittel’s hopes of a stage win were wiped out however as he was caught behind a crash in the thick of the main field.

Tiago Machado (Katusha), who had been on for a top-ten finish, was also caught out but Dennis, Evans and Porte stayed safe – Sky immediately driving the pace as they sensed an opportunity to catch BMC Racing out.

It was not to be for Porte however, as IAM Cycling took over the pace-making and the remaining sprint teams began to line out.

Haussler appeared favourite as they hit the final lap, but Wippert found his wheel and came round him to take the stage win.

And Dennis, Porte and Evans all finished within the front group to ensure an all-Australian podium for the first time since 2004.

Tour Down Under 2015: stage six – result

1) Wouter Wippert (NED) – Drapac – 1.56.09hrs
2) Heinrich Haussler (AUS) – IAM Cycling – ST
3) Boris Vallee (BEL) – Lotto-Soudal
4) Pavel Brutt (RUS) – Tinkoff-Saxo
5) Daryl Impey (RSA) – Orica-GreenEDGE
6) Niccolo Bonifazio (ITA) – Lampre-Merida
7) Steele von Hoff (AUS) – UniSA-Australia
8) Ruslan Tleubayev (KAZ) – Astana
9) Rudiger Selig (GER) – Katusha
10) Sebastien Chavanel (FRA) – FDJ

General classification

1) Rohan Dennis (AUS) – BMC Racing – 19.15.18hrs
2) Richie Porte (AUS) – Team Sky +2”
3) Cadel Evans (AUS) – BMC Racing +20”
4) Tom Dumoulin (NED) – Team Giant-Alpecin +22”
5) Ruben Fernandez (ESP) – Movistar +24”
6) Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +31”
7) Daryl Impey (RSA) – Orica-GreenEDGE +35”
8) Gorka Izaguirre (ESP) – Movistar +52”
9) Jarlinson Pantano (COL) – IAM Cycling +53”
10) George Bennett (NZL) – Team LottoNL-Jumbo +57”