Australian rider Allan Davis has retained the ochre jersey by winning stage four of the Tour Down Under in a sprint finish at the Barossa Valley.
Stage-three victor Graeme Brown (Rabobank) was runner up while Jose Joaquin Gil (Caisse d'Epargne) was third home.
Lance Armstrong and Nicolas Roche finished in the peloton which crossed the line seconds after Davis. Roche remains 15th in the overall standings while the American legend is in 38th position.
It is expected Armstrong's best chance of winning a stage at the Tour will come on Saturday when the competitors ride from Snapper Point to Willunga.
Davis, who rides for team Quick Step finished the 143-kilometre stage, which ran from Burnside Village to Angaston in three hours 29 minutes and 35 seconds.
Davis admitted he was surprised to win the stage because he was feeling 'very ordinary' when it began.
‘I had pretty bad feelings today. I pulled up a little bit stiff from the crash yesterday,’ he said.
‘I pretty much followed Robbie (McEwen) and the Katusha team for the last 50km.
‘It got pretty hectic in the last three kilometres, my team-mate Matteo Tosatto took me to the front with a kilometre to go.
‘At the same time it was a coincidence that I saw Rabobanks coming on my right side with Brownie (Graeme Brown) on the back of it so I went on Brownie's wheel and had a good run into the finish. Pretty much what he did to us yesterday.’
Earlier, Vladimir Efimkin (AG2R La Mondiale), Andoni Lafuente (Euskaltel - Euskadi) and Travis Meyer (UniSA) broke away and at the 12-kilometre mark they had a one minute 20 second lead over the peloton.
Just over 20 kilometre of hilly terrain later and the trio had extended their buffer to more than nine minutes and wasn't until the first sprint in Mount Pleasant that the rest of the riders started to regain ground.
At the 99-kilometre stage Lafuente fell off the pace and at about the same time Matthew Lloyd (Silence - Lotto), Tom Stubbe (Silence - Lotto) and Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) veered away from the peloton in pursuit of the leading duo of Efimkin and Meyer.
The peloton picked up the pace and reined in the chase group and then the leaders with about 13 kilometres to go.
It ensured a huge finish at Angaston with a massive group of riders finishing the stage within seconds of each other.
UCI Pro Tour-Tour Down Under
Leading final positions after stage 4:
1 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step 3hrs 29mins 35secs, 2 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank at same time, 3 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at same time, 4 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank at same time, 5 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - High Road at same time, 6 Tom Leezer (Ned) Rabobank at same time, 7 Davide Vigano (Ita) Fuji-Servetto at same time, 8 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Francaise Des Jeux at same time, 9 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha at same time, 10 Sebastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at same time.
General classification after stage 4:
1 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step 14hrs 16mins 36secs, 2 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank at 0.04, 3 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank at 0.15, 4 Martin Elmiger (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale at 0.24, 5 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at 0.26, 6 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - High Road at 0.28, 7 Matthew Wilson (Aus) UniSA at 0.29, 8 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C at 0.30, 9 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Francaise Des Jeux at same time , 10 Mickael Cherel (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux at same time.
Other:
15 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale at 0.34
