Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) took his second stage win of this year's Tour Down Under as Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) saw his lead unchallenged to win the race overall.
Lotto-Belisol emerged from the shadows in the final kilometre as Marcel Sieberg moved the Belgian team to the front, and with Marcel Kittel nowhere to be seen, it was Greipel who powered away from the Omega Pharma-Quickstep duo of Mark Renshaw and Andy Fenn to take the stage victory.
After the stage, Greipel pointed to the work of his Lotto-Belisol team in delivering him to the stage win, 'Chapeau to my teammates. They rode incredibly fast so I could save myself for the last moment. This is a very nice victory for us. I had fast legs today and I'm confident of my capacities.'
But it was Gerrans who took the overall title, with his one second lead over Cadel Evans (BMC) going unchallenged on the final day of racing.
Gerrans was also quick to praise the work of his teammates as they rode to prevent any moves from Evans or Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) on the final day: 'The guys did a fantastic job. They kept me right up the front to make sure I would avoid any splits and I finished right up there, so it worked out beautifully.
'It's a huge honour to win the Tour Down Under and to cap it all off on Australlia Day racing for an Australian team - it just doesn't get much better.'
As has been the case on almost every stage, it was Drapac who were the most active at the start of the race as Will Clarke initiated with early break with Angelo Tulik (Europcar), Maxim Belkov (Katusha), and Julien Berard (Ag2r), but a heavy crash after only 5km forced Tulik to abandon.
The leaders built a maximum advantage of two minutes on the 5km circuit, sweeping up all of the intermediate sprints in the process, with the overall contenders calling off the squabble for bonus seconds.
But with the big teams on the front of the peloton, the break was always going to be brought back as Trek Factory Racing were the first to really lift the pace at the head of the main field with 20km remaining.
With 10km to go it was Orica-GreenEdge, the team of the leader, who assumed responsibility, with Luke Durbridge doing much of the work to catch the break and keep Simon Gerrans out of trouble.
Behind Orica-GreenEdge, Marcel Kittel's Giant-Shimano team were organising, with five riders trying to keep the German in a good position, while Cannondale, Sky, and Trek also fought for the front with a lap to go.
The one team who seemed absent were Lotto-Belisol, but excellent work by king of the mountains Adam Hansen moved five of the men in red and white up towards the front at 3km.
Omega-Pharma Quickstep, led by Matteo Trentin, did much of the work on the final lap in an attempt to set up Mark Renshaw and Andy Fenn, but when Marcel Sieberg put the power down for the Lotto-Belisol train as they went under the flamme rouge, the rest were nowhere to be seen.
From there it was really only a case of completing the formalities, as Jens Debusschere and Jurgen Roelandts sped down the hill towards the finish, dropping Greipel off at 150m as the German champion surged clear of Renshaw and Fenn to take his sixteenth stage win in the history of the Tour Down Under.
With none of the overall contenders at the front of the sprint the ochre jersey of Simon Gerrans was never threatened, and the Orica-GreenEdge rider took the overall crown for the third time in his career.
Stage 6 Result: Adelaide-Adelaide, 85.5km
1. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol 1:55:16
2. Mark Renshaw (Aus) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
3. Andrew Fenn (GBr) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
4. Koen de Kort (Ned) Giant-Shimano
5. Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
6. Matt Goss (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
7. Nathan Haas (Aus) Garmin-Sharp
8. Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto-Belisol
9. Michal Kolar (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo
10. Mathew Hayman (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
Final General Classification
1. Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 19:57:35
2. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC 0:00:01
3. Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:00:05
4. Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky 0:00:10
5. Nathan Haas (Aus) Garmin-Sharp 0:00:27
6. Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin 0:00:30
7. Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge 0:00:34
8. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:37
9. Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto-Belisol
10. Igor Silin (Rus) Katusha 0:00:47
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