There are few guarantees today. However, your money would be safe if you said that O'Grady would drive the peloton and seeing as Flatty took the pic, I felt compelled to use it. Mr O'Grady is after all the Mayor of Adelaide.

State of play at the beginning of the stage

1 Martin Kohler (Sui) BMC 15:03:34 2 Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank 0:00:02
3 Oscar Freire (Spa) Katusha
4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0:00:06
5 Simon Gerrans (Aus) GreenEDGE 0:00:08
6 Daniele Bennati (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
7 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling
8 Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan
9 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha
There are a number of contenders such as Valverde and GHH at 12 seconds back, so tomorrow will be interesting.

Menglers did some sifting and sorting on Stage 4 and Willunga Hill should do the rest. Michael Matthews is a sprinter who can climb a bit. Gerro is a climber who can sprint a bit. Valverde is better than almost everyone. Kohler's palmares is very thin and I have no sense of him as a rider, except that he's worked hard this week. EBH (who is obviously nervous around kangaroos) is always a force to be reckoned with and Rogers and Hayman will work tirelessly to position him. Others to watch: Any one of the Euskies, Matthew Lloyd, Cam Meyer, Sergey Lagutin(just because), GVA, plus anyone else you want to cheer for. Personally, I'd like Bling to win today...highly unlikely...and Gerro to win the overall on Sunday. It's been a great week of racing,and today should be no different.

There will be live TV coverage. Check your local guides. I apologise for not being able to do a Jens; I can't do time zones. Personally, I'll be with Auntie until the last hour or so. It's more fun than listening to Phil and Paul.

Radio: http://www.abc.net.au/local/players/internet_radio.htm?streamFile=localadelaide&streamTitle=Grandstand's%20Tour%20Down%20Under#cf

Live-ish ticker. It is quite informative.http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/live-feed.htm

I like this ticker, but many are using CN for updates.

And if you're wondering why these are up so early...it's a combination of the beach's siren song and the fact that if I leave it to the last minute, it feels like homework. I'll look forward to seeing you all. It's been a lovely week, and yesterday we cracked 700 entries in spite of the lack of a decent feed :)