
Eleven seconds separate first from 69th at the Tour Down Under after four days of racing. Eleven seconds, the time an elite runner can do 100 metres, or the time it takes to tie a shoelace, or to microwave a pre-made pancake. It is not a lot.
Those 11 seconds cover everyone from a Grand Tour winner, in Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), to sprinters like Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and puncheurs like Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step). It is safe to say the first four stages of the Tour Down Under have not been particularly selective, with all but one ending in a sprint - the one that didn't, pretty much did anyway. Sam Welsford won three of the four.