After today's stage, I finally had a real job to do… I'd like to thank every single person at the @tourdownunder organization. Their hard work makes it one of the best races in the world. Thanks also to the fans and spectators in @southaustralia! This victory goes to you! pic.twitter.com/j7XWDMDl96
— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) January 19, 2018
As if winning stage four of the Tour Down Under wasn’t enough, Peter Sagan decided to wind down from his victory on Friday by helping race workers to pack away the inflatable flamme rouge.
Still wearing the motocross goggles that he’d worn on the podium in Uraidla as he celebrated the stage win and moved into the ochre jersey, Sagan appears to have been being driven back from the stage finish when he got out to lend a hand to the race workers.
Sagan posted video of his manual labour on Twitter and Instagram showing him helping the orange-clad workers to haul the deflated flamme rouge into a trailer to be reinflated on Willunga Hill on Saturday.
>>> Peloton reacts to sweltering temperatures of up to 48ºC at Tour Down Under
Unsurprisingly, the man wearing the rainbow jersey rather than the orange t-shirt is quickly spotted by fans, who interrupt his work to ask for photos and autographs, with Sagan duly obliging.
Sagan then helps to pick up a last few electrical cables, before heading back towards the car having finished his hard work for the day.
A little earlier, Sagan had been racing underneath the flamme rouge on his way to victory on stage four of the Tour Down Under, out-sprinting Daryl Impey and Luis Leon Sanchez at the finish in Uraidla, a result that was enough to put him into the leader’s ochre jersey with two stages remaining.
Sagan looked to have decent climbing legs on the climb towards the finish on stage four, but will have a tough task to hold on to his lead on stage five, which finishes on the three kilometres climb of Willunga Hill where Riche Porte has claimed victory for the last four years.
However there will be a further chance for Sagan to chase victory on Sunday, with the final stage being a circuit race around the streets of Adelaide.
