(Sports) Roundup: Australian Rohan Dennis takes lead in Tour Down Under

Cadel Evans distracted his competitors as his teammate Rohan Dennis took a surprise win on the first hill finish of the Tour Down Under on Thursday in Adelaide, Australia.

Tour de France-winner Evans was well-watched by Sky's Richie Porte as he led the best climbers onto the final hill at Paracombe on the outskirts of Adelaide.

But it was his fellow Australian and BMC teammate who executed the prime attack as the leaders passed under the one-kilometer banner.

Dennis, 24, stayed ahead for the remainder of the climb for win his first win since stage 3 of last year's Tour of California.

Despite a valiant performance, Jack Bobridge finished 39 seconds down, handing the ochre leader's jersey to Dennis.

Through virtue of his win and 10-second time bonus, Dennis now leads the overall category by seven seconds to Evans, who is another eight ahead of fourth-placed Porte.

Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, of Giant-Alpecin, is nine seconds adrift of Dennis in third.

"To be honest I didn't expect to have that in the finish," Dennis said after the race.

"The plan was for me to actually attack at the bottom and put the guys of Richie and (Domenico) Pozzovivo and a couple other riders under pressure and let Cadel just sit back but obviously I was still too far back to actually follow that plan.

"But, Cadel he's still, in my eyes, a leader and I'm gonna respect that."

Today's performance places the lesser-known Australian with a perfect chance to upstage his more-fancied countrymen in their home race if Dennis can post a similar result on Saturday's queen stage at Willunga.

Porte, last year's winner at Willunga, is not throwing away his chances just yet.

"We'll have to see how it plays out up on Willunga," Porte said.

"They're a man down (BMC) and that's not easy. They're going to have to control the race, which they haven't done thus far."

Porte said, despite being in a great position leading in the climb, the stop-start style of the ascent was not to his liking.

"I am really happy with how the team is riding," said Porte.

"(Today's results) is not ideal, but it's still not over."

Friday's flat stage from Glenelg to Mount Barker is not expected to affect the overall classification.

Evans' BMC team will again be without neo-pro Campbell Flakemore, who crashed and broke his collarbone while riding back to his hotel after Wednesday's second stage. Endi