Tour Down Under: Geraint Thomas drops to fifth place

Defending champion Simon Gerrans of Australia won the fifth stage of the Tour Down Under cycle race on Saturday.

Previous Tour leader, Great Britain's Geraint Thomas, dropped down to fifth place in the standings after finishing 17th in the 94-mile stage.

"The legs just went with 500m or so to go - I was just stuck in the wind and went backwards," the Welshman said.

The Netherlands' Tom-Jelte Slagter is the new overall race leader after finishing second behind Gerrans.

The sixth and final stage of the Tour Down Under is a 50-mile street circuit race in Adelaide's business district on Sunday.

Spaniard Javier Moreno's third place in the stage lifts him into second place overall, 13 seconds behind Slagter, while Sky rider Thomas is 29 seconds behind the Dutchman.

Thomas, 26, admitted that, unlike Gerrans and Slagter, he did not have the pace to deal with Moreno's break from the main group during the stage.

"Gerro came past, it was just a bit too fast for me to get on his wheel," the men's team pursuit Olympic champion said.

"I should have just swung over maybe and tried to get someone else to do some work but I ended up pulling for a bit and was a bit empty then."

Overall standings after stage five:

1. Tom Slagter (Blanco) 16 hours 35 minutes 33 seconds

2. Javier Moreno (Movistar) +13secs

3. Ben Hermans (RadioShack Leopard) +25secs

4. Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel Euskadi) +28secs

5. Geraint Thomas (Sky) +29secs

6. Tiago Machado (RadioShack Leopard) +29secs

7. Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel Euskadi) +32secs

8. Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Merida) +32secs

9. Wilco Kelderman (Blanco)+32secs

10. Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ) +37secs