Though Renshaw sat near the front of the peloton as the finish line of the 90 kilometre sixth stage on the streets of Adelaide loomed on Sunday, he was unable to work clear to contest the sprint finish.

Still, as the Bathurst talent crossed the line in 34th behind stage winner Andre Greipel to complete his 15^th Tour Down Under, he had plenty to celebrate with his team-mates.

Ben O’Connor was amongst the most aggressive riders for stage six, team leader Tom Jelte Slagter was third in the final general classification and Nicholas Dlamini was crowned king of the mountain.

Slagter, who won the 2013 edition of the Tour Down Under, climbed from 24^th to third in the general classification in Saturday’s queen stage – a 151.1km leg from McLaren Vale to Willunga Hill.

He finished 10 seconds behind stage winner Richie Porte in third, while Renshaw was 11:47 off the pace on what was a day for the climbers.

“We had to wait five days for a good result because every day was a group sprint or bunch sprint and our results weren’t all that super,” Slagter said 

“Today when the GC was made though, we were there and third place on the stage and third on GC too, for me personally that is a great start to my season and with Team Dimension Data.”

Slagter safely negotiated Sunday’s final stage to ensure he remained in third, 16 seconds down on victor Daryl Impey.

Saturday was also when Dlamini secured himself the overall king of the mountains honours. After taking the polka dot jersey on day one he never surrendered it as he made an impressive professional debut for Dimension Data.

He made it into the seven-man breakaway on Saturday and earned himself 12 points as the second man to crest the category one Willunga Climb on the opening circuit.

That gave him an unbeatable lead heading into the final stage.