You couldn't blame Michael Rogers for demanding a spare bike be ready for immediate use as he rode the final kilometers to victory in the Jacob’s Creek Tour Down Under in Australia on Sunday. After all, he learned 24 hours before winning the 733km race how "Lady Luck" can abruptly barge her way in unannounced and throw every winning hope into disarray.

That a quick-minded spectator was there to lend Rogers his own bike on the previous stage was the most poignant moment behind his overall victory - by 21 seconds over Russian Alexandre Botcharov (AG2R) and 30 seconds on South Australian Patrick Jonker (Uni SA).

But when asked why there was an extra bike on the roof of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) car, it was clear that the near-disaster had taught him a lesson.

McEwen celebrates his fourth stage win

Photo: Graham Watson

"It was a luck thing," said the 22 year-old rider, admitting the drama of Saturday’s stage took as much a toll on him physically as mentally.

"I tossed and turned all night. I didn’t sleep so well. The pressure was always on."

And it was still on him in Sunday’s 90km sixth stage circuit race in Adelaide which saw Queensland’s Robbie McEwen (Lotto) claim his fourth stage.

For Rogers, who placed 20th and at the same time as McEwen, the chances of him seeing the overall victory slip through his grasp were slim. Then again, he had already discovered how the supposedly safest of stages can still be some of the most dangerous.

On the same stage two years ago Rogers crashed when his bike frame suddenly snapped. It forced him out of the race.

So why would his bike not fail him again yesterday -- as it did on Saturday? The loss would be more than in skin and pride, but in the greatest victory of his cycling career.

Rogers admitted he asked himself the same question before lining up to seal his win, which capped a dominant week by Australian riders in the tour.

If the tour was to have given Australian riders a multi-cultural experience in pedaling prowess by the foreign teams, it ended with them teaching the Europeans a lesson.

When the 733km came to an end, it was the Australians who were left gorging on the victory pie like a starved pride of African lions feeding on wild prey.

McEwen added more gloss to his polished season start by winning his fourth stage in front of an 80,000-strong crowd that saw total race attendance reach 435,000.

McEwen’s ride on Sunday was typically aggressive. He tried repeatedly to slip away in breakaway groups before the stage ended in a mass gallop to the line.

"I knew it was going to be really aggressive. I tried to get in a couple of breaks and got caught, caught again and again," he said. "Then that was it. I thought I am here, I’ve got to get across the line so I might as well be first."

His victory today also ensured local riders a clean sweep of stage wins. On top of McEwen’s four wins, Rogers and Victorian Cadel Evans took one stage a piece. Australians also won the race for best climber (Evans) and sprinter (McEwen), as well under-23 (Dave McPartland) and most aggressive (Stuart O’Grady) riders.

The one satisfaction left for visitors was victory in the teams category by the Italian Mapei squad. But even that still included one Australian in Evans.

Meanwhile, national head coach Shane Bannon and road coach Brian Stephens defended their young charges against criticism by veteran professional Scott Sunderland.

After sustaining a fractured right shinbone and posterior cruciate ligament damage in a crash at Victor Harbor on Friday he said the under-23 riders were in over their heads.

"I don’t believe that," said Bannon. "If they were, we wouldn’t have entered them."

Stephens said: "Scotty has to understand he was 21 or 22 once. These type of accidents can happen in any race, from a club race to the Tour de France."