Spain's Alejandro Valverde made an emotional return from a two-year doping ban by winning the fifth and longest stage of the Tour Down Under Saturday, closing in on overall victory in the first event of the 2012 World Tour. Valverde outsprinted Australia's Simon Gerrans – a stage winner on the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana – to claim the 151.5 kilometer stage which finished with a gruelling climb to the summit of Old Willunga Hill. Gerrans will wear the tour leader's ochre jersey in Sunday's final stage – a 90 kilometer race around a street circuit in downtown Adelaide – but there is no time difference between him and Valverde, meaning a countback may be needed to decide the winner. Australia's Gerrans has the race lead entering the final stage because he has a lower aggregate placing than Valverde for the first five stages. Valverde, of Spain's Movistar team, leaned across the handlebars of his bike and sobbed after winning Saturday's stage from McLaren Vale to the top of Old Willunga Hill, the first time in the race's 14-year history the stage has finished on its highest summit. “This win is for everyone who has supported me during my time off,” Valverde said. “It's a perfect comeback for me.