The Santos Tour Down Under not solely marks begin of the 2025 racing season however can be the primary males’s WorldTour occasion of the season, sparking large curiosity within the riders and the race.
Into its twenty fifth 12 months, the spotlight of the Australian biking summer time will see 20 groups and 140 riders compete for the chief’s ochre jersey throughout 5 days of racing round Adelaide from January 21-26.
The girls’s Tour Down Under will probably be held beforehand, between January 17-19 and these are the principle contenders for his or her race.
While most of the European riders decide to begin their season later within the Middle East or on the Classics, the Tour Down Under nonetheless attracts a number of massive stars of the game to compete for victory, alongside an entire host of younger tremendous skills trying to break by way of.
The key normal classification phases on the route supply up a well-known problem, with a double ascent of the enduring Willunga Hill on the penultimate day, and a brand new check on stage 3 with the introduction of Knott’s Hill. There is sufficient elevation acquire for the general favourites to make a significant time distinction.
The earlier two race winners, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) each return and are total contenders once more. There needs to be a problem from different Australian riders on dwelling soil and among the WorldTour’s finest from Europe.
With these elements in thoughts, these are the Cyclingnews prime favourites to look at on this 12 months’s Tour Down Under.
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Key contenders
While Australians have typically come out on prime on the Tour Down Under, it was a Welshman, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier tech), who took dwelling the ochre jersey in 2024 after an exhilarating 5 days of racing.
Williams moved into the race lead on the penultimate stage to Willinga Hill, regardless of not profitable the day with fellow Brit Oscar Onley simply forward of him, and confirmed his place on the prime by profitable the ultimate stage with a well-time dash at Mount Lofty.
It marked the beginning of the 28-year-old’s career-best season, with an enormous Ardennes win at a hellish version of La Fléche Wallonne coming in April and a dominant victory on dwelling roads following that on the Tour of Britain.
Williams is completely suited to the punchy nature of the course in and round Adelaide and is being backed up by a roster of succesful riders for his title defence.
Both George Bennett and Michael Woods may function as co-leader relying on their kind and IPT will look to win the flatter phases by way of Kiwi sprinter Corbin Strong.
Perhaps the highest favorite flying the flag for Australia will probably be Jayco AlUla’s Luke Plapp.
He’s recent off the again of defending his nationwide time trial title and serving to teammate Luke Durbridge to the nationwide title within the highway race after permitting his compatriot to roll over the road first in his dwelling metropolis Perth.
While Plapp gave up the possibility to win his fourth stint within the inexperienced and gold in a row, he confirmed greater than sufficient kind that ought to make him a key contender for the Tour Down Under.
A brutal crash pressured him to desert final season’s Tour Down Under however Plapp will probably be raring to get one other shot at Willunga Hill and the ochre jersey. At 24 and growing properly as a rider, he’ll be buoyed by his standout GC efficiency final 12 months – sixth at Paris-Nice.
Plapp can depend on loyal help from the brand new Australian champion Durbridge on the approaches to the important thing climbs, with one other dwelling rider Chris Harper and Swiss champion Mauro Schmid for key help when the highway heads uphill.
2023 winner Jay Vine returns to the Tour Down Under in 2025 as one of many key contenders. He’s proven sturdy kind not too long ago with second place on the nationwide championships time trial behind solely Plapp and sixth within the highway race.
While it is two years from his victory in Adelaide, Vine confirmed how his mixture of pure climbing and time-trialling power could possibly be suited to the hilly terrain in South Australia. He did not win a stage on the 2023 race however racked up a profitable margin of 11 seconds due to a trio of top-three stage finishes.
Vine completed 2024 in stable kind, which, contemplating how prolonged his rehabilitation from the spinal damage he suffered within the high-speed Itzulia Basque Country crash was, is sort of exceptional.
At 29 and into his third season with the Emirati workforce, Vine will probably be trying to re-find his absolute peak climbing kind.
He will not be joined initially by the standout UAE performer from final 12 months’s Tour Down Under, Isaac del Toro, however will associate with new teammate and 2024 runner-up Jonathan Narváez. The Ecuadorian joined UAE Team Emirates from Ineos Grenadiers for 2025, including aggression and stage race expertise to the workforce.
Vine and Narváez have an important steadiness of punch and climbing energy, so needs to be effectively in rivalry for victory.
The champion of Willunga Hill from 2024, Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), is coming for one more crack at profitable the Tour Down Under, with the younger Scot trying to attain a fair increased degree after his breakthrough season.
Amid a collection of unfortunate collarbone breaks prior to now two years, Onley has proved himself to be a critical contender in WorldTour one-week stage races. Not solely did he end second in Australia however he backed this up with top-ten finishes on GC on the Tour de Suisse, Tour de Pologne and Tour of Guangxi.
With a correct punch to his climbing, finest proven on stage 5 of final 12 months’s race, Onley will look to rack up bonus seconds and end stronger than he did in 2024, after solely shedding out on the rostrum as a result of a poor last stage.
He’ll have native help from Austrians, Patrick Eddy and Alex Edmondson, with Tobias Lund Andresen main the Dutch workforce within the sprints. Key teammate Chris Hamilton is out after his December coaching camp crash however Onley will probably be an actual risk on this 12 months’s race.
The 2025 TDU carry Onley his first WorldTour total stage race victory.
It’s not solely the Aussies who thrive down underneath, with their fellow Antipodeans from simply throughout the Tasman Sea additionally having fun with their summer time racing schedule. Finn Fisher-Black is of the riders from New Zealand eyeing a prime GC end.
He’s accomplished a transfer away from the congestion of expertise that’s UAE Team Emirates, in quest of extra management alternatives with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. And he is received his want on the first race of the season, taking on the GC mantle for the German workforce.
Fisher-Black has been pushing out some severely spectacular efforts whereas coaching close to Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island, so count on him to be proper up there when the highway ventures uphill sharply on stage 3 and stage 5.
It’s traditionally not been his strongest race, typically discovering his kind later within the 12 months whereas he was at UAE, nevertheless, current feedback from Fisher-Black to Cyclingnews counsel he is raring to get time on his new workforce off to a flying begin.
“Last 12 months, I realised I do have this punch to me which I actually attempt to utilise and I feel, now, I’ve discovered a manner I can win races, and I’m actually attempting to dial into that,” mentioned Fisher-Black.
“For instance, on the Tour Down Under.”
The begin of the brand new season additionally brings the primary race in a brand new chapter for XDS Astana, with their new Chinese sponsor, new bikes and largely modified roster all on present.
It’s an essential race for them within the pursuit of UCI factors to make sure they do not get relegated again to the ProfessionalTeam division subsequent season, in order that they’ll be trying to rating massive within the season opener.
Two of their new riders ought to lead their GC hopes, Italian champion Alberto Bettiol – who joined mid-2024 from EF Education-EasyPost, and Sergio Higuita, who will race within the vibrant new equipment for the primary time on January 21.
Bettiol received the prologue of the 2023 race so has proven January kind prior to now, whereas Higuita is on debut in Australia. However, count on the Colombian to be in respectable form as he tends to be good within the early season together with his nationwide highway race championships typically falling within the first two months of the 12 months.
If Higuita can get near his 2022 season kind, when he received the GC on the Volta a Catalunya and phases on the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Pologne, he needs to be a robust contender. He’ll even have help from proficient puncheur Ide Schelling and New Zealand nationwide champion Aaron Gate who will contest the sprints.
After the worst season of their 15-year historical past, Ineos Grenadiers will probably be in search of a significant bounce again in 2025, beginning on the Tour Down Under the place they’re fielding a robust workforce.
2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas is the headline title on their begin checklist however tends to search out his finest kind later within the 12 months. His final 4 appearances within the Australian stage race have been in help roles for others, together with his one podium end Down Under being from the 2013 version.
However, Ineos have include a number of choices who could possibly be suited to the punchy finishes and battle for bonus seconds throughout the 5 days.
Talented American rider Magnus Sheffield seems the most certainly as a flexible Classics and stage race rider, with a great historical past on the Tour Down Under having completed fourth total on debut in 2023.
Ineos even have former world champion Michał Kwiatkowski as one other punchy choice, with Aussie climber and new signing Lucas Hamilton additionally a possible contender.
Young riders to look at
The Tour Down Under offers the most important groups with the right alternative to get younger riders and neo-pros used to the chaos of WorldTour stage races, with out the strain of the maybe extra prestigious occasions resembling Paris-Nice or the Critérium du Dauphine.
Isaac del Toro was the younger star of final 12 months’s race and there is little doubt that 2025 ought to see an up-and-coming rider do equally, both within the sprints or within the normal classification.
Former junior world champion Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek) is touted as being one of many stars of the long run as a prime multi-discipline expertise. At 18, he’ll be the youngest man within the race throughout his WorldTour debut. Also on Lidl-Trek’s roster is Tim Torn Teutenberg, a sprinter and Classics star of the long run.
Narrowly older than the Dane is Spain’s subsequent climbing sensation, Pablo Torres, who was signed with UAE Team Emirates on a contract till 2030. He’ll doubtless be in help of Vine and Narváez however will probably be intriguing to see the place he stands on Willunga Hill.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s provisional roster for the 5 days incorporates a wealth of younger expertise, notably, 19-year-old Brit Matt Brennan, who could possibly be their choice for the sprints. The Dutch pair of Menno Huising and Tijmen Graat are each climbing skills.
From the house nation’s perspective, two of their prime under-23 skills, Fergus Browning and Zac Marriage will probably be representing the Australian nationwide squad recent off the again of spectacular performances on the nationwide championships.
Watch for them to go in main breakaways earlier than the tremendous skills and WorldTour leaders emerge on the important thing phases.