Tour Down Under 2015: preview
Tour Down Under 2015: preview
Adelaide will host the curtain raiser to the 2015 UCI WorldTour when the Santos Tour Down Under gets underway on Tuesday January 20.
Cycling’s 17 WorldTour teams will be joined by Australian squads Drapac and UniSA-Australia for the six-stage race.
Defending champion Simon Gerrans, who was Australian national champion when he won last year, will be absent after the Orica-GreenEdge rider broke his collarbone while riding his mountain bike during the off-season, while 16-time stage winner and two-time overall champion Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) will not race this year.
But in their place are a host of big names hoping to get the season off to the perfect start, including newly-crowned Aussie champion Heinrich Haussler, riding for the WorldTour’s newest team, IAM Cycling.
While the route offers few major headaches for riders, the traditional season opener has become a firm favourite with fans – not least because it ends a winter devoid of competitive road racing.
So who’s in the running at the 2015 Tour Down Under, and where will the race be won and lost? We’ve taken an in-depth look at the race’s history, route and the contenders over the following pages.