Like every year, the Santos Tour Down Under will launch the WorldTour calendar in 2025. Between tradition and novelty, the route of this 25th edition taking place over six days (from January 21 to 26) and over 1,198 kilometers in South Australia is quite exciting. The runners will start from Prospect, for a first stage probably reserved for sprinters. The latter will have to battle during the 2nd and 4th stages, steeper, to have the opportunity to shine before the last day and the final arrival in Adelaide. The two big days during which the general classification will be at stake will take place Thursday and Saturday. Note of course the presence of the legendary Willunga Hill (3km at 7.4%) during the 5th stage, but also something new with the arrival at Uraidla during the 3rd stage, with the terrible climb of Knotts Hill (2 .6km at 7.5%) in the final and its passages at more than 22%.
Video – The Villawood Men's Classic on Saturday, as a preamble to TDU 2025
Williams, Narvaez, Onley, Welsford… the same headliners as in 2024?
This 2025 edition therefore seems once again to be offered to the best punchers who will have made the trip to Australia, starting with the title holder in person, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech). After his superb success last year, the Briton more than confirmed in 2024 by winning The Walloon Arrow and the Tour of Britain and comes forward as the big favorite to try to imitate Daryl Impeythe only rider in the history of the event to have retained his title in 2018 and 2019. Respectively 2nd and 4th in the previous edition, Jhonatan Narváez – under its new colorsUAE Team Emirates XRG – et Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) hope to take their revenge and should once again be among the main protagonists.
To these three big favorites, we must add – even if we must always be wary of everyone's state of form at the very start of the season – the names of outsiders like Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Mauro Schmid, Luke Plapp (Team Jayco-AlUla), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates XRG), William Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step), Damien Howson (Australia), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Lukas Nerurkar (EF Education-EasyPost), Cristian Rodriguez (ARKEA-B&B HOTELS), Ion Izagirre (Courtesy), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Geraint Thomas or even Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers). A dense list which promises a great show and an open race.
The field of sprinters is not to be outdone, with a Sam Welsford (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) back on the land of his exploit, he who was untouchable last January and had achieved a hat-trick. But to do this he will have to dominate other very good finishers like Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) or Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), and monitor fast runners like Tobias Lund Andresen (Team Picnic PostNL), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek) or even Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty).
The route of the 25th Santos Tour Down Under (January 21-26)
– Tuesday January 21 – Step 1 : Prospect – Gumeracha / 150.7 km (departure at 1:40 a.m., arrival around 5:51 a.m. – French times)
– Wednesday January 22 – Step 2 : Tanunda – Tanunda / 128.8 km (departure at 1:40 a.m., arrival around 4:57 a.m. – French times)
– Thursday January 23 – Step 3 : Norwood – Uraidla / 147.5 km (departure at 1:40 a.m., arrival around 5:30 a.m. – French times)
– Friday January 24 – Step 4 : Glenelg – Victor Harbor / 157.2 km (departure at 1:40 a.m., arrival around 5:51 a.m. – French times)
– Saturday January 25 – Step 5 : McLaren Vale – Willunga Hill / 145.7 km (departure at 1:40 a.m., arrival around 5:23 a.m. – French times)
– Sunday January 26 – Step 6 : Adelaide – Adelaide / 90 km (departure at 4:00 a.m., arrival around 7:30 a.m. – French times)
The starting list
Israel-Premier Tech
1 Williams Stephen
2 Bennett George
3 Clarke Simon
4 Pier-André side
5 Schultz Nick
6 Strong Corbin
7 Woods Michael
Team Jayco-AlUla
11 Plapp Lucas
12 Durbridge Luke
13 Harper Chris
14 Hepburn Michael
15 O’Brien Kelland
16 Schmid Mauro
17 Stewart Campbell
Bahrain Victorious
21 Bauhaus Phil
22 Arndt Nikias
23 Ermakov Roman
24 Eulalio Afonso
25 Easter greetings Mathijs
26 Skerl Daniel
27 Stannard Robert
UAE Team Emirates XRG
31 Vine Jay
32 Herregodts Rune
33 Johansen Julius
34 Narvaez Jhonatan
35 Oliveira Rui
36 Soler Marc
37 Pablo Torres
Soudal Quick-Step
41 Unicorn Pascal
42 Serry Pieter
43 Raccagni Noviero Andrea
44 Casper Pedersen
45 Mushrooms Antoine
46 Knox James
47 Lecerf William Junior
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
51 Lapeira Paul
52 Bouchard Geoffrey
53 Dorian's inheritance
54 Isidore Noah
55 Labrosse Jordan
56 Tronchon Bastien
57 Vendrame Andrea
Intermarché-Wanty
61 Busatto Francesco
62 De Pooter Dries
63 Marit Arne
64 Paquot Tom
65 Smith Dion
66 van der Hoorn Taco
67 Carpenter George
INEOS Grenadiers
71 Hamilton Lucas
72 Kwiatkowski Michal
73 Sheffield Magnus
74 Swift Ben
75 Swift Connor
76 Thomas Geraint
77 Watson Sam
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
81 Welsford Sam
82 Fisher-Black Finn
83 Maciejuk Filip
84 Mullen Ryan
85 Pithie Laurence
86 van Poppel Danny
87 Zwiehoff Ben
Team Picnic PostNL
91 Lund Andresen Tobias
92 van den Berg Julius
93 Eddy Patrick
94 Edmondson Alex
95 Leemreize Gijs
96 Onley Oscar
97 Koerdt Bjoern
You trust
101 Coquard Bryan
102 Herrada Jesus
103 Izagirre Ion
104 Mahoudo Nolann
105 Maas Jan
106 Ourselin Paul
107 Renard Alexis
ARKEA-B&B HOTELS
111 Rodriguez Cristian
112 Epis Giosue
113 Grondin Donavan
114 Rouland Louis
115 Scotson Miles
116 Jøtta Martin
117 Verres Alexander
Movistar Team
121 Carlos Channel
122 Moro Manlio
123 Mühlberger Gregor
124 Norsgaard Mathias Sunekær
125 Fisherman Diego
126 Tesfazion Natnael
127 Romo Javier
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
131 from Baarle Dylan
132 by Belle Loe
133 Brennan Matthew
134 Gloag Thomas
135 Graat Tijmen
136 Housing Menno
137 Vermote Julien
EF Education-EasyPost
141 Chaves Esteban
142 Todome Yuhi
143 Nerurkar Lukas
144 Van Der Lee Jardi
145 Beloki Markel
146 Walker Max
147 Mackellar Alexander
Alpecin-Deceuninck
151 Bavarian Tobias
152 Above Lars
153 Debruyne Ramses
154 Dehairs Simon
155 Glivar Gal
156 Uhlig Henri
157 Van den Bossche Fabio
XDS Astana Team
161 Bettiol Alberto
162 Conci Nicola
163 Gate Aaron
164 Lopez Martin
165 Mulubrhan Henok
166 Schelling Ide
167 Higuita Sergio
Lidl-Trek
171 Teutenberg Tim Torn
172 Lopez Juan Pedro
173 Mollema Bauke
174 Mosca Jacopo
175 Withen Philipsen Albert
176 Konrad Patrick
177 Bagioli Andrea
Groupama-FDJ
181 Askey Lewis
182 Bystrøm Sven Erik
183 Davy Clement
184 Le Huitouze Eddy
185 Pacher Quentin
186 Rochas Rémy
187 Walls Matthew
Australia
191 Howson Damien
192 Scott Cameron
193 Marriage Zac
194 Browning Fergus
195 Porter Rudy
196 Oliver Bleddyn
197 Walsh Liam
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