Tour Down Under

Road racing is finally underway again with the Tour Down Under marking the start of the 2026 road racing season.

The women's race took place from the 17th to the 19th of January and consisted of three hilly stages. The stages saw two different riders taking wins with Ally Wollaston wining the first stage in a bunch sprint ahead of Josie Nelson and Femke Gerritse and going on to win the second in the same fashion ahead of Neomi Ruegg. The third and last stage was won by Neomi Ruegg who finished 1 second ahead of the spanish trio Mavi Garcia and Paula Blasi. This led to her taking the overall GC by 11 seconds, the points classification was won by Ally Wollaston, QOM by Paula Blasi and the youth classification went to Justyna Czapla, the best team of the race was UAE Team ADQ.

The men's race started on the 20th with a 3.6km TT as the prologue, the first stage was on the 21st. The prologue was won by Samuel Watson of INEOS Grenadiers by less than a second. The first stage came down to a bunch sprint with Tobias Lund Andresen winning for Decathlon CMA CGM Team and taking the GC lead, the favourites for the stage finished just behind, Matthew Brennan, Sam Welsford and Danny Van Poppel finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. The second stage was a decisive day for the GC contenders as Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narvaez went clear on the final climb and had a lead of 58 seconds when they crossed the line. Stage 3 was another sprinters stage with Sam Welsford taking the stage honours, no changes on GC. The last two stages were for the sprinters with number 4 going to Ethan Vernon after being shortened due to safety and the last stage went to Matthew Brennan.

Classifications:

General: Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates - XRG)

Points: Tobais Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM Team)

Mountains: Martin Urianstad Bugge (Uno-X Mobility)

Youth: Andrea Raccagni Noviero (Soudal Quick-Step)

Team: Team Jayco AlUla