Europe could be the dwelling of the WorldTour however every year the highlight shifts to the fully totally different time zone and climate, heading to Australia for a southern hemisphere begin to the season.
In 2026 the place of the block of racing down below because the entrenched season starter for the 12 months of WorldTour racing has solely been strengthened by new guidelines that imply a WorldTeam can solely miss one top-tier occasion a season. Meaning extra groups than ever might be out to tackle the Australian block, combining the WorldTour occasions of the Tour Down Underneath and Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race for women and men, with another ProSeries races added in too.
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Australian Highway Nationwide Championships – The locals get to play
Time trials – Wednesday, January 7 and Thursday, January 8Criteriums – Friday, January 9Road races – Saturday, January 10 and Sunday, January 11
The opening act of the Australian season will play out in Perth for a second 12 months, with the Westbridge Funds Highway Nationwide Championships a uncommon alternative for the home riders to place their prowess on show towards the returning WorldTour professionals. As such lots of the hopefuls put all of it on the road to be in prime type for January, chasing performances to open doorways to the WorldTour however there might be no presents from those that have already handed by means of them, not given the pleasure of a nationwide title is at stake.
The race towards the clock opens up competitors, taking part in out on a 9.8km route in Daring Park with a comparatively flat begin and a hairpin flip. The elite ladies tackle three laps and the elite males 4.
Brodie Chapman (UAE Group ADQ) and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) might be on the beginning line to defend their time trial titles however neither have the posh of taking one other 12 months in inexperienced and gold as a right. Plapp’s greatest rival on paper is 2023 nationwide champion Jay Vine (UAE Group Emirates-XRG) whereas Chapman has a cautious eye on quite a lot of gamers, notably 20-year-old Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Lidl-Trek) if the 2023 junior world time trial champion decides to throw her hat into the elite ring.
After the time trial, it is time for the quick finishers to chase their likelihood on a 1.2km criterium course in Northbridge with six corners each lap. Within the 50 minutes plus two laps elite and U23 ladies’s criterium, Amber Pate (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) might be chasing her third nationwide title in a row. Within the elite males’s criterium of 70 minutes plus two laps, Sam Welsford delivered a well-liked home-town win in 2025 and this 12 months he’ll be lining as much as see if he can ship one other in his first outing in Ineos Grenadiers colors.
After the criteriums have performed out Luke Durbridge (Jayco-AlUla) and Lucinda Stewart (Liv-AlUla-Jayco Continental Group) will step into Sunday’s street races because the elite defending champions, although they are going to be dealing with an unpredictable battle on the 13.6km circuit that twists its means by means of Kings Park and sweeps by the Swan River earlier than hitting the CBD. The punchy course final 12 months caught many off guard, with each Durbridge and Stewart winners from the early break however there will be no excuses given it’s now the second 12 months operating that the course will host the nationwide title chase.
Jayco-AlUla might be a very arduous outfit to beat within the 177km elite males’s race, with Ben O’Connor becoming a member of the fray for a home-town title chase. That leaves them within the enviable place of holding three of the highest playing cards as after all in addition they have the 2022-2024 winner of the elite street race title, Plapp. Australia’s solely WorldTour staff additionally presents a compelling case within the 109km ladies’s elite and U23 street race, as together with Stewart they’ve 2024 winner Ruby Roseman-Gannon lining up on the course that ought to swimsuit her capacity to ship a quick end after getting over the punchy climbs.
Tour Down Underneath
Ladies’s Tour Down Underneath – Saturday, January 17 to Monday, January 19Men’s Tour Down Underneath – Tuesday, January 20 to Sunday, January 25Women’s one-day race – Wednesday, January 21
South Australia has firmly established itself as the standard WorldTour opener, the place new tools and equipment is launched within the searing sunshine of the southern hemisphere summer time.
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This 12 months, too, for the primary time there seems to be set to be a full contingent of Ladies’s WorldTour groups, delivering a robust record of starters and an opportunity for native followers to see groups which have been beforehand absent from the roster, with SD Worx-Protime historically essentially the most notable absence.
The three-stage 395km ladies’s Santos Tour Down Underneath will kick off the proceedings in Willunga on Saturday, January 17 and conclude with a fiery stage to Campbelltown that features two ascents of the Corkscrew climb. There seems to be set to be robust competitors for the race winner’s ochre jersey as, on prime of the complete roster of groups, final 12 months’s runner-up Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and the rider that beat her to the highest spot, Noemi Rüegg (EF Training-Oatly) have each been confirmed, as has her teammate, world champion Magdeleine Vallieres. Mavi García and Brodie Chapman might additionally show a formidable mixture for UAE Group ADQ.
The lads’s Santos Tour Down Underneath then begins with a brief and sharp prologue on Tuesday, January 20, which is able to make sure that the GC battle begins early. Defending champion Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Group ADQ-XRG) is on the beginning record however the staff even have 2023 winner Jay Vine on the squad so there isn’t a query it is going to be a tricky mixture to beat. Although this 12 months it is usually clear Jayco-AlUla might be doing its utmost to recapture the house race, bringing Ben O’Connor to Adelaide for an early season GC outing. Then there may be new Ineos Grenadiers rider Sam Welsford, who’s certain to be one to look at within the sprints, strolling away with three stage wins the final two years.
Whereas the boys’s Tour Down Underneath is starting to unfold the ladies even have a one-day race, run over 12 laps of an 8.5km circuit. The UCI ProSeries degree race takes place after the conclusion of the boys’s stage 1 on Wednesday, January 21.
Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race
Ladies’s Surf Coast Traditional – Wednesday, January 28Men’s Surf Coast Traditional – Thursday, January 29Women’s Mapei Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race – Saturday, January 31Men’s Mapei Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race – Sunday, February 1
The Mapei Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race is an enormous beneficiary of the brand new rule which permits WorldTour groups to solely miss one top-tier race a season – and it will possibly’t be the identical race greater than as soon as in a three-year cycle – for each the ladies’s and males’s subject. Whereas quite a lot of the ladies’s groups did not make it out to Australia for both the South Australian or Victorian occasions, beforehand the boys’s Tour Down Underneath had been a compulsory attendance race for the boys although the newer Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race was not. That meant some males’s groups beforehand headed again to Europe straight after the South Australian tour however that is not the case anymore. Meaning there might be among the deepest fields seen for the WorldTour racing from Geelong in 2026 throughout each the ladies’s and males’s race.
Earlier than these occasions get underway, although, there are the ProSeries ranked ladies’s and males’s Surf Coast Traditional to play out. The climb earlier than the end line in Torquay makes it a great alternative for the sprinters with the flexibility to hold on when the street turns as much as seize an early season win and the factors stash for his or her staff that goes with it.
The primary recreation, nonetheless, will unfold on Saturday and Sunday as riders roll the cube in what’s all the time an unpredictable one-day WorldTour race with a gruelling Classics-style course the place winds can mix with the carrying climbs of the ending circuit.
Begin lists aren’t out but so its not but confirmed that the 2025 winner of each the Surf Coast Traditional and Saturday’s WorldTour race Ally Wollaston (FDJ United-Suez) might be on the beginning line but it surely appears a given contemplating her presence on the Tour Down Underneath, her defending standing, and that its as shut because the rider from New Zealand will get to a house race. She’ll have a goal on her again within the race which frequently finishes with a stretched out subject and dash from a small group however that does not essentially imply that her rivals will have the ability to discover a strategy to beat her over the road if she comes again with the shape that took her to the highest step of the 145km race in 2025.
It additionally appears that Mauro Schmid (Jayco-Alula) might be again to defend his title a the 186km males’s race, given he’s on the Tour Down Underneath begin record, and the second-placed Aaron Gate (XDS-Astana) was definitely hopeful that he’d be again when Cyclingnews spoke to him on the finish of final season.
Nonetheless, one factor revealed by the historical past of this race is that the winner one 12 months is much from a great indicator of who might be on the highest step the subsequent. For the reason that males’s occasion began in 2015 there hasn’t been a single victor that has managed to repeat the feat. 2024 winner Laurence Pithie (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is the rider who has come closest, having been again on the rostrum with third in 2025, so he’ll definitely be a rider to look at. Simon Clarke (NSN Biking Group) can even be within the highlight regardless of the result as he might be bringing his profession to an in depth on the occasion that’s named after his shut buddy and the place he has twice stood on the rostrum.
Cyclingnews is on the bottom for the season-opening 2026 Tour Down Underneath, and a subscription provides you limitless entry to our unrivalled protection. From breaking information and evaluation to unique interviews and tech, we have got you coated as the brand new season will get underway in Australia. Discover out extra
