{"id":7446,"date":"2025-01-16T12:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T11:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2025-01-20T12:25:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T11:25:39","slug":"many-favourites-in-2025-season-opener-the-santos-tour-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/01\/16\/many-favourites-in-2025-season-opener-the-santos-tour-down-under\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Favourites in 2025 Season Opener, the Santos Tour Down Under"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 road racing season kicks off on Friday in Australia with the women\u2019s Santos Tour Down Under, with the men hitting the road on Tuesday in an intriguing race in which at least a dozen riders have a realistic chance at winning the title, at least on paper.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s race consists of three stages that are really one-day classics in disguise, with lots of lumps, including some serious short but very steep climbs that should reward the fittest and the strongest rider in the peloton.<\/p>\n

The decision will likely be made on Saturday\u2019s stage 2, 115 km from Unley to Willunga Hill, which was the stage 3 finish line last year and on which Sarah Gigante made her winning move. It\u2019s only 3.4 km long but has an average gradient of 7,4%, maxing out at 15.6% \u2013 and it will be climbed twice this year. The first ascent should create gaps as well as a breakaway group that will likely contain the winner. It’s on the second climb that all heck will break out and the race winner should come to the fore.<\/p>\n

I say this because Sunday\u2019s 105.9 km stage 3 consists of a loop that will be ridden five-and-a-half times, starting and ending in Stirling. The only bumps in this course will not challenge the Willunga Hill winner but it has a tricky uphill finish that could dissuade the fast riders and reward a puncheur.<\/p>\n

With Gigante not participating this year, I really, really like Justine Ghekhiere (AG Insurance\u2013Soudal) to win this race. The 28-year-old Belgian won the mountain classification jersey in both the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift<\/a> and the Giro d\u2019Italia Women last year and should have a big enough lead after stage 2 to resist the inevitable challenges from faster riders in the final stage.<\/p>\n

The big challenges to her should come from two Canyon\/\/SRAM riders, the 22-year-old Neve Bradbury, who finished third in this race last year, and the American Chlo\u00e9 Dygert, who finished second in last year\u2019s world championship road race and third in the ITT and just might be a good enough climber to minimise her losses on Willunga Hill and roar to victory in Stirling. Whoever wins, it should make for a thrilling season opener.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s race consists of six stages, the first five containing the short, steep climbs of a spring Classics race. Stage 6 is flat and should come down to a bunch-sprint finish. Wednesday\u2019s stage 3, 147.5 km from Norwood to Uraidla, has a category 1 climb, the Norton Summit (7.9 km @ 4%), at the beginning and a tricky category 2, the Pound Reserve (2.7 km @ 7.8%), that will make for an early test for the GC rivals. But as in the women\u2019s race, the decision should come at the end of the penultimate stage, atop Willunga Hill.<\/p>\n

\"2024<\/a>
The men\u2019s 2025 race consists of six stages.\u00a0\u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess who will win the race. The contenders include last year\u2019s winner, Stevie Williams\u00a0(Israel\u2013Premier Tech), Dylan van Baarle (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike), Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez (both UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG),\u00a0 Australian Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla), who is this year\u2019s Australian ITT champion and road race runner-up, and, last but certainly not least, everyone\u2019s sentimental favourite, Geraint Thomas<\/a> (INEOS Grenadiers), riding in his final season.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s only a half-dozen potential winners but still enough to make for an intriguing and suspenseful race. I\u2019m leaning toward Narv\u00e1ez who, as an INEOS Grenadiers rider, won last year\u2019s one-day Down Under Classic and eight days later finished second behind Williams in this race by only 9 seconds. He\u2019s got the legs and the drive and will want to make an impression on his new team and new road boss, Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

But enough talk. Wave the flag and let the season begin!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2025 road racing season kicks off on Friday in Australia with the women\u2019s Santos Tour Down Under, with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":7537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-7446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"\nMany Favourites in the 2025 Santos Tour Down Under<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/01\/16\/many-favourites-in-2025-season-opener-the-santos-tour-down-under\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Many Favourites in 2025 Season Opener, the Santos Tour Down Under\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2025 road racing season kicks off on Friday in Australia with the women\u2019s Santos Tour Down Under, with the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/01\/16\/many-favourites-in-2025-season-opener-the-santos-tour-down-under\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - 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