Paris (AFP)
The WorldTour season begins with the Tour Down Under, Tuesday near Adelaide, in a country ravaged by gigantic fires without the long cycle race of six stages being threatened.
If the Adelaide region was hit by fire, the roads were mostly spared according to the runners who carried out the training. Most of the teams have arrived a week ago but several foreign runners, notably Romain Bardet ("I take the race as the end of a training block", warned the Frenchman), settled earlier in order to benefit from the southern summer conditions.
As usual, the riders from the southern hemisphere start favorites in an event the last two editions of which went to the South African Daryl Impey, for the Australian team Mitchelton. Impey will be present and will team up with Briton Simon Yates, the winner of the 2018 Vuelta, while the world time trial champion, Australian Rohan Dennis, will lead the Ineos formation.
Benefiting from the addition of a second uphill finish (at Paracombe), in addition to the climb to Willunga where it has already won six times, the Australian Richie Porte (Trek) will be one of the men to beat.
"This year it will be more for climbers. I chose not to participate in the national championships, I spent two months in Tasmania training and I feel ready for the season," said Porte (winner) in 2017 and four times 2nd), who will have with him the reigning world champion, the Danish Mads Pedersen.
The sprinters, who take the lion's share in the stages of the Down Under, came in number. For the Australian Caleb Ewan, the Italian Elia Viviani, the Irishman Sam Bennett, the Belgian Jasper Philipsen and some others (Sarreau, Halvorsen, Nizzolo, Greipel) it is also the first confrontation.
Steps:
Tuesday: 1st stage Tanunda - Tanunda, 150 km
Wednesday: 2nd stage Woodside - Stirling, 135 km
Thursday: 3rd stage Unley - Paracombe, 131 km
Friday: 4th stage Norwood - Murray Bridge, 152 km
Saturday: 5th stage Glenelg - Victor Harbor, 149 km
Sunday: 6th stage McLaren Vale - Willunga Hill, 151 km
© 2020 AFP