Tour Down Under 2025 - Men's (Jan. 21-26)

[Samu Cuenca]

The women do a (rather pointless) one-day race on the same route before the men, that complicates things.

We don't know if that will also be the case next year, and/or if the race will return to being an official pointless criterium. Last year they held it on the same day as stage 3 of the men's race and in '23 they held both criteriums prior to the stage races.

 

[Cookster15]

We don't know if that will also be the case next year, and/or if the race will return to being an official pointless criterium. Last year they held it on the same day as stage 3 of the men's race and in '23 they held both criteriums prior to the stage races.

Men: Drop the criterium, move the queen stage to the final day and add another lumpy stage around stage 3 eg the corkscrew which is a short but very steep climb which was awesome when Evans and Porte were battling it out.

As mentioned upthread logistics and costs for adding a TT into a week long stage race in Australia are problematic.

 

[yaco]

Since the last crit stage is so short, they could probably fit in a 10k ITT in the morning as a 5a stage before finishing with the criterium.

The organisers would never do that as they don't want to be seen as giving an advantage to Aussie riders. A 10km ITT with Vine and Plapp's capability would have changed the race. and Narvaez would neet to put his nose into the wind.

 

[yaco]

We don't know if that will also be the case next year, and/or if the race will return to being an official pointless criterium. Last year they held it on the same day as stage 3 of the men's race and in '23 they held both criteriums prior to the stage races.

The race will return and keeps its status as a 1.1 race. At the men's race they should change the pre-race ( men's) to a 1.1 race as some tours have done in the last few years.

 

[ingsve]

The organisers would never do that as they don't want to be seen as giving an advantage to Aussie riders. A 10km ITT with Vine and Plapp's capability would have changed the race. and Narvaez would neet to put his nose into the wind.

That's some backwards thinking. If you change the parcours then it would change what riders teams decide to send as well. You'd see more ITT riders on the start list.

 

[yaco]

That's some backwards thinking. If you change the parcours then it would change what riders teams decide to send as well. You'd see more ITT riders on the start list.

It's not backward thinking. Narvaez would have been forced to put his nose in the wind to get back any deficit in an ITT. You say more ITT riders would attend which is possible, however, Vine and Plapp would hold their own in the ITT. I think if the organisers want an Aussie winner, so give them an opportunity. It would also mean the result is less reliant on bonus seconds.

 

[ingsve]

It's not backward thinking. Narvaez would have been forced to put his nose in the wind to get back any deficit in an ITT. You say more ITT riders would attend which is possible, however, Vine and Plapp would hold their own in the ITT. I think if the organisers want an Aussie winner, so give them an opportunity. It would also mean the result is less reliant on bonus seconds.

It's backwards thinking because you are presupposing a fight between Plapp, Vine and Narvaez which is the wrong way to start thinking of it. One should instead start by defining the competition and then whoever wants to show up for the race shows up. There are lots of riders who are currently not attending who might suddenly want to attend. Perhaps even Remco would want an early season trip to Australia or else you have the likes of Ganna, Küng, McNulty, Affini, Bissegger, Ayuso, Armirail, Arensman, Vauquelin, Foss, Campenaerts, Segaert etc etc who might suddenly choose to attend.

 

[Cookster15]

I think if the organisers want an Aussie winner, so give them an opportunity. It would also mean the result is less reliant on bonus seconds.

I hope this isn't the case. It would be small minded thinking and detract from the TDU's cred. I mean we had Jan Ullrich winning races in Australia before he won the Tour. Nobody in Oz cared that those races were won by a German. In fact it added credibility to Australian racing.

 

[yaco]

I hope this isn't the case. It would be small minded thinking and detract from the TDU's cred. I mean we had Jan Ullrich winning races in Australia before he won the Tour. Nobody in Oz cared that those races were won by a German. In fact it added credibility to Australian racing.

You only do it if the Aussie rider is good enough which is not every year.. For example you would not do it for O'Connor or Hindley.

PS; They included a prologue in 2023 which lead to Vine's victory.

 

[tobydawq]

You only do it if the Aussie rider is good enough which is not every year.. For example you would not do it for O'Connor or Hindley.

PS; They included a prologue in 2023 which lead to Vine's victory.

Not because Vine was a good TTer though, he just happened to not ride in the rain...

 

[yaco]

Not because Vine was a good TTer though, he just happened to not ride in the rain...

Vine made 12 seconds on Yates in the Prologue. The winning margin was 11 seconds.

 

[Cookster15]

Vine made 12 seconds on Yates in the Prologue. The winning margin was 11 seconds.

That is coincidence. It still doesn't mean TDU organizers wanted an Aussie winner. I am still unconvinced that TDU organizers would want to make an Aussie winner no matter who it was.

 

[Unchained]

That is coincidence. It still doesn't mean TDU organizers wanted an Aussie winner. I am still unconvinced that TDU organizers would want to make an Aussie winner no matter who it was.

I agree with this ...and Cycling News has a question as part of the story title.. Is the TDU hard enough for WT? Obviously not.
Regardless the TDU is a good race, because it's so easy it's double dangerous, with second element being first race of the season!!
Sam Welsford doesn't need to play the lottery, he crashed everyday and instead of injury, he got race wins and minor road rash!! Lucky, lucky guy!!

 

[yaco]

That is coincidence. It still doesn't mean TDU organizers wanted an Aussie winner. I am still unconvinced that TDU organizers would want to make an Aussie winner no matter who it was.

The organisers couldn't lose. Aussie winner and second-represented an Aussie team. At the end of the day you need the riders to win to suit the course and this will not happen every year.