Tour Down Under 2026 (Men's, Jan. 20-25)

[Ilmaestro99]

V$ne was training at altitude at Andorra in November for these races (nationals, TDU, UAE tour). Just a different level of dominance you can have as a super team like UAE, where you can have all your riders peak and be flying for different races. No wonder Simon yates ragequit the sport.

 

[Netserk]

grande v$ne!!!!!!!!!!

feared they would hold him down as jonny sprinted across

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Great power demonstration from the UAE guys, Vine in particular looked sublime.

That's fair. Vine looked completely at ease and in control while Narvaez was huffing and puffing just to keep up with him. Had Vine not been tending to Narvaez on Corkscrew he would have done even better!

 

[Potomac]

my stream froze at the end of the race.

 

[perico]

Finally my first chance to watch a stage.

Ligget and McEwan commentating...I love it

People can say what they want about Phil, but if you pair with someone like Robbie, he can still be great to listen to.

 

[pastronef]

never seen Narvaez suffer this much. he held on to Vine's wheel by the skin of his teeth

 

[James M]

Utter domination. Narvaez so versatile, and when he can climb this well already with Vine at those watt, looking good for Narvaez this year. Vine is just money, he ended last year on a good note, which is a sign of what to come.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

This is going to be the most boring year for cycling, ever.

 

[SafeBet]

This is going to be the most boring year for cycling, ever.

Until next year.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Tours over already that’s what I’ve heard.

 

[Netserk]

Until next year.

hallelujah

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Until next year.

Fair point

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Tours over already that’s what I’ve heard.

Barring a giant meteor. I'm rooting for the meteor for various reasons.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Stage 3:

Will UAE even care to win this stage? Yates maybe.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Van Eetvelt crashed apparently (of course when does he not), there were a lot of crashes i heard so could be that others were involved too. 4 of 7 Lotto riders went down today.

This comes as a surprise to me because besides a few nature breaks I was pretty much glued to the TV and no crashes were mentioned. But you're correct, both Van Eetvelt and Rutsch were involved in a crash. Rutsch is already out and Van Eetvelt's continued participation is up in the air.

Lotto-Intermarché unlucky Down Under: Van Eetvelt and Rutsch in hospital after crash, German rider out of race

What a rough start to 2026 for Lotto-Intermarché. The Belgian outfit had already suffered a fair amount of bad luck — including knee problems for Arnaud De Lie and Milan Menten — but a new setback str...

www.idlprocycling.com

 

[Unchained]

Utter domination. Narvaez so versatile, and when he can climb this well already with Vine at those watt, looking good for Narvaez this year. Vine is just money, he ended last year on a good note, which is a sign of what to come.

UAE really divides races as good as any team, you could see that there was lots of confusion, yes you have to mark Narvaez but you can't ignore Vine and you can't ignore if Jay all the way is the play. As Trike points out, Narv looks to be laboring a bit, huffing and puffing a little. Vine's leg speed looked excellent.

 

[Cookster15]

Couldn't watch the stage live but obviously a dominant performance by UAE yesterday. Narvaez, the rider who launched Pogi to victory on Hautacam, doing his stuff in Australia.

Hard to see Vine losing the race after that outcome - 1'05" on Mauro Smidt! He's in good shape didn't look hammered after the finish.

 

[CPT. Z]

It was nice to see Natnael Tesfatsion finish in the chasing group (6th). He's always lurking in sprinty stages: to see him climb so well gives me hope that he will get some decent results this year.

 

[Netserk]

Narvaez, the rider who launched Pogi to victory on Hautacam, doing his stuff in Australia.

he did nothing but desperately hang on

 

[James M]

he did nothing but desperately hang on

Which is still impressive for someone as versatile as Narvaez this early in the season taking the numbers into consideration. 7.8w/kg ish.

UAE really divides races as good as any team, you could see that there was lots of confusion, yes you have to mark Narvaez but you can't ignore Vine and you can't ignore if Jay all the way is the play. As Trike points out, Narv looks to be laboring a bit, huffing and puffing a little. Vine's leg speed looked excellent.

Sure, but above all the talent-level discrepancy between UAE and every other team in roster quality 20+man deep and depth isnt comparable. UAE is operating in a different stratosphere from everyone there, which helps in that regard to be fair.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Stage 3:

Will UAE even care to win this stage? Yates maybe.

Just to add to the profile refresher, so far PCS is listing only Rutsch as a DNS for today's stage. So unless something happens later (or PCS is wrong), Van Eetvelt will be continuing his journey Down Under. Don't know how badly banged up he is though, so won't be putting my Monopoly money on him even if he does start.

 

[Breh]

This is going to be the most boring year for cycling, ever.

I honestly could see UAE ending up with only 1 of the WT 1week races this year, Swiss races not included.

They will have to rely on Del Toro and Almeida vs Evenepoel, Ayuso, Roglic, Vingegaard,... and I'm not sure they will comfortably beat the competition.
There is fierce competition scheduled for all the 1week races.

Pog himself is doing a limited amount of races, likely only reducing LBL and Strade to a snoozefest.

They weren't that great in the spring classics and they've lost Ayuso compared to last year.

I'm a glass half full kinda guy

 

[pastronef]

This comes as a surprise to me because besides a few nature breaks I was pretty much glued to the TV and no crashes were mentioned. But you're correct, both Van Eetvelt and Rutsch were involved in a crash. Rutsch is already out and Van Eetvelt's continued participation is up in the air.

Lotto-Intermarché unlucky Down Under: Van Eetvelt and Rutsch in hospital after crash, German rider out of race

What a rough start to 2026 for Lotto-Intermarché. The Belgian outfit had already suffered a fair amount of bad luck — including knee problems for Arnaud De Lie and Milan Menten — but a new setback str...

www.idlprocycling.com

could they just please fold, delete the name of the owning company. get new people now sponsor, new everything and restart from scratch. I think that team is cursed (the curse comes from Lotto)

 

[Unchained]

Which is still impressive for someone as versatile as Narvaez this early in the season taking the numbers into consideration. 7.8w/kg ish.


Sure, but above all the talent-level discrepancy between UAE and every other team in roster quality 20+man deep and depth isnt comparable. UAE is operating in a different stratosphere from everyone else in that regard, which helps in that part to be fair.

Couldn't disagree more strongly, starting with Narvaez, guy was good and mismanaged at Ineos, now his season is divided into logical segments and UAE have him ready to shine in late January, bunch of teams at this race are pack fill at GTs.
There are teams that should have TDU and UAE tour as their season everything, having entire team peaking in late January to March, target early races where Visma, UAE, Ineos, Alpecin don't send their best. Have no idea why teams insist on going to races were they have no chance, address reality not make believe. If you prepared and sent a professional bike team to Australia, 3rd week of January and nobody, not anyone can go with Narvaez and Vine on second stage you should call Lotto- Intermarchie and ask about an additional merger, if your riders are not ready now, A year wasn't enough to prepare for Narvaez, hang it up, deliver pizza or Chinese food, go to barber college. Become a landscaper or florist, make up artist,
I still can't get over #1 bib number, last years winner going after flat bonus sprint, early in the race and nobody either cared or were ready or both, disgraceful. What team director with any tactical sense would give anything, easy, free to UAE? Teams saying let's give UAE an early advantage and that's a good idea, a sound plan? Australian national team gets free pass everyone else should be humiliated