The First Jersey of the 2018 WorldTour

The time cycling fans have been longing for is beginning. Today in Adelaide, Australia, the men’s UCI WorldTour got under way. There, as part of the Santos Tour Down Under multi-day race, a short sprint stage known as the People’s Choice Classic was held today.

The 50.6-kilometer race consisted of 22 laps of a 2.3-kilometer circuit around Adelaide’s Park 15 (Ityamai-itpinna).

A noticeable rise on the finishing stretch promised a powerful sprint. Even a naked-eye glance at the start lists of the participating teams made that all the more likely.

In the peloton, after all, were the absolutely unique three-time consecutive world champion Peter Sagan and two outstanding star sprint specialists, Germany’s André Greipel and Australia’s Caleb Ewan. There was no shortage of versatile sprinters either.

 

 

Holding a race on such a small circuit attracts ever greater interest from fans. The short distance and intermediate sprints every five laps make it visually appealing.

However, the race followed the classic script under the full control of the sprinters’ teams. All the main protagonists reached the final sprint more or less unscathed, and in an all-out battle the first jersey for the winner of the season’s first race went to world champion Peter Sagan!

 

 

The day after tomorrow, the Tour’s first stage will also start from Adelaide’s port.

 

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uoedfs37sLY[/youtube]

 

Let’s wish the world peloton a safe journey! All the more so since today’s race was not spared a dangerous crash.

 

 

 

 

Featured image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

Inside post thumbnail image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

 

Special thanks to the Japanese photographer Yuzuru SUNADA for permission to use his works in our publications.

 

 

 

 

Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.