The first important WorldTour race of the season took place in Australia on January 19–24. The Tour Down Under has been held on the green continent since 1999, and the peloton, escaping Europe’s winter chill, faces its first serious test after the holidays. The home race is a special target for the locals, and they rarely let anyone else leave as the winner: they have won eleven times out of eighteen.
So it was this year too: locals won all six stages of the race and gave nobody the lead in the general classification. Orica-GreenEDGE, the main force of the Greens, worked especially hard. The Orica riders won four stages, two apiece for the rising sprint star Caleb Ewan and Simon Gerrans. Simon added the general classification too and became the year’s first big vincitore!
January 24, 2016
Winner of the 18th Tour Down Under, Australia’s Simon Gerrans of Orica-GreenEDGE
Photo : Yuzuru SUNADA
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.
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