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Critically, it’s mostly flat.
As for the course, here’s what the riders can expect: some technical bits, basically and some bits to get a good turn of speed on:
“The prologue starts near the Tour village with a straight stretch down Wakefield Street before a right turn into East terrace after 1.1km and then another left, right and then left hand turn in quick succession before a sharp left and two hairpin turns before riders can complete the run through to the finish line at Victoria Park.”
If you’re wondering, the last time there was a prologue in the Tour Down Under was back in 2023, also in Adelaide. That was almost twice the length though, 5.5 kilometres, with the win going to Italy’s Alberto Bettiol, taking advantage of dry roads early on to beat the favourites who later started in the rain. You can read the CN report about that here.
Alberto Bettiol wins a wet prologue at the Tour Down Under
First rider down the start ramp in Adelaide will be Austria’s Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Premier Tech)
“The winds should ease through the evening with the current gust speed of 26 knots expected to drop to around 18 knots by the time Jay Vine, the last rider out, is heading to the line.”
Current weather conditions are, according to CN’s reporter on the ground Simone Giuliani, as follows: “It may be stretching into the evening in Adelaide but the sun still has a sting in it and the temperature is sitting around 30 degrees Celsius. Currently there are also gusty bursts of wind blowing across the course.”
That said, this is the first day of racing in the 2026 elite men’s WorldTour, so anticipation is high as the men’s season gets underway.
The course is just 3.6 kilometres long, meaning this is very much a short, fast effort which will produce a first leader, but long term it’ll likely have little effect on GC.
Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the prologue of the Santos Tour Down Under in Adelaide
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