Refresh
Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor) placed sixth, provisionally, on the stage.
Five seconds down on Watson. A big boost for the Briton en route to victory today.
Ooh this is a good time for Maikel Zijlaard, but will he get it?
Still the top three the same as for a long time, Watson leading Ethan Vernon at 0.59 seconds and with 2.7 seconds on Laurence Pithie.
15 riders left to go
Ivo Oliveira finishes eight seconds down, visibly disappointed.
Yet another top contender for today, Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor) has started. Watson will be watching the TV screens very closely…
And another big name for today’s win, Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), narrowly second behind Watson last year in the Tour de Romandie prologue, has made his start.
Rémi Cavagna, considered one of the big TT favourites, heads down the start ramp.
Another photo from the prologue. Here’s Adam Yates mid-way through his TDU debut.
Bleddyn was already second this year in the elite men’s TT Nationals’ just over a week ago, and he’s clearly remained on his game here.
That was close. Oliver Bleddyn (Australia National Team) gives local fans something to cheer for, turns in an excellent time just 4 seconds slower than Watson. For now, he’s fourth on the stage.
It’s not just the GC battle that counts, either today. The sprinters will be keen to turn in some top times, given Wednesday’s 120 kilometre stage to Tanunda will be one for the fastmen, and a spell in the leader’s jersey if they’re close enough up on GC, (particularly with time bonuses on offer) never did anybody any harm.
Narváez comes home nine seconds down on Watson, one of the best GC contenders. That confirms he’s definitely up for a repeat win Down Under – just as Noemi Rüegg did in the Women’s TDU a few days back.
Defending champion Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emiratex-XRG) rolls down the start ramp. Second in 2024 as well, his time today will be crucial long-term.
And now Swiss National TT Champ Mauro Schmid has moved into fourth on the stage, four seconds down on Watson.
Worth noting that Erik Nordsæter Resell (Uno-X Mobility) has snuck into the top five of the stage, in fourth spot, six seconds down on Watson, and pushing Fisher-Black down to fifth and early best time Leonard down to sixth.
Those contenders are largely for the stage win, of course – with the likel exceptions of Plapp and Vine, the GC winner back in 2023 – but in a race won and lost by seconds overall, a lot of the interest lies in how the GC contenders fare on today’s short effort, too.
Maikel Zijlaard, incidentally, was the winner of the Tour de Romandie prologue in 2024, the same stage that Watson won back in the day, so could well be a serious threat. That stage was only 2.28 kilometres long, so a similar length to Adelaide today.
Key start times to come
Some of the big names to come and their start-times:
Remi Cavagna (FDJ United): 19.49
Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 19.59
Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor): 20.02
Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla): 20.14
Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 20.19
A shot of Watson here in the hot seat, taken by CN’s Simone Guiliani
No changes now in the provisional rankings for the best part of an hour, with Watson still in the lead ahead of Vernon.
Talking of Finn Fisher-Black, we have a big interview with him courtesy of colleague James Moultrie right here:
‘They’re just normal guys’ – Finn Fisher-Black gives unique insight into cycling superstars Evenepoel and Pogačar and the effect they can have on a whole team
Another big-name contender, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), riding his first ever TDU, finishes 18 seconds back on compatriot Watson.
And Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla), big local star and potentially a GC favourite, rides home 13 seconds down on Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers).
Time for another photo: here’s Finn Fisher-Black, currently fourth on provisional times today, out on the course.
Worth noting that Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) the rider that ran him the closest in Romandie, losing by just O.28 seconds, is also racing in the TDU. And he’s yet to start…
If – and it’s still a big if, given so many riders are yet to come – Sam Watson gets the win, then it won’t be his first prologue victory in the World Tour. One of Watson’s five wins to date was the Tour de Romandie prologue last year, over a very similar distance of 3.44 kilometres.
Weather update
The provisional top five – Sam Watson leads
4. Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) at 6 sec
5. Michael Leonard (EF Education-Easy Post) at 7 sec
Yet more reading material should you need it: colleague Matilda Price has written the Cyclingnews’ breakdown of who the big GC contenders will likely be in this year’s Santos Tour Down Under. Here’s the link:
Home riders among favourites in open GC field – Analysing the Tour Down Under contenders
And let’s not forget, racing has already been happening already, not just the Nationals. The Women’s Tour Down Under finished less than 48 hours ago. You can read our full report here:
Women’s Tour Down Under: Noemi Rüegg outsprints UAE Team ADQ rivals to win stage 3 and claim overall for second year in a row
And here’s an image of Sam Watson during his ride to the provisional top spot overall: will it be enough to take the first lead of the race?
Vine has recently claimed the Australian National TT title for a second time in his career, and even if the course is – as he said earlier today – one for the track specialists than pure road time triallers, interest will be very high in what he can achieve. You can read about his victory in Perth, on the other side of Australia, here:
Jay Vine reclaims elite men’s time trial title at the Australian Road National Championships
Riders are off at minute intervals all the way to last starter Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at 20:19 local time.
Back to the present, there are two checkpoints in the course, at km 1 and km2, prior to the finish at km 3.6.
Luke Durbridge (Jayco-AlUla) finishes. A long, long time ago in a country far, far away, ‘Turbo Durbo’ won a very similar short opening prologue in the Critérium du Dauphiné, beating no less a time trial star than Bradley Wiggins. For those looking to dust down the history books, here’s our report:
Durbridge wins Criterium du Dauphine prologue in Grenoble
And that in turn is superceded by Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) with a fastest time of 4:16.9. Just a couple of seconds faster, but it puts the Briton into the hot seat.
That was a good start to the year for Leonard in his first ever race with new team EF, but he’s already been overhauled by New Zealand’s Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) with a time of 4:19, nearly five seconds faster.
And as if by magic, they appear. Fastest time currently for Michael Leonard of 4:24. He’s got a hefty (by 3.2 kilometre prologue standards) advantage of 2.3 kilometres on Marco Brenner (Tudor).
No clear indication yet of times, but we’ll bring them as soon as we’ve got something vaguely official.
More background from Simone Giuliani on the ground about the atmosphere out there in Adelaide:
“Crowds are starting to pack the roadside around the start area with riders sheltering from the sun under marquees before they line up, wearing ice vests given it’s still warm despite the late start. Though with it being just a hop skip and jump from the village and their accomodation they don’t have to worry about setting out too far in advance.”
Gogl powers home, the first rider across the line. But a time trialing specialist like Canadian TT champion Michael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost) is out there on the course, and he’s likely to set a very good time, too.
And Gogl is off, the Tour Down Under is officially underway.
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. 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
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Logout