January 21, 2026
After an exciting Prologue, the first road race of the season awaits as well as the first likely sprint finish. It's a short day at just 120KM but the sprinters will have to stay focused because there are obstacles between them and the finish line. Leaving Tanunda at KM0, the route heads South to Lyndoch for an intermediate sprint before coming back to Tanunda for the start of Mengler Hill. The riders take on the easier side but it's still 2KM at 3.5%. A short descent into Vine Vale and Tanunda make up the 31KM lap that will feature three times. The third and final time up Mengler Hill comes with 13KM to go so if the sprinters position well before the climb, they should be just fine to get over the top and contest for the victory.
Race Summary
Race Director Stuart O'Grady waived the flag at KM0 to kick off proceedings. The first move came from Martin Urianstad Bugge of Uno-X Mobility and he was followed by Guillaume Martin of Groupama-FDJ United and eventually Marco Brenner of Tudor Pro Cycling came across. They quickly melded together and got in good rotation. UAE-XRG started chasing almost immediately and brought the three riders back after just 5KM of racing and kept the group together for the first set of time bonuses in Lyndoch. The speed increased coming into town and it was UAE-XRG and Ineos setting up the lead outs. UAE-XRG won the first spar with Jhonatan Narváez taking three seconds, Maikel Zijlaard of Tudor Pro Cycling snagging two, and Narváez's teammate, Juan Sebastián Molano, sweeping the final second.
Urianstad Bugge counter-attacked and again was followed by Martin but had his teammate Enzo Paleni with him this time. They joined up with 103KM to go and quickly built a lead of over 90 seconds. The Australian National Team missed the move and sent Matthew Greenwood off the front. Greenwood got within 13 seconds of the leaders but they never let up and by the start of Mengler Hill with 80KM to go, Greenwood waived the white flag and sat up. At this point, the three leaders had 2 minutes 20 seconds on the bunch who were being led by Ineos and Visma-Lease a Bike.
Over the top and around the back side of the course, the leaders maintained their gap of around 2 minutes 20 seconds as they passed through the finish line in Tanunda for two laps to go. The speed really picked up and other teams started pushing forward following the second descent of Mengler Hill with 37KM remaining. By the last time through the finish line at 32KM to go, the gap was down to 1 minute 10 seconds. Tim Rex of Visma-Lease a Bike and Chris Hamilton of Ineos did the lion share of the work in the peloton and finally pulled off at the base of Mengler Hill with 15.5KM to go and just 20 seconds down on the break.
Martin had dropped out of the break before the climb but Urianstad Bugge and Paleni were still ahead at the top with 13KM to go but only by 10 seconds. The catch was made at the bottom as they swung left towards Tanunda with 7KM to go. Under 3KM, Visma-Lease a Bike and Soudal Quickstep were best organized but there were plenty of other teams scrambling to get into better position. Alpecin-Premier Tech and Ineos stormed forward at 2KM to go. Ineos had three riders in front of Sam Welsford under 1KM to go but they wouldn't have it all their own way. Decathlon CMA CGM pushed forward for Tobias Lund Andresen with Danny van Poppel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Ethan Vernon of NSN Cycling in tow. Lund Andresen was unleashed 175M from the line and the Dane held his position on the barriers to force others to come only from his right. His charge was strong enough to hold off the rest to take the win for his new team. Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike launched early from the right side and was able to get up for second place with Welsford sneaking his way on Lund Andresen's left for third.
Lund Andresen did enough in the Prologue to keep the gap under 10 seconds so with the win and time bonus, he takes over the race lead and will wear Okre tomorrow. Sam Watson of Ineos now sits second overall at 1 second with Vernon in third at 2 seconds.