January 25, 2026
Stirling hosts the start and finish of the final day racing at the Tour Down Under on a very difficult stage. The course is a 21.5KM counter-clockwise circuit around Stirling that will be completed eight times totaling 170KM. Each lap includes a 2KM 3.7% climb up to the finish line and by the time the riders reach the end, they will have a full 3,000M of elevation in their legs. There are two intermediate sprints, both come in Heathfield about 4KM after the start/finish line. The first comes after 45KM of racing and the second with 2 laps and 40KM to go. As long as Jay Vine stays on his bike, he should be just fine to take home the overall but there are 16 riders within 30 seconds of second place and this stage is primed for aggressive racing.
Race Summary
The riders got underway under cloudless skies but the temperate fortunately came down to a more manageable 32C (90F). As expected, the fight for the break was the strongest we've seen all week. Halfway through the first lap, Robert Stannard of Bahrain Victorious, Fabio Van den Bossche of Soudal Quickstep, and Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto Intermarché got a gap on the peloton. The bunch seemed content with the composition and the three riders were able to build an advantage. When the road started to go back up however, attacks started flying behind and the gap dissolved from 1 minute to just 5 seconds very quickly. The race reset through Stirling and a new group of three formed with Luke Plapp of Jayco AlUla, Pascal Eenkhoorn of Soudal Quickstep, and Stannard once again.
This time, the peloton shut down for good and Plapp, Eenkhoorn, and Stannard built a 2 minute 40 second advantage with 132KM to go. Just 1KM later, Plapp had a rear wheel puncture and received an incredibly slow change from neutral service. His companions sat up and waited and with some assistance from the neutral car, he rejoined the break and the trio settled back into their rhythm having lost around 30 seconds. Juan Sebastián Molano of UAE-XRG single handedly controlled the race but not everyone was happy to just ride around and get beat. Movistar sent Pavel Novák up the road with 101KM to go but no one went with him. He had 90 seconds to close and managed to do so in just 6KM time.
Disaster struck with 95KM to go as a kangaroo entered the course. A number of riders crashed including race leader Jay Vine and his teammate Mikkel Bjerg. Vine was able to get up and moving but Bjerg stayed down and would not finish the race. The peloton shut down to allow Vine back on and by the time they got reorganized, the gap was out to 3 minutes 40 seconds. Realization struck that UAE-XRG were depleted and were not going to be strong enough to hold the break so EF-Education EasyPost put a man up to lend a hand along with Visma-Lease a Bike.
Decathlon CMA CGM also added resources to chase and the gap was slowly chipped away. Through three laps and 63KM to go, the gap was down to 2 minutes 15 seconds and seemed well in control by the peloton. 21KM later through two laps to go, the gap was down to 1 minute 20 seconds but there still was no action from any of the GC teams. On the downhill out of Stirling. EF-Education EasyPost moved their entire team up to sit at the front. With the added nerves, the gap tumbled to 45 seconds with 32KM to go and both Plapp and Novák decided to pull the plug and drift back out of the break.
The first move from the bunch came from Darren van Bekkum of XDS-Astana. The Dutchman caught Plapp and Novák but he could not drag himself up to Stannard and Eenkhoorn and was caught with 25KM to go as a counter attack went from Chris Harper of the Australian National Team. Interestingly, Bahrain Victorious were the ones to react to pull Harper back even though Stannard was in the front group. The race was all but back together through the finish line as the bell rang out for one lap to go. Attacks sprang from the peloton and Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious, Gal Glivar of Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Jefferson Cepeda and Javier Romo of Movistar came across to Stannard. The new group of five got 15 seconds before Stannard took one final turn and pulled off.
UAE-XRG only had two riders left to support Jay Vine and they were doing their best to keep the race under control. The gap got out to 30 seconds which put a direct threat on GC to Mauro Schmid, so Jayco AlUla added support along with EF-Education EasyPost for their man Harry Sweeny. Tudor Pro Cycling were also losing fourth overall for Marco Brenner which made another team eager to chase. Romo did a big turn for Cepeda and dropped away with 6KM to go, leaving the lead group 23 seconds ahead of the chasing peloton.
The last 5KM were almost all uphill which suited the fresh bodies of the chase. With 3KM to go, EF-Education EasyPost were leading with Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Visma-Lease a Bike sitting just behind. At 1,500M, Visma-Lease a Bike lined out the bunch and the catch was made 800M from the line, and the road was still going up. The last lead out riders pulled off as Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike launched for home with just over 200M to go. Brady Gilmore of NSN Cycling came around with an impressive turn of speed but with 75M to go, Brennan got a second wind. He came storming passed Gilmore as the road straightened and hit the line to tally his first win of 2026. Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe followed the Brit in for second while Tobias Lund Andresen of Decathlon CMA CGM sprinted in for third.
Jay Vine was dealt a difficult hand but he and his team did enough to seal the overall. Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla finished second overall at 1 minute 3 seconds with Harry Sweeny of EF-Education EasyPost in third at 1 minute 12 seconds.