The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, like the Santos Tour Down Under, was postponed for two years because of the Covid-19 outbreak. However, WorldTour has reinstated the event for the year 2023.
The riders have made the trip from Adelaide to Melbourne and are now on their route to Geelong, where they will begin the seaside circuit.
Heavy rain has been falling in the region for the previous week, but the weekend prediction calls for dry weather with some wind.
On Saturday, January 28, ladies will compete over a distance of 143 kilometres, while on Sunday, January 29, men will compete over a distance of 176 kilometres.
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The curriculum of Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
The peloton will leave the waterfront and go south, crossing the Barwon River, where they will encounter their first significant hill.
Riders will have to contend with crosswinds as they go down to Bells Beach and Torquay on the coast for a sprint point before turning inland at Barwon Heads for yet another.
The riders will then return to Geelong around the Bellarine Peninsula for the final 17-kilometre rounds (four for the men and two for the ladies).
If the sprinters aren’t on their toes, the Geelong circle might be broken up by the short but steep Challambra Crescent hill, which awards points in the KOM classification.
Following the steep decline of Challambra Crescent, the race climbs again, this time for a very brief distance on Melville Avenue before winding through Geelong’s residential areas and finally returning to the starting line by way of the shoreline.
Feminine Challengers of Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
In her maiden Women’s WorldTour triumph two months before the pandemic, Liane Lippert won the most recent edition of the women’s race. Previous winners include Amanda Spratt, Annemiek van Vleuten, Arlenis Sierra, and Chloe Hosking.
Still, just six of the Women’s WorldTeams’ fifteen entries are there, and many of the same riders that showed up in Adelaide for the Tour Down Under are present again this year.
Depending on the riders’ tactics, this race might come down to a sprint or be decided by the mountains. Amanda Spratt of Trek-Segafredo has been in terrific form this year, and if a climber gets their way, we could see her finally take home a victory. Grace Brown of FDJ-SUEZ, who beat her on the Corkscrew Road stage and went on to win the Tour Down Under overall, will be a formidable opponent she must overcome.
On her new team of EF Education-Tibco-SVB, New Zealander Georgia Williams has shown some great climbing form during the Tour Down Under and may be a strong contender if she ends up on the right end of a split. Krista Doebel-Hickok, a climber for EF, had a successful Tour Down Under.
However, Jayco AlUla and the other sprinter teams hope that the final race remains intact so that they can put their fast-finishing riders, like Alex Manly and Ruby Roseman-Ganon, in a good position for the win.
Daria Pikulik of Human Powered Health, the surprise winner of the opening stage of the Tour Down Under, may also be a sprint finish candidate if she survives the mountains. In any other case, the squad may rely on climber Henrietta Christie.
Men’s Challengers of Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
Dries Devenyns, the last man to win a Tour de France stage, will be racing again with his team, Soudal-Quickstep, on Sunday.
Michael Matthews of Jayco-AlUla, who has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with the results of the Tour Down Under, is the rider with the most to prove. A victory in Matthews’ home stadium would be a great way to salvage his season.
Young all-around prospects like Ethan Hayter and Magnus Sheffield, as well as Australian national champion Luke Plapp, provide the INEOS Grenadiers plenty of depth and opportunity.
After coming so close to winning a stage in the Tour Down Under for the Australian national team, Caleb Ewan will be hoping for a mass sprint.
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If the race has challenging hills, the Italian post-opportunist Alberto Bettiol may be in the mix.
Emls Liepi, the Latvian national champion and a rider with Trek-Segafredo, displayed his sprinting prowess at the Tour Down Under. He has had bad luck, including being unclipped from his pedal during the stage 4 sprint and losing ground.
