Tour Down Under 2015: preview
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You can work on you race-winning sprint at the same time as aiding recovery (Pic: Sirotti)
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Simon Gerrans won for the third time last year, but injury has ruled him out of this year's event (pic: Sirotti)
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Andre Greipel has 16 stage wins and two overall victories in this race, but will not start his season in Australia this year (pic: Sirotti)
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Willunga Hill is likely to be pivotal again, featuring twice on stage five - the day the race will be all but won or lost (pic: Sirotti)
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Cadel Evans will ride the final WorldTour race of his career in Adelaide (pic: Sirotti)
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Recently re-crowned Australian time trial champion Richie Porte leads a strong Team Sky squad (pic: Sirotti)
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Thomas de Gendt may have slipped under a few radars after a quiet year with Omega Pharma-Quickstep but the Belgian will hope to lead Lotto-Soudal to success in 2015 (pic: Sirotti)
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Michael Rogers enjoyed a resurgent 2014 and kicks off 2015 by leading Tinkoff-Saxo at the Tour Down Under (pic: Sirotti)
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Domenico Pozzovivo finished fifth last year (pic: Sirotti)
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Luis Leon Sanchez, last year's Vuelta King of the Mountains, is likely to have domestique commitments this time out (Pic: Sirotti)
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You can work on you race-winning sprint at the same time as aiding recovery (Pic: Sirotti)
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Simon Gerrans won for the third time last year, but injury has ruled him out of this year's event (pic: Sirotti)
Tour Down Under 2015: preview
Adelaide will host the curtain raiser to the 2015 UCI WorldTour when the Santos Tour Down Under gets underway on Tuesday January 20.
Cycling’s 17 WorldTour teams will be joined by Australian squads Drapac and UniSA-Australia for the six-stage race.
Defending champion Simon Gerrans, who was Australian national champion when he won last year, will be absent after the Orica-GreenEdge rider broke his collarbone while riding his mountain bike during the off-season, while 16-time stage winner and two-time overall champion Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) will not race this year.
But in their place are a host of big names hoping to get the season off to the perfect start, including newly-crowned Aussie champion Heinrich Haussler, riding for the WorldTour’s newest team, IAM Cycling.
While the route offers few major headaches for riders, the traditional season opener has become a firm favourite with fans – not least because it ends a winter devoid of competitive road racing.
So who’s in the running at the 2015 Tour Down Under, and where will the race be won and lost? We’ve taken an in-depth look at the race’s history, route and the contenders over the following pages.
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