Team Bahrain Victorious is set to line up as one of 20 teams competing in the season-opening Tour Down Under (TDU), which opens the 2025 UCI WorldTour calendar in Australia.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the six-stage race, which gets underway tomorrow, will challenge riders on South Australia’s most iconic roads under the warm Aussie summer sun.
Phil Bauhaus will be the Bahrain Victorious leader for sprint stages, with his experienced compatriot Nikias Arndt as his lead-out man and also the team captain.
Alongside the German duo, Australian Robert Stannard will be the co-leader for this race, aiming to tackle one of the harder stages. Meanwhile, Roman Ermakov, Afonso Eulalio, Mathijs Paasschens, and Daniel Skerl will make both their Bahrain Victorious and TDU debuts.
“We are really excited to get the team ready for the TDU in 2025,” Bahrain Victorious said in a statement. “This year, we are going with three of our established riders plus four new riders.
“We are really looking forward to trying to work out the dynamic of these guys, work out their strength, their weakness, we really try to put on together as a team.
“We are now in Australia for five days. The boys are doing some fantastic training iterated around the Adelaide area. We are looking at all the stages to get ourselves ready for this year’s race.
“Obviously, Bauhaus, former winner of a stage here in the TDU, is in great shape. He would be looking forward to going up against the best sprinters in the world, to trying to get another stage win this year.
“The main objective for the team in this year’s race, we are going for stage wins. We feel that we’ve got the right mix of both leaders and workers to be able to do well in the sprint stages, and in the harder intermediate stages, within maybe some reduced bunch sprints or even breakaways.
“For general classification (GC), we will see how it goes out of the first three days of the race. The main priority is the stage wins.”
Tomorrow’s first stage introduces a new challenge for sprinters aiming for victory and the prestigious Ochre jersey at Gumeracha after navigating an undulating loop. Stage two features a start and finish in Tanunda, with action heating up on Mengler Hill. This stage could likely end in another sprint finish in the Barossa Valley, where Bauhaus claimed victory in the 2023 edition.
Stage three, known as the spring classic of the TDU, presents an unrelenting challenge with the Knotts Hill climb – a fresh challenge towards the rollercoaster last approach at Uraidla finish. The total elevation on the day is 2,648m.
Stage four is the longest at 157.2km. It is where a breakaway specialist could shine on Fleurieu Peninsula in the technical finish into Victor Harbor.
Stage five will see riders tackle the infamous Willunga Hill climb twice – a pivotal moment for the GC contenders to make decisive moves. The sixth and final stage will bring the peloton back to downtown Adelaide for a short but explosive circuit, promising a thrilling sprint finish.
Top stories for today:
His Majesty approves legislative amendments
Bahrain’s strong relations with Britain are reviewed
Shura proposes rethink on fees discount for elderly
&uuid=(email))