Preview: Adelaide prepares for 2014 UCI World Tour season-opener

 
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Alex Kalinauckas18 January 2014

The 2014 UCI World Tour kicks off next week with the sixteenth edition of the Santos Tour Down Under.

Based around the city of Adelaide in South Australia, the six-stage race features significantly more tough, climbing stages that should rule out the sprinters and pave the way for a fascinating battle for the general classification.

That said, Sunday’s pre-race staging of the ‘People’s Choice Classic', a 50km criterium around the streets of Adelaide University, will ensure a sprinter gets his first win of the season. German Andre Griepel (Lotto-Belisol), affectionately known as The Gorilla, will be gunning for his third successive victory.

Being the season opener, it’s hard to tell who the pre-race favourites are, but two-time winner Simon Gerrans (Orica-Greenedge), recently re-crowned as the Australian National Road Champion, will be trying hard to please the home fans.

Team Sky has sent two-time Olympic Champion Geriant Thomas and super-domestique, Richie Porte as joint leaders. Thomas, who held the leader’s Ochre jersey for three stages last year, will be looking to claim victory in his first stage-race, as the Welshman looks to build form heading into cycling’s traditional Spring Classics.

Porte, a valuable to servant to British Tour de France winners Chris Froome and Sir Bradley Wiggins, is preparing for an assault on this season’s Giro d’Italia, and the Australian will be looking to get his season underway with victory on home soil. Expect the two to work together when the race heads for the hills.

Racing gets underway on Tuesday morning (GMT), with the opening three stages featuring sharp climbs shortly before the finish, which the overall contenders will use to put time into their rivals.

Stage 4 looks like one the sprinters’ teams will be working hard to control, but a breakaway has a good chance of staying away for the win.

The race’s traditional Queen stage, featuring the summit-finish on Old Willunga Hill, will ultimately determine who will claim the first World Tour race of the season and the final Ochre jersey. The sprinters then have one last chance with a celebratory tour around the streets of central Adelaide on the final day.

Meanwhile, across the globe, 2011 World Champion Mark Cavendish will be hoping to open his victory account for 2014 in the Tour de San Luis, a weeklong stage-race held in Argentina next week.

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