The 2023 WorldTour in Cycling begins this weekend with the 23rd edition of the Santos Tour Down Under on Saturday, January 14 in Adelaide, South Australia.
The 2023 TDU will see both the Men and Women returning, with the ladies back after a 2-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Men’s Tour Down Under will officially begin on Tuesday, January 17 with a 5.5 kilometer prologue time trial in the parks located north of Adelaide.
The changes to the men’s race should create a more open and thrilling tour, with the prologue time trial making local resident Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) an overall favorite without ruling out other riders during the race before the final showdown on Mount Lofty.
The Men’s Tour Down Under was last contested in 2020 and saw Australian Richie Porte win for a second time. Porte (5-7½, 127), races for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers but he won’t be defending his title in Australia in the first major WorldTour peloton race of the new year 2023.
💥 TEAM LISTS ARE HERE 💥 See which riders will be on the start line in just over a week 👇#TourDownUnder https://t.co/b8c39NPOaW
— Santos Tour Down Under 🚴🚴♀️ (@tourdownunder) January 4, 2023
Cyclists from European countries headed to Australia last week so that they could acclimate from the 24 hours of airline flights and the brutal reality that it is Winter in the Northern Hemisphere right now. The early arrival also allows them to get a final block of training in Down Under.
Tour Down Under Betting Odds
Look for Tour Down Under odds at Cycling betting sites closer to the start of the 5-stage race, but the teams are known and we have a pretty good idea of who the top teams and riders should be and enough to offer up some Tour Down Under predictions for both the Men and the Women.
The United Kingdom-based UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers provided the last TDU winner. The team is back and is as strong as ever with the following riders:
The Ineos Grenadiers, Dennis and the Netherlands Jumbo-Visma, the Australian national team, and the UAE’s UAE Team Emirates are some of the stronger Men’s teams in the 2023 TDU.
It’s good to be back 🇦🇺🤝
Almost time to get the road season started and that means #TourDownUnder! pic.twitter.com/TJ2wtYDXGO
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) January 11, 2023
Looking at some 2023 UCI tour’s big races and their Futures odds, Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard and Slovenian Tadej Pogačar are co-favorites to win the 2023 Tour de France favorites at +115 at BetUS with Remco Evenepoel (+105) and Primož Roglič (2/1) as the 2023 Giro d’Italia favorites.
The temperatures in Adelaide right now are around 69°F (21°C) but are expected to climb for the later stages in the race this month. The winners of the lowest time in each stage are honored with the wearing of the Ochre Jersey.
The next race up on the 2023 UCI World Tour calendar will be on Sunday, January 29 with the 2023 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. The 2023 UCI World Tour will stage 35 races this calendar year, ending with the Tour de Guangxi in China on October 17.
The 2023 Giro d’Italia is set for May 6 through May 28, the 2023 Tour de France is scheduled for July 1 through July 23, and the 2023 Vuelta a España is scheduled from Saturday, August 26 through Sunday, September 17 with the Cycling Triple Crown race starting out in Barcelona.
Recent Tour Down Under Men’s Winners
- 2022—No race (COVID-19)
- 2021—No race (COVID-19)
- 2020—Richie Porte, Australia (Trek–Segafredo)
- 2019—Daryl Impey, South Africa (Mitchelton–Scott)
- 2018—Daryl Impey, South Africa (Mitchelton–Scott)
- 2017—Richie Porte, Australia (BMC Racing Team)
- 2016—Simon Gerrans, Australia (Orica GreenEDGE)
- 2015—Rohan Dennis, Australia (BMC Racing Team)
- 2014—Simon Gerrans, Australia (Orica GreenEDGE)
- 2013—Tom-Jelte Slagter, Netherlands (Blanco Pro Cycling)
- 2012—Simon Gerrans, Australia (GreenEDGE)
Vooruitblikken op het nieuwe jaar in #grandecasino!
“Goede keuze om met @rogla naar de Giro te gaan”
“Rohan Dennis wint de Tour Down Under”
“Moet je @WoutvanAert niet zo lang mogelijk in het Tourklassement houden?”⤵️⤵️
🍏: https://t.co/sHMmdJQDQb
🟢: https://t.co/tEGnFJgxv8 pic.twitter.com/lUKJMjkC4A— Gɾᥲᥒᑯᥱ Cᥲ⳽ɩᥒo Poᑯᥴᥲ⳽t (@GrandeCasinoPC) January 5, 2023
Handicapping the Men’s, Women’s 2023 TDU Races
With five of the last seven and seven of the last 10 TDU Men’s winners being from Australia, backing an Australian rider no matter what team he might ride for seems like a solid betting strategy for this race.
Caleb Ewan leads the Australian team and should be among the Tour Down Under odds favorites when out. Besides Ewan, the Australian National Team also includes Jarrad Drizners, Graeme Frisilie, Connor Leahy, Zac Marriage, James Moriarty, and Liam Walsh.
Aussie and 2022 Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley leads the talented Bora-Hansgrohe Team which includes riders Marco Haller (Austria), Shane Archbold (New Zealand), Luis-Joe Luhrs (Germany), Jordi Meeus (Belgium), Maximilian Schachmann (Germany), and Giovanni Aleotti (Italy).
Italian Alberto Bettiol leads the EF Education-EasyPost Team from the US, one of the top of the 20 teams in the race, and Mikkel Honore (Denmark), Jens Keukeleire (Belgium), Sean Quinn (US), Jonas Rutch (Germany), Thomas Scully (NZ), and Lukasz Wisiniowski (Poland) are his teammates.
Maybe the team to beat is the Ineos Grenadiers, with elite riders like Ethan Hayter and Geraint Thomas. Brother Leo Hayter (UK), Kim Heiduk (Germany), Luke Plapp (Australia), Magnus Sheffield (USA), and Ben Swift (UK) will prove to be a hard team to beat in this season lid-lifter.
Australian Rohan Dennis, a previous TDU winner, and his Netherlands’ Jumbo-Visma team of Robert Gesink (Netherlands), Lennard Hofstede (Netherlands), Timo Roosen (Netherlands), Milan Vader (Netherlands), Timo Van Dijke (Netherlands), and Jos Van Emden (Netherlands) are threats.
We’re now only a few days out from the first Women’s WorldTour race of the 2023 season
We got a teaser of who’s in form at Aussie Nats – Brodie for sure with Spratt looking very dangerous as wellhttps://t.co/wTZE5lzdU5
— Mathew Mitchell (@MatMitchell30) January 12, 2023
Santos Tour Down Under Women’s Winners
- 2022—No race (COVID-19)
- 2021—No race (COVID-19)
- 2020—Ruth Winder, USA (Trek–Segafredo)
- 2019—Amanda Pratt, Australia (Mitchelton–Scott)
- 2018—Amanda Pratt, Australia (Mitchelton–Scott)
- 2017—Amanda Pratt, Australia (Orica–Scott)
- 2016—Katrin Garfoot, Australia (Orica-AIS)
The Australians have also done very well in the Women’s races of the Tour Down Under, although there have only been five of them since inception in 2016, with Aussies winning the first four years (2016-2019), so the handicapping angle here is simple. Aussies do very well racing in Australia.
Some of the stronger Women’s teams in the 2023 coming TDU are the American Trek-Segafredo Team with 3-time TDU winner Amanda Spratt and the Australian Jayco-Alula Team.
Along with Aussie sensation Spratt—likely the Women’s Tour Down Under betting odds favorite in the Cycling Futures market—the Trek-Segafredo Team also includes Lauretta Hanson (Australia), Brodie Chapman (Australia), Tayler Wiles (USA), Lisa Klein (Germany), and Ilaria Sanguinti (Italy).
And watch the American team EF Education-Tibco-SVB with Lauren Stephens (USA), Emma Langley (USA), Krista Doebel-Hickok (USA), Abigail Smith (UK), and Georgia Williams (NZ).
But for me, it’s Australian Spratt and the Trek-Segafredo Team or Australian Brown and FDJ-Suez in this opening race of the year.
An Aussie wins this race for the fourth time in six incarnations and makes both her home nation and American team proud in one fell swoop.
