Cycling – Tour Down Under
The professional cycling season kicks off this week with the Tour Down Under which runs from 19/1-24/1. It takes place in South Australia. It covers 800 kilometres (500 miles).
Stage 1 is 141km and will go from Clare to Tanunda.
The Tour Down Under once again features Lance Armstrong who will be riding with the new Team Radio Shack. Another big name to keep an eye on will be Australia’s Cadel Evans. He is also riding for a new team which is BMC Racing Team. Evans will be seen in the World Champions jersey after his big effort to capture the Road title.
The Tour Down Under consists of 19 seven man teams for a total field of 133 riders. The teams taking part in the race are:
Ag2r La Mondiale (France)
Astana (Kazakhstan)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
Caisse d’Epargne(Spain)
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spain)
Footon-Servetto-Fuji (Spain)
Francaise des Jeux (France)
Garmin-Transitions (USA)
HTC-Columbia (USA)
Katusha (Rus)
Liquigas (Italy)
Milram (Germany)
Omega Pharma-Lotto (Belgium)
Quick Step (Belgium)
Rabobank (Netherlands)
RadioShack (USA)
Saxo Bank (Denmark)
Team Sky (GBR)
UniSA-Australia (Australia)
There are 24 Australian riders with some of the better know ones being Robbie McEwen riding for Team Katusha, Stuart O’Grady riding for Team Saxo Bank. The UNISA team is the only all-Australian team. Even though Garmin Transitions is a USA team four of the seven riders are from Australia.
It should be an interesting race. Lance Armstrong says based on pre-season training he is in better shape than last year however he does not expect to win. He said the main goal is to see someone from his team at least win a stage.
Facebook comments: