Cycling stars set to emerge at Tour Down Under

World champion Tadej Pogacar, seen here at the 2025 Tour de France, won't be at the TDU, but began his pro career there in 2019. Photo / Don Kennedy

World cycling champion and world number one Tadej Pogacar suggested last October that he would like to start his 2026 campaign by riding in this year’s Tour Down Under in Adelaide.

That would have got the attention of the organisers, of the event first held in 1999 and granted UCI ProTour status in 2008.

The following year, then-seven-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, made a return to pro cycling, after three years’ retirement.

His presence doubled the number of visitors and the economic impact for South Australia also doubled from 17.3 million to 39 million.

Armstrong made three visits to the Tour and was given the key to the city of Adelaide to commemorate his contribution, but after retiring for a second time in 2011, he subsequently appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in January 2012 and confessed to having doped during his seven tour wins from 1999 to 2005.

Stripped of his seven TDF titles, he also got a lifetime ban from competitive cycling by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that had pursued him since his return to competitive cycling.

Still, his participation in the TDU put the event on the front pages of newspapers, as did his subsequent fall from grace.

Pogacar, now the people’s champion, would have boosted the event in the same manner Armstrong did, but his UAE Emirates team have since announced he wouldn’t return to racing until the Strade Bianche in March.

Pogacar made his professional World Tour debut at the 2019 TDU, finishing 13th, just 43 seconds behind the winner that year, Daryl Impey.

A star was born, as later that year he won the Volta ao Algarve and the Tour of California.

In 2020, he won the Tour de France for the first time, and repeated in 2021, and has won the race for the past two years, as well as the world championship.

The TDU has often been the launching event for a number of Tour de France champions, including Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans, and world champions like Peter Sagan, Alejandro Valverde and Julian Alaphilippe.

Mark Cavendish, who in 2024 surpassed Eddie Merckx for the most TDF stage wins (35) and did the TDU in 2011 and last year, was the Tour’s special guest.

While Pogacar won’t be there, his UAE teammate, and last year’s TDU victor, Jhonatan Narvaez, returns to defend his title.

Other star attractions include Britain’s Adam Yates, third in the 2023 Tour de France and with over 20 pro wins, Australian Ben O’Connor, a two-time TDF stage winner, and Jay Vine, who won the TDU in 2023.

There will be seven New Zealand riders, including George Bennett, Aaron Gate and Lawrence Pithe. On the woman’s side, last year’s winner Noemi Ruegg, returns to defend her title with the EF Education-Oatley team, which includes NZ road champion Kim Cadzow.

There are five Kiwi riders in the women’s event over five stages, which commences on January 17, while the men’s event over six stages, is from January 20-25.