Rain-soaked Tour Down Under prologue reveals overall contenders - Analysis

Alberto Bettiol won the opening Tour Down Under stage
Alberto Bettiol won the opening Tour Down Under stage (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Unusual Australian summer rain wrecked the hopes of many of the Tour Down Under prologue contenders but added an extra twist to the battle for overall victory, with riders having to take massive risks on the wet roads to stay in contention of the first WorldTour race of 2023.

Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Easypost) was one of just a handful of riders to race on dry roads and took advantage of the conditions to set a blazing time of 6:19 for the 5.5km course around the banks of River Torrens in the centre of Adelaide.

Stephen Farrand
Head of News

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.