The winning margin at the Tour Down Under has almost always been a matter of seconds but will that be the case in 2025?
A newly designed stage 3 from Norwood to Uraidla could be a game-changer, but riders were still battling for bonus seconds on stage 2 in Tanunda.
Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty) and Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) went into the breakaway looking to maximise their GC prospects, launching full-on sprints for the intermediate bonus seconds. Both came away with five seconds in hand before the move was caught.
Five seconds might not seem like a lot, but over the 24 editions of the Tour Down Under, the average gap to second place is 15 seconds, the maximum was 1:13 in 2024. Three times - in 2003, 2012 and 2018 the winner was decided on a tie-breaker (stage finishing positions).
Even five seconds could turn out to be decisive in the general classification come Sunday, for the final podium places but also for vital top ten placings and the UCI ranking points that come with them.
Konrad and Zimmermann are now fourth and fifth overall, respectively, with three sprinters: Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty) and Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) expected to suffer in the coming hilly stages.
Konrad and Zimmermann could even take the race leader's ochre jersey on stage 3. This is the Tour Down Under route.
Konrad told Cyclingnews he hadn't necessarily planned to enter into the breakaway.
"If it had been a big fight, I wouldn't go, but it was quite easy. I went give it a try for the bonus seconds because, at the end of the week, it can change a lot."
Zimmermann was hoping that the move would have had more of a chance, given the three ascents of Menglers Hill, but the pair along with mountains classification leader Fergus Browning (ARA Australian National Team) were reeled in with 45km to go.
"My personal goal would be the go over the last climb in the front, then hope for a stronger group to come from behind," Zimmerman said on the podium after accepting the award for most combative rider.
"But the others didn't commit to it. Alone, I didn't want to commit, so we went back to the bunch and took it a more easy approach to the finish.
"The main goal of today was to sneak some seconds like I did here last year," when his three-second bonus on the same stage meant the difference between 12th and 13th overall.
"Tomorrow and on Saturday, we will see what these five seconds are worth," Zimmermann added.
"Tomorrow is a really tricky day - there's a technical approach to the final climb, and that one is really nasty and steep, and afterwards, there's no time to recover. It's only up and down for a couple of kilometres to the finish. So tomorrow, I expect the first big GC action and a stressful day. So I'm glad I could get a little advantage today."
