The Santos Tour Down Under not only marks the start of the 2025 racing season but is also the first men's WorldTour event of the season, sparking huge interest in the riders and the race.
Into its 25th year, the highlight of the Australian cycling summer will see 20 teams and 140 riders compete for the leader's ochre jersey across six days of racing around Adelaide from January 21-26.
The women's Tour Down Under will be held beforehand, between January 17-19 and these are the main contenders for their race.
While many of the European riders opt to start their season later in the Middle East or at the Classics, the Tour Down Under still attracts several big stars of the sport to compete for victory, alongside a whole host of young super talents looking to break through.
The key general classification stages on the route offer up a familiar challenge, with a double ascent of the iconic Willunga Hill on the penultimate day, and a new test on stage 3 with the introduction of Knott's Hill. There is enough elevation gain for the overall favourites to make a vital time difference.
The previous two race winners, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) both return and are overall contenders again. There should be a challenge from other Australian riders on home soil and some of the WorldTour's best from Europe.
With these factors in mind, these are the Cyclingnews top favourites to watch in this year's Tour Down Under.
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Williams won the final stage of the 2024 Tour Down Under and with it the ochre jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)
While Australians have often come out on top at the Tour Down Under, it was a Welshman, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier tech), who took home the ochre jersey in 2024 after a thrilling six days of racing.
Williams moved into the race lead on the penultimate stage to Willinga Hill, despite not winning the day with fellow Brit Oscar Onley just ahead of him, and confirmed his position at the top by winning the final stage with a well-time sprint at Mount Lofty.
It marked the start of the 28-year-old's career-best season, with a huge Ardennes win at a hellish edition of La Fléche Wallonne coming in April and a dominant victory on home roads following that at the Tour of Britain.
Williams is perfectly suited to the punchy nature of the course in and around Adelaide and is being backed up by a roster of capable riders for his title defence.
Both George Bennett and Michael Woods could operate as co-leaders depending on their form and IPT will look to win the flatter stages through Kiwi sprinter Corbin Strong.
Plapp showed great form at the Australian national championships, with first in the time trial and second in the road race (Image credit: Getty Images)
Perhaps the top favourite flying the flag for Australia will be Jayco AlUla's Luke Plapp.
He's fresh off the back of defending his national time trial title and helping teammate Luke Durbridge to the national title in the road race after allowing his compatriot to roll over the line first in his home city Perth.
While Plapp gave up the chance to win his fourth stint in the green and gold in a row, he showed more than enough form that should make him a key contender for the Tour Down Under.
A brutal crash forced him to abandon last season's Tour Down Under but Plapp will be raring to get another shot at Willunga Hill and the ochre jersey. At 24 and developing nicely as a rider, he'll be buoyed by his standout GC performance last year - sixth at Paris-Nice.
Plapp can rely on loyal support from the new Australian champion Durbridge on the approaches to the key climbs, with another home rider Chris Harper and Swiss champion Mauro Schmid for key support when the road heads uphill.
Vine racing in UAE Emirates' new 2025 kit at the Australian national championships (Image credit: Getty Images)
2023 winner Jay Vine returns to the Tour Down Under in 2025 as one of the key contenders. He's shown strong form recently with second place at the national championships time trial behind only Plapp and sixth in the road race.
While it's two years from his victory in Adelaide, Vine showed how his mix of pure climbing and time-trialling strength could be suited to the hilly terrain in South Australia. He didn't win a stage at the 2023 race but racked up a winning margin of 11 seconds thanks to a trio of top-three stage finishes.
Vine finished 2024 in solid form, which, considering how lengthy his rehabilitation from the spinal injury he suffered in the high-speed Itzulia Basque Country crash was, is quite remarkable.
At 29 and into his third season with the Emirati team, Vine will be looking to re-find his absolute peak climbing form.
He won't be joined at the start by the standout UAE performer from last year's Tour Down Under, Isaac del Toro, but will partner with new teammate and 2024 runner-up Jonathan Narváez. The Ecuadorian joined UAE Team Emirates from Ineos Grenadiers for 2025, adding aggression and stage race talent to the team.
Vine and Narváez have a great balance of punch and climbing power, so should be well in contention for victory.
Onley took victory atop Willunga Hill in last year's race (Image credit: Getty Images)
The champion of Willunga Hill from 2024, Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), is coming for another crack at winning the Tour Down Under, with the young Scot looking to reach an even higher level after his breakthrough season.
Amid a series of unlucky collarbone breaks in the past two years, Onley has proved himself to be a serious contender in WorldTour one-week stage races. Not only did he finish second in Australia but he backed this up with top-ten finishes on GC at the Tour de Suisse, Tour de Pologne and Tour of Guangxi.
With a proper punch to his climbing, best shown on stage 5 of last year's race, Onley will look to rack up bonus seconds and finish stronger than he did in 2024, after only losing out on the podium due to a poor final stage.
He'll have local support from Austrians, Patrick Eddy and Alex Edmondson, with Tobias Lund Andresen leading the Dutch team in the sprints. Key teammate Chris Hamilton is out after his December training camp crash but Onley will be a real threat in this year's race.
The 2025 TDU bring Onley his first WorldTour overall stage race victory.
Fisher-Black won three races in 2024, including the Muscat Classic solo (Image credit: Getty Images)
It's not only the Aussies who thrive down under, with their fellow Antipodeans from just across the Tasman Sea also enjoying their summer racing schedule. Finn Fisher-Black is of the riders from New Zealand eyeing a top GC finish.
He's completed a move away from the congestion of talent that is UAE Team Emirates, in search of more leadership opportunities with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. And he's got his wish at the first race of the season, taking up the GC mantle for the German team.
Fisher-Black has been pushing out some seriously impressive efforts while training near Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island, so expect him to be right up there when the road ventures uphill sharply on stage 3 and stage 5.
It's historically not been his strongest race, often finding his form later in the year while he was at UAE, however, recent comments from Fisher-Black to Cyclingnews suggest he's raring to get time on his new team off to a flying start.
"Last year, I realised I do have this punch to me which I really try to utilise and I think, now, I've found a way I can win races, and I'm really trying to dial into that," said Fisher-Black.
Italian champion Bettiol joined XDS Astana part way through the 2024 season from EF Education-EasyPost (Image credit: Getty Images)
The start of the new season also brings the first race in a new chapter for XDS Astana, with their new Chinese sponsor, new bikes and largely changed roster all on show.
It's an important race for them in the pursuit of UCI points to ensure they don't get relegated back to the ProTeam division next season, so they'll be looking to score big in the season opener.
Two of their new riders should lead their GC hopes, Italian champion Alberto Bettiol - who joined mid-2024 from EF Education-EasyPost, and Sergio Higuita, who will race in the colourful new kit for the first time on January 21.
Bettiol won the prologue of the 2023 race so has shown January form in the past, while Higuita is on debut in Australia. However, expect the Colombian to be in decent shape as he tends to be good in the early season with his national road race championships often falling in the first two months of the year.
If Higuita can get close to his 2022 season form, when he won the GC at the Volta a Catalunya and stages at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Pologne, he should be a strong contender. He'll also have support from talented puncheur Ide Schelling and New Zealand national champion Aaron Gate who will contest the sprints.
Sheffield finished fourth and was the best young rider at his Tour Down Under debut in 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
After the worst season in their 15-year history, Ineos Grenadiers will be looking for a major bounce back in 2025, starting at the Tour Down Under where they are fielding a strong team.
2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas is the headline name on their start list but tends to find his best form later in the year. His last four appearances in the Australian stage race have been in support roles for others, with his one podium finish Down Under being from the 2013 edition.
However, Ineos have come with several options who could be suited to the punchy finishes and fight for bonus seconds across the five days.
Talented American rider Magnus Sheffield looks the most likely as a versatile Classics and stage race rider, with a good history at the Tour Down Under having finished fourth overall on debut in 2023.
Ineos also have former world champion Michał Kwiatkowski as another punchy option, with Aussie climber and new signing Lucas Hamilton also a potential contender.
Young riders to watch
Pablo Torres competing at the Zurich World Championships (Image credit: Chris Auld/SWpix)
The Tour Down Under provides the biggest teams with the perfect opportunity to get young riders and neo-pros used to the chaos of WorldTour stage races, without the pressure of the perhaps more prestigious events such as Paris-Nice or the Critérium du Dauphine.
Isaac del Toro was the young star of last year's race and there's little doubt that 2025 should see an up-and-coming rider do similarly, either in the sprints or in the general classification.
Former junior world champion Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek) is touted as being one of the stars of the future as a top multi-discipline talent. At 18, he'll be the youngest man in the race during his WorldTour debut. Also on Lidl-Trek's roster is Tim Torn Teutenberg, a sprinter and Classics star of the future.
Narrowly older than the Dane is Spain's next climbing sensation, Pablo Torres, who was signed with UAE Team Emirates on a contract until 2030. He'll likely be in support of Vine and Narváez but it will be intriguing to see where he stands on Willunga Hill.
Visma-Lease a Bike's provisional roster for the five days contains a wealth of young talent, notably, 19-year-old Brit Matt Brennan, who could be their option for the sprints. The Dutch pair of Menno Huising and Tijmen Graat are both climbing talents.
From the home nation's perspective, two of their top under-23 talents, Fergus Browning and Zac Marriage will be representing the Australian national squad fresh off the back of impressive performances at the national championships.
Watch for them to go in major breakaways before the super talents and WorldTour leaders emerge on the key stages.
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James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
