The men’s WorldTour has officially kicked off with stage one of the Tour Down Under.
A sprint day was expected on the opening stage, as the peloton took on a 150km course, running laps around Tunanda to the north of Adelaide.
Riders tackled four circuits of a 30km loop, which featured the 600-metre long, four per cent average Breakneck Hill climb.
You can read the full race report from stage one here.
Conditions were perfect for a full-gas sprint, with some of the fastest legs in the peloton turning out for the first WorldTour race of 2020.
Caleb Ewan looked to be the favourite for the stage, having taken victory in the Schwalbe Classic criterium on the eve of the Tour Down Under.
But also lining up were Sam Bennett with his new Deceuninck – Quick-Step lead-out train, Elia Viviani who has just moved to Cofidis, and a reinvigorated André Greipel who is now riding in Israel Start-Up Nation colours.
There are also plenty of general classification contenders looking to hold onto their hopes and make it safely through the day.
Mitchelton-Scott’s Daryl Impey is in the mix again as he looks to take a third consecutive victory, but Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) will have other ideas as he looks to take his second overall win and dominate on Willunga Hill for another year.
Other contenders include Rohan Dennis, who is looking for a fresh start with Team Ineos.
>>> Tour Down Under 2020 odds: Here are the favourites to take the overall victory
The six-stage race is centred around Adelaide in the south of Australia with the race set to be decided on the now-famous Willunga Hill.
Richie Porte has won the Willinga Hill stage for six years running, but last year it was Impey who finished the stage in third on the same time as Porte and secured the overall victory by 13 seconds.
We will be bringing you race reports and highlights throughout the week of racing.
Alex is the digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter and now as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output.
Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) and joining CW in 2018, Alex has covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers.
Away from journalism, Alex is a national level time triallist, avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
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