The Tour Down Under will, once again, not be taking place in 2022 as Australia's border closure and quarantine rules continue to be enforced.
It will be instead replaced by the Santos Festival of Cycling, as happened at the start of this year, which saw cyclists who live in Australia compete in a short stage race that took on some of the usual Tour Down Under routes including Willunga Hill.
The last time the WorldTour Australian stage race took place was in 2020, a month before the Covid-19 pandemic began forcing national lockdowns, with then Trek-Segafredo riders Richie Porte winning the men's race and Ruth Winder taking the women's edition.
The one-day WorldTour race, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, is also cancelled because of the national restrictions in Australia.
Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall said: "Adelaide in January is all about cycling and our cycling friends from all around Australia gathering here. Although international major events continue to be challenging, we will celebrate cycling in January 2022 in the best way we know how and welcome visitors to Adelaide once again to kick off the new year.
"South Australia’s ability to host Covid-Safe major events, including the Santos Festival of Cycling, brings substantial economic benefit and employment opportunities to the state, as well as showcasing stunning views of South Australia to the world."
The Australian border is currently closed to anyone from outside of the nation with strict enforcement. People are only able to travel to Australia if they have been given a special exemption to do so or they are an Australian citizen.
Australia's quarantine rules state that people must isolate to stop the potential spread of Covid-19 for 14 days. Over 45,000 Australians are still unable to get home including Ineos Grenadiers' new signing, Lucas Plapp.
The 20-year-old recently said: "I can't find a flight, so at the moment I might be here [Europes] for the winter, but I would love to be able to get back to Australia, race the nationals and Tour Down Under again, which will just be a local event.
"With the Olympic build-up, it's been a while since I saw my family and friends, so it would be really nice to get home and see them over the Christmas period."
The Santos Festival of Cycling 2022 will be a nine day event likely over similar terrain as at the start of 2021 but it is unclear as to whether some of the riders racing in Europe will be joining the race.
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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