Team Bahrain Victorious riders are ready as the Tour Down Under marks the start of the 2023 WorldTour season in South Australia.
Riders will take on a fast-paced 1.35km circuit through Adelaide’s centre on January 14, as a pre-race curtain raiser ahead of the six-day race from January 17 to 22.
Starting with the prologue on the Adelaide Riverbank, the race finishes in the Adelaide hills on the summit of Mount Lofty and covers 673km in total.
The course of the 23rd edition, after the 5.5km prologue along Adelaide’s Riverbank, moves to Tanunda with an expected sprint finish.
For stages 2 and 3, Nettle Hill (2km/7.8 per cent) and Corkscrew(2.4km/9pc) are the last climbs of their respective stages and could play a crucial role in opening the race.
Stage 4 in Willunga could be a chance for a punchy rider. While stage 5 features an explosive 114km that sees riders take on the punchy Mount Lofty (1.5km/6pc) four times before finishing there.
The Prologue and rolling terrain suits our leader from the Basque country. Heading to Australia by leading this versatile group of riders, Pello Bilbao will make his Tour Down Under debut with the help of Hermann Pernsteiner and Kamil Gradek, who will have supportive roles over the weeklong race.
For stage wins, Phil Bauhaus can be confident of his first victory of the season with the help of Jasha Sütterlin and Nikias Arndt. In 2018 Phil was second in the bunch sprint in Victor Harbor. Cameron Scott, the 25-year-old from New South Wales, will join forces with the other fast men in our lead-out train and round up our 7-man roster.
Neil Stephens, Team Bahrain Victorious’s sports director in Tour Down Under, said: “Team Bahrain Victorious has been working really hard out of the European winter to get ready for the Tour Down Under. As we all know, this race hasn’t been on for a couple of years because of the coronavirus. We are really looking forward to 2023.
“We put together a solid team. Pello Bilbao will lead the team up for the GC, and Phil Bauhaus will be our designated sprinter for the team.
“We also have some great support from Kamil Gradek and Hermann Pernsteiner. They are really solid workers.”
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