Australian sprint superstar Caleb Ewan claimed the Schwalbe Classic in a front of a raucous city crowd on Saturday night.
The 28-year-old was roared over the Flinders Street finish line an hour, two minutes and 37 seconds after the start gun was fired before the official Santos Tour Down Under WorldTour race season starts.
Ewan, a nine-time Tour Down under stage winner, used his incredible power to rise to the top of the peloton ahead of some of the finest bike riders the Tour Down Under has seen since its inception in 1999.
With Ewan lapping up the win, Australia’s Grand Tour winner Jai Hindley stayed out of trouble in a race tailor-made for sprint guns.
Hindley’s incredible Giro D’Italia 2022 win has seen the Australian superstar remain ice cool ahead of the new 2023 UCI WorldTour season.
The West Australian is just the second Australian to win a Grand Tour in more than 100 years of the toughest stage racing on the planet after Cadel Evans claimed the Tour de France title in 2011.
“Last time I was at the TDU (Tour Down Under) I wasn’t at the press conference,’’ Hindley said with tongue in cheek.
“I’ll put it to you like that, same old, and the Aussie crowd and all the fans, I don’t buy into it, I have my own ambitions.”
Hindley last raced at the Tour Down Under WorldTour in 2020 under the wing of Team Sunweb and the watch of South Australia’s Luke Roberts.
Hindley during the height of Covid in 2020 just missed out on GC at the Giro D’Italia.
He finished 18th overall at the Tour Down Under in 2020 and 2019 after making his debut at the event for UniSA where he finished 25th in 2017.
Bora-hansgrohe’s Hindley is the absolute Australian men’s standout for the WorldTour race which starts with a prologue for the first time in race history on Tuesday night.
The winner of the time trial at the Adelaide Riverbank will also win and wear the ochre leader’s jersey for the Ziptrak Stage 1 Tanunda to Tanunda on Wednesday.
Race director Stuart O’Grady’s WorldTour debut will come to fruition after the two-time Tour Down Under champion has attracted arguably the most exciting peloton in the history of the race.
Hindley, 26, leads the Australian pack, followed by super Grand Tour champions Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, and slick Australian gun Michael Matthews.
O’Grady was stoked by the presence of some of the biggest names in world cycling in Adelaide in 2023.
“I’d like to think the guys are happy to be here,’’ O’Grady said.
“I know personally how important it is to be in Adelaide for the racing to get that build up that makes it easier for you for the rest of the season.
“I found that out for myself (as a professional rider).
“And I’m privileged and proud to be sitting up with them and very, very grateful, that they have made a commitment to be here.”
KIWI CLAIMS HISTORIC VICTORY IN WOMEN’S SCHWALBE CLASSIC
Ally Wollastan from Team New Zealand claimed the women’s Schwalbe Classic on the eve of the historic maiden women’s Santos Tour Down Under WorldTour on Monday.
Wollastan, 22, raced to victory in a bunch sprint finish on Flinders Street on the city street circuit on Saturday night.
The day’s scorching 38C temperature was met with strong southerly winds in the early evening which favoured attacks as Wollastan – after a second place in New Zealand’s 2022 national road titles – was too strong over the line.
Jayco UlULa’s Georgie Howe led from the front early in the race in a snapshot of what’s in store for fans in the Ziptrak Stage 1 from Glenelg to Aldinga from 11.30am on Monday.
The crit racing seemingly pleased Santos Tour Down Under assistant race director Annette Edmondson.
“We have been very hungry to get back racing, we’re ready to get involved in the WorldTour peloton, a major moment for Australian cycling,” Edmondson said.
She was ecstatic on the eve of the Tour Down Under making its UCI WorldTour debut to open the 2023 season across the globe.
Seven years after Edmondson featured at the UCI’s 2.2 event before women would receive the same prize money as the men’s WorldTour stars in SA in 2018, the race was last year upgraded to the highest-level professional racing on the planet for the first time.
Edmondson and fellow assistant Tour Down Under race director Carlee Taylor are expected to have an extremely busy and enjoyable three days of first-class racing joining race director Stuart O’Grady.
Stage 2 features Birdwood to Uraidla.
The Let’s Go stage 3 leaves from the Torrens Footbridge in the city before culminating with a fast finish on the Montacute Road, Campbelltown finish line.
And current Australian national road champion Brodie Chapman is confident in her teammates’ ability to challenge for major prizes during the three-stage race as she prepares for another blast of scorching 38C on Tuesday.
“With the heat, it’s about monitoring yourself, I’d like to think it’s like racing at altitude,’’ Chapman said.
“We’ve got a team of experts helping us out.”
“I like to pre-cool as much as possible, take a cold shower before I go out riding, try to drink all my liquid calories, wet the body, and get out of the sun as soon as possible.”
And wearing the road champion national colours at the WorldTour for the entire season for the first time in her career is monumental for the climbing specialist.
“It’s definitely as special as you would imagine wearing the national champion jersey,’’ Chapman said.
“The jersey itself is not always a thing that’s guaranteed in your career and to be able to race at the Tour Down Under and the first race here after Covid, it’s very special and it’s not lost on me.”
