WorldTour
Tour Down Under 2026: ambition met by a week of tough racing
A demanding week in South Australia to open the WorldTour season.
Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe arrived in South Australia with clear ambitions for the opening WorldTour race of the season. The plan was to back Finn Fisher-Black for a strong general classification result, and chase stage success with Danny van Poppel in the sprints. The course promised pressure from the start, with a short prologue, sprint opportunities early, and selective GC days building toward the decisive climbing and the final technical circuit in Stirling.
Across the week, the team aimed to be present in the action, with that work translating into several podium finishes along the way. While the week didn’t necessarily deliver the full set of results the team had targeted, with small margins and circumstance shaping the final picture, the week did deliver a momentum to take forward.
Tour Down Under Prologue - Finn Fisher-Black
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Tour Down Under Prologue - Jarrad Drizners
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Tour Down Under 2026
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Tour Down Under 2026 - Luke Tuckwell
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A fast start and an early podium
The week began with a short, high-intensity prologue, an individual time trial on road. In that sharp opener, Laurence Pithie delivered a podium with third place, putting the team immediately on the front foot and reinforcing the sense that good opportunities were there to be taken.
Sprint chances, but little room for error
Stage 1 offered a sprint finish after a fast day that demanded positioning late, with crosswinds a factor in the closing kilometres. Van Poppel finished fourth, close to a result, but without the stage win the team had targeted.
Corkscrew pressure: a key day that didn’t click
Stage 2 (Norwood to Uraidla, 148km) brought the first major GC test in the Adelaide Hills, shaped by two ascents of Corkscrew Road and an uphill finish in Uraidla. It was one of the days highlighted in the build-up as pivotal for Fisher-Black, but he wasn’t at his best on the stage, and the race moved on without the step forward the team had been aiming for.
Tour Down Under 2026
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No Willunga: a last-minute route change, a quick pivot, and another podium
Stage 4 underlined how quickly plans can change at the Tour Down Under. With an Extreme Fire Danger Rating across the Mount Lofty Ranges and forecast temperatures up to 43°C, the stage was modified and no longer featured the much-anticipated Willunga Hill. Instead, it ended on High Street in Willunga, with the final 600 metres rising at roughly three to four percent.
For Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, it became a day of constant recalibration. Following the removal of Willunga Hill, a new plan had been built around a sprint for Danny van Poppel, but after he abandoned the stage, the team committed fully to Laurence Pithie, working hard to position him for the uphill drag to the line. In the decisive sprint, he launched strongly to take third place, a deserved reward on a day demanding adaptation and the ability to thrive in the Australian heat.
Stirling Finale: Fisher-Black takes second
On the final day in Stirling, the team came through an attritional 169km circuit stage that was shaped by constant pressure and a chaotic mid-race incident involving a kangaroo that caused a crash in the field. Laurence Pithie was among the riders brought down, but the team stabilised quickly afterwards and stayed in the fight as the race reset and the finale began to take shape. With the stage ultimately decided in a reduced sprint after the late move was caught inside the final kilometre, Finn Fisher-Black delivered a strong finish to close out the week, sprinting to second place.
Finn Fisher - Black on the Stirling stage:
“So we were trying to win the stage today with either me or Laurence. Laurence went down pretty hard in the crash early on, so we decided I’d sprint in the final kick here. It was uphill, so I knew it’d suit me, and I thought we’d give it a crack. Laurence put me in a perfect position to go for the win. And I think I just left it a little bit too late, and Brennan got the better of me in the end. So I’m pretty happy to be up there, but it feels like I missed out on a win today.”
Shane Archbold, Sports Director, on this year’s Tour Down Under campaign:
“Overall, we did expect a lot more coming here. We thought we would be in contention for a GC result, but it wasn’t possible. We then we tried to chase stages, and that worked out pretty well, with a couple of thirds, a second, and a fourth place. It’s not all doom and gloom, but we did definitely expect more.
After the week we’ve had, not the luckiest times and not the best performances, I really wanted the guys to gamble today. They played it really well. They did gamble as much as possible, saved as much as they could, but unfortunately Finn was simply beaten by a faster guy. Finn’s not super happy with the result, but Brennan is the best rider in these types of finishes, so there’s not much you can do to change that. So with our second place today, we’re pretty pleased.”
