Tour Down Under 2018 Route stage 1: Port Adelaide – Lyndoch

Tuesday, 16 January 2018 - The 1st stage of the Tour Down Under is played out on rolling roads. At 145 kilometres, the riders travel from Port Adelaide to Lyndoch. Caleb Ewan has font memories of the place in the Barossa wine region as he sprinted to victory in 2016 and 2017.

The route is almost the same as in the 1st stage of last edition. In 2017, the riders started in Unley and now they leave from Port Adelaide, but shortly they ride on the same roads.

At kilometre 38.6 the battle for the KOM jersey ignites on Humbug Scrub, which is the only ranked climb of the day. The slope is 6.3 kilometres and averaging 4%.

Following the first passage in Lyndoch the route takes in three laps of 26.5 kilometer. Mostly on gently rolling roads, yet the last 8 kilometres are a false flat - downhill, so expect a fast finish.

In 2016, Caleb Ewan took the bunch sprint in Lyndoch ahead of Mark Renshaw and Wouter Wippert, while he outgunned Danny van Poppel and Sam Bennett in 2017.

The first three riders on the line take time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds, while two intermediate sprints - at kilometre 74.3 and at kilometre 100.8 - come with 3, 2 and 1 seconds each.