Favorites stage 3 Tour Down Under 2025 | New, tricky hill in South Australia

The Tour Down Under continues on Thursday with a first test for the GC riders. After two days for the sprinters, Knots Hill should normally be the first option for making a difference in the Australian WorldTour race. IDLProCycling.com brings you the details!

Route stage 3 Tour Down Under 2025

On day three, the Tour Down Under explores completely new roads. Mount Lofty is gone compared to past years, but with the climb to Knots Hill (2.7 kilometers at 7.7 percent) in the full finale, they have found a worthy replacement. Although there was allegedly some consternation in the peloton over the descents in the finale.

This tricky hill has to be climbed twice in the last fifty kilometers, with a final one in the previous ten kilometers. In addition, the legs should be energized from the beginning of the stage, as the first fifteen kilometers from Norwood are dirty uphill. A ride with possibilities!

Climbs
9.5 km: Norwood (7.9 km a 4.0%)
106.5: Pound Reserve (2.7 km a 7.7%)
142.0 km: Pound Reserve (2.7 km a 7.7%)

Times
Start: 7:40 PM EST
Finish: 11:31 PM EST

Weather stage 3 Tour Down Under 2025

Thursday will be slightly cooler than other days, but the riders in Australia can hardly complain. Temperatures will be around 25 degrees Celsius, and there will be a breeze.

Favorites stage 3 Tour Down Under 2025

With the double climb of Knots Hill in the finale, the days of Sam Welsford in the leader's jersey after Thursday seem to be over, although, at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, they will always have other men they can count on. Laurence Pithie is an all-rounder, for example, who should be able to follow uphill and otherwise use his technical skills. Finn Fisher-Black is certainly a puncher on duty as well.

Wednesday at Menglers Hill, we saw a small glimpse of names to expect. Guys like Jhonatan Narváez, Marc Soler (UAE-Emirates XRG), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana), and Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) showed off their skills, and these are the riders you expect to see on Knots Hill: cunning, climbing well and just very strong.

That said, there are others: what about outgoing winner Stephen Williams, with Corbin Strong by his side at Israel-Premier Tech? Strong is among the string of good climbing sprinters/good riders who will also have to be unloaded, as will Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Paul Lapeira, Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R) and Tim Torn Teutenberg of Lidl-Trek.

Besides that, you can still put some extra riders forward this early in the season. Types like Lukas Nerurkar (EF), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), Francesco Bussato (Intermarché-Wanty), Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla), Andrea Bagioli and, of course, top talent Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek).

By the way, part of the peloton already showed itself on Knots Hill in the days leading up to the Tour Down Under. Riding for the Australian selection, Rudy Porter has the KOM there at 6 minutes and 38 seconds. Behind him follow Strong, Williams, Woods, and Jay Vine, among others.

Favorites stage 3 Tour Down Under 2025, according to IDLProCycling.com

Top favorites: Jhonatan Narváez (UAE-Emirates XRG) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla)
Outsiders: Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana), Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), Finn Fisher-Black and Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
Long shots: Luke Nerurkar (EF Education-EasyPost), Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), Marc Soler (UAE-Emirates XRG), Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla), Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) and Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R)

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Want to know when and where the most exciting races of 2025 will take place? Check out our updated 2025 cycling calendars for the men's and women's peloton!

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