Preview Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2024 | Girmay up against 2 ironclad squads?!

For part of the WorldTour peloton, the grand journey down under is coming to an end. Following the Tour Down Under and the Surf Coast Classic, this Sunday in Geelong, it is time for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, named after the Australian cycling star. IDLProCycling.com tells you all you need to know!

Tourism agencies in Australia can relish the cycling races being organized there at the moment. After the beautiful scenes around Adelaide in the south of the country, the peloton has now moved to the Melbourne area, where in Geelong - which was also host to the 2010 World Cycling Championships - the WorldTour racing spree will continue.

Looking at the honor roll of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, we see a split between strong sprinters and punchers. Last year, dsm-firmenich talent Marius Mayrhofer (now with Tudor), representing the former category, won the Geelong race.

Practical information Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2024

• Sunday January 28, 2024
• Participants 
• Classification: WorldTour
  

In this article

• Most recent winners
• Course, weather and times
• Favorites
• TV information

Most recent winners Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 

2023 Marius Mayrhofer
2022 Not ridden
2021 Not ridden
2020 Dries Devenyns
2019 Elia Viviani
2018 Jay McCarthy
2017 Nikias Arndt
2016 Peter Kennaugh
2015 Gianni Meersman

Course, weather and times Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2024

The 176-kilometer long one-day race starts and finishes in Geelong, which was the battleground for the Cycling World Championships won by Norwegian Thor Hushovd in 2010. In the opening phase, there are some hills to be conquered, offering opportunities for riders in the early breakaway.

The course then heads towards Torquay, located on the coast. There, Biniam Girmay recently won the new Surf Coast Classic on Thursday. Afterward, there is a stretch of about 25 kilometers along the coast to Barrow Heads, the midpoint towards the decisive local laps in and around Geelong.

The circuit is 16.5 kilometers long, with the Challambra climb as the focal point. At just a kilometer long, this hill is not that bad in terms of length, but it is tricky because of its average gradient of nearly nine percent. Following this climb is a short descent, then the legs will face another challenging segment of six hundred meters at an 8.3 percent gradient. After the last passage of this two-stage challenge, there are about five to six kilometers of downhill to the finish line, where the winner will receive the victory flowers.

Weather
The weather conditions in the Geelong area are expected to be pleasant this coming weekend. On Sunday, temperatures well above 20 degrees Celsius are anticipated, with a moderate southwest wind. There is a 99 percent certainty that it will not rain.

Times
Start: 11:10 AM locally (01:10 AM Dutch time)
Finish: 3:45 PM locally (05:45 AM Dutch time)

Favorites Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2024

After spending a good two weeks in Australia, it is definitely becoming clear who is in form and who is not. Biniam Girmay, representing Intermarché-Wanty, belongs to the former category, making him one of the big contenders for this WorldTour race. Bini will return to Eritrea after this Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, but he would undoubtedly like to end his time in Australia with a bang. In Thursday's Surf Coast Classic, after several podium finishes in the Tour Down Under, he once again proved that he hasn't forgotten how to win.

Girmay will face some very strong teams, with Israel-Premier Tech and INEOS Grenadiers standing out. The team from Israel has Stephen Williams, the winner of the Tour Down Under, but also Corbin Strong, who can finish off a race with a sprint. The New Zealander had to withdraw due to illness in the Australian stage race, but his second place on Thursday proved that he seems to be past that.

INEOS Grenadiers is that other strong team we were referring to. They likely have one of the best punchers in Jhonatan Narváez, but they also have Filippo Ganna and Elia Viviani, who are very dangerous in the final stages. The home team, Jayco AlUla, is counting on Caleb Ewan, but so far, he doesn’t seem to be in peak form. The same logically applies to Luke Plapp, after his heavy fall in the Tour Down Under.

Or will we get a surprise winner like Mayrhofer? Laurence Pithie of Groupama-FDJ, after his strong Tour Down Under, would also fit into that category well, but with Milan Fretin (Cofidis), Emils Liepins (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan Team) also in attendance, there are other fast riders who remain somewhat under the radar. Quinn Simmons and Bauke Mollema will likely want to show their attacking skills for the Lidl-Trek team, as will the sprightly Willunga Hill winner Oscar Onley of dsm-firmenich PostNL.

For clarity: WorldTour teams Visma | Lease a Bike, Bahrain Victorious, Decathlon AG2R, BORA-hansgrohe, Movistar, Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE-Team Emirates have already returned to Europe after the Tour Down Under and therefore are not participating. As the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (like Dwars door Vlaanderen, Brughes-De Panne and Eschborn-Frankfurt) was added to the WorldTour later on, the top-level teams are not necessarily required to participate in Australia.

Who are the favorites for the 2024 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, according to IDLProCycling.com?

Top favorites: Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech)
Outsiders: Caleb Ewan (Jayco AlUla), Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers) and Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ)
Long shots: Quinn Simmons, Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Oscar Onley (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Elia Viviani, Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers), Milan Fretin (Cofidis), Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan Team) and Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla)

TV coverage Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2024

The first WorldTour one-day race of 2024 will be broadcast from 3:00 AM Dutch time onwards, on the Eurosport.nl website and via Discovery+. The finish is expected around 5:45 AM Dutch time. IDLProCycling.com will of course publish a report and the main reactions on Sunday morning.