The 2020 Santos Tour Down Under has been contested this weekin and around Adelaide, Australia. TheTour down Under now has some age to it, 22 runnings, and has been proven an excellent start to theprofessional cycling season. The TdU isone of the officially sanctioned and first of the UCI races, meaning also that each of the 19pro teams competing in races through the year has both a right and anobligation to field a team. In.Australia. In. January. This has the benefit of being mid Summer inAustralia, and over the Australia Day Holiday, at least this year. In addition, the Australians have the rightto have their national cycling squad contest the race also, (UniSA-Australia) Like the Amgen Tour ofCalifornia, which will take place in a few months, many of the Europeancyclists, like Romain Bardet and Thomas de Gendt, prefer the Tour down Under to some of the European races, sothey are always happy to come. Australians such as Richie Porte and Caleb Ewan, strong competitors inEurope, also like to race on their home turf. It always helps to have a little Vegemite at hand, apparently. Australian team Mitchelton - Scott likes to shine on theirhome territory, and each year puts in a good effort. Australian Richie Porte has finished his racein second place four times, including for the past two years. Richie Porte has won the Tour down Under one time, and is, of course, afavorite again this year. The racing started Tuesday, and runs through Sunday the 26th,but in the case of much of the world, the action will wrap up today, Saturdaythe 25th. So far, five stages have beenrun, three flat stages and two hilly stages. The last stage is a medium mountain stage, which promises to shakethings up on the last day of the race, and the standings are also likely to bemodified. The first stage was won byIreland's Sam Bennett, with Caleb Ewan taking stages two and four. Richie Porte has taken stage three, andItaly's Giacomo Nizzolo taking stage five. After stage five, the General Classification shows SouthAfrica's Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) leading the overall race, with RichiePorte (Trek Sagfredo) in his customarysecond place. Australia's Robert Power, riding for TeamSunweb, is third in the GC, with BritSimon Yates (also Mitchelton-Scott) currently in fourth. Rounding out the top five in the current GCis New Zealand's George Bennet, riding for Jumbo Visma. The closing stage should provide some greataction, whether you are live at the race or following from Bondi Beach. As Always, Eric http://speedorex.blogspot.com/ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/omnisporthttps://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Triathletepix/info -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/omnisport/1153409181.11391742.1579931300795%40mail.yahoo.com.
