The men’s WorldTour calendar got off to a searing start – both literally and figuratively – with the Tour Down Under in Australia last week.
Set over six days, it was a race that brought a lot of headlines; there were fast finishes, a heat-induced stage neutralisation, and even kangaroos tearing through the bunch and tackling riders.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG are still the team to beat
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Not even a kangaroo wiping out their leader could stop UAE Team Emirates-XRG from winning the Tour Down Under.
Jay Vine was among the biggest victims of that marsupial two-footer, and, as powerful as it was, he still went on to win overall by one minute and three seconds – the largest winning margin since 2004.
What’s more, Vine finished the race with only two team-mates, having lost four to crashes throughout the event.
UAE have now won three of the last four editions of the Tour Down Under, and look as formidable as ever with Tadej Pogačar still to start his campaign. The team finished 2025 with a record-breaking 97 wins. Can they manage 100 in 2026?
The Brits are finding early form
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They may have been a long way from home, but the Brits looked at ease on the roads of Southern Australia last week, clocking three victories from three different riders.
The first fell to Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers), who won the 3.6km time trial prologue by half a second ahead of his compatriot Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling). Four days later, Vernon had his own hands in the air in Willunga, as the winner of a mass sprint. Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matthew Brennan then rounded out the race with a sprint win on the final day.
The results mean that British men have won 50% of all the men’s WorldTour race days this year. Admittedly, there have only been six days.
Brennan is no one-season wonder
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Matthew Brennan’s curtain-closing stage five victory in Stirling lay a positive foundation for another roaring season.
The 20-year-old was the breakout start of 2025, winning 14 times and earning himself the title of Cycling Weekly’s Male Rider of the Year.
Already, thanks his win in Australia, 2026 has started even better for the young Brit; it wasn’t until early March last year that he won his first race, and he had to wait another three weeks after that before he took his first WorldTour scalp.
Could Brennan go on to better his tally of 14 this year?
The climate crisis isn’t going away
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Ask any casual cycling fan what their favourite part of the Tour Down Under is and they’ll probably tell you Willunga Hill, the route’s most famous climb. This year, however, the ever-present kicker was plucked out at last minute, due to severe heat and ‘extreme’ fire danger warnings.
The change was a reminder that the climate crisis is real, and will keep impacting races.
Temperatures on the race’s fourth stage, the one scheduled to finish on Willunga Hill, rose beyond 40°C, which put it in the ‘red zone’ of the UCI’s High Temperature Protocol – an extreme risk bracket that allows organisers to change start and finish times, neutralise events, or cancel them altogether.
The day after the race finished, the nearby city of Adelaide clocked a new Australia Day heat record of 49°C. It begs the question, as my colleague Adam Becket raised last week: how hot is too hot for pro cycling?
The irony should not be lost that the Tour Down Under is sponsored by Australian oil and gas company Santos. Fossil fuels are responsible for more than two thirds of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN.
Mystery surrounds Ineos Grenadiers’ white shorts
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The biggest sub-plot at the Tour Down Under was the debut of Ineos Grenadiers’ new off-white bib shorts. In fact, they even got their first win, thanks to new signing Sam Welsford on stage three.
There was confusion among fans, though, about what colour shorts they should expect to see the riders wearing. Sam Watson, for example, wore black in the opening prologue, white for his stage winner’s podium presentation, white again in the leader’s jersey on stage one, and then black when he returned to his British national champion’s kit on stage two. Welsford, too, went black for the time trial, and then white for the rest of the race.
It was a saga that could keep fans guessing over the next few months. Although the overwhelming sight was that the white shorts are here to stay.
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