Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
Race details
DateJanuary (28-29 in 2023)
RegionAustralia
DisciplineRoad
CompetitionUCI World Tour
TypeOne-day
Web sitewww.cadelevansgreatoceanroadrace.com.au Edit this at Wikidata
History (men)
First edition2015 (2015)
Editions8 (as of 2024)
First winner Gianni Meersman (BEL)
Most winsNo repeat winners
Most recent Laurence Pithie (NZL)
History (women)
First edition2015 (2015)
Editions8 (as of 2024)
First winner Rachel Neylan (AUS)
Most winsNo repeat winners
Most recent Rosita Reijnhout (NED)

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race also known as Great Ocean Road Race or Cadel Road Race is an annual professional one-day road bicycle racing for both men and women starting and finishing in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, and routed along the picturesque Great Ocean Road. The first race was held in 2015, as the farewell race for Cadel Evans—Australia's only Tour de France winner or Road World Champion.[1] The 2017 edition was added to the UCI World Tour for the first time.[2][3]

In November 2020, it was announced that the 2021 race would not be held due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. This was due in part to a number of UCI WorldTour teams making the decision to stay in Europe due to uncertainty around international travel conditions and logistics of quarantine requirements.[4]

The event returned in January 2023, featuring on both the men's and women's World Tour calendars.[5]

Course[edit]

The men's version is 176 km (109 mi), while the women's is 143 km (89 mi). In 2023, the mass participation People's Ride includes three distance options—35km, 50km, or 125km.[6]

The race starts on the Geelong waterfront in Victoria, and travels westward to the rolling hills of Moriac, turning south toward the famous surf beach of Bells Beach, following the surf coast to Torquay and through Cadel’s hometown of Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove, before heading north back to a Geelong circuit before finishing back around on the waterfront.[7] The course is suited to puncheurs.[1]

Results[edit]

Men's race[edit]

Year Country Rider Team
2015  Belgium Gianni Meersman Etixx–Quick-Step
2016  Great Britain Peter Kennaugh Team Sky
2017  Germany Nikias Arndt Team Sunweb
2018  Australia Jay McCarthy Bora–Hansgrohe
2019  Italy Elia Viviani Deceuninck–Quick-Step
2020  Belgium Dries Devenyns Deceuninck–Quick-Step
2021 No race due to COVID-19 pandemic
2022 No race due to COVID-19 pandemic
2023  Germany Marius Mayrhofer Team dsm–firmenich PostNL
2024  New Zealand Laurence Pithie Groupama–FDJ

Wins per country[edit]

Wins Country
2  Belgium
 Germany
1  Australia
 Great Britain
 Italy
 New Zealand

Women's race[edit]

Year Country Rider Team
2015  Australia Rachel Neylan Building Champions Squad
2016  Australia Amanda Spratt Orica–AIS
2017  Netherlands Annemiek van Vleuten Orica–Scott
2018  Australia Chloe Hosking Alé–Cipollini
2019  Cuba Arlenis Sierra Astana
2020  Germany Liane Lippert Team Sunweb
2021 No race due to COVID-19 pandemic
2022 No race due to COVID-19 pandemic
2023  Netherlands Loes Adegeest FDJ–Suez
2024  Netherlands Rosita Reijnhout Visma–Lease a Bike

Wins per country[edit]

Wins Country
3  Australia
 Netherlands
1  Cuba
 Germany

Melbourne pre-race criterium[edit]

In 2017 the pre-race criterium was known as the Race Melbourne - Albert Park, becoming the Towards Zero Race Melbourne in 2018.[8] In 2019 the race was held in a team-based format with points awarded for sprints. Deceuninck-QuickStep won the men's event[9] and Trek Segafredo won the women's event.[10] In 2020 the race was not held and was replaced by Race Torquay.[11]

Men's race[edit]

Year Country Rider Team
2017  Ireland Sam Bennett Bora–Hansgrohe
2018  Ireland Sam Bennett Bora–Hansgrohe

Women's race[edit]

Year Country Rider Team
2017  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Cylance Pro Cycling
2018  Australia Annette Edmondson Wiggle High5

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2015". Cyclingnews.com.
  2. ^ "UCI expands WorldTour to 37 events". Cycling News. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  3. ^ "The UCI reveals expanded UCI WorldTour calendar for 2017". UCI. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  4. ^ "Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2021 cancelled". Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. 1 November 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  5. ^ Jackie Tyson (30 September 2022). "Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race returns on WorldTour 2023 calendar". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  6. ^ "Home". Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  7. ^ "Elite Men's Overview". Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  8. ^ "CQ Ranking". cqranking.com. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Deceuninck-QuickStep win new-look Race Melbourne". Cycling News. 24 January 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  10. ^ "Trek-Segafredo Women win Race Melbourne". Cycling News. 24 January 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  11. ^ de Neef, Matt (14 May 2019). "Cadel's Race support event moves from Melbourne to Torquay". Cycling Tips. Retrieved 1 February 2020.

Sources[edit]