Tour Down Under hopes to attract ‘biggest name’ for 2025

The race director of the Tour, which won the inaugural edition in 1999, said at Monday’s route reveal that he is targeting a top rider to headline the landmark race from January 18 to 26.

The Santos Tour for women will be held from January 17 to 19.

The state government, which owns the event, is trying to sign Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia), Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark), Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), Primoz Roglic (Slovenia), Wout van Aert (Belgium) or Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands).

That group dominates road cycling – Pogacar is the favorite for the Tour de France from June 29 ahead of Vingegaard, the two-time defending champion, and Roglic is also a top candidate.

Evenepoel won the road world championship in Wollongong two years ago, while van Aert and van der Poel are also all-time greats in the one-day classics.

O’Grady leaves for Europe on Tuesday morning and when asked about his main goal there, he said: “Signing one of the biggest names in cycling.”

“We’ve obviously been working on that big name, which has been in the works for a while,” he said.

“Once we get through the Tour de France and the road race of the Olympic Games in Paris is over, we should get an answer pretty quickly after that.

“So hopefully they do very well.”

The Adelaide Tour has a history of attracting big international names.

The biggest coup – and ultimately by far the most controversial – seduced Lance Armstrong to begin his comeback in Adelaide in 2009.

The American retired again after the 2011 edition.

A few days before the 2013 Tour Down Under began, Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey in a TV interview that he had used doping.

The race has also attracted Peter Sagan, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Julian Alaphilippe among the top foreign riders.

German Erik Zabel, one of the best sprinters in the world at the time, won two stages in the first race of 1999.

Next January’s men’s race returns to its roots, using the same city circuits that bookended the 1999 course.

“I really couldn’t see anything other than having a big celebration, right in the heart of our beautiful city,” O’Grady said of the final stage.

“Paris has the Champs Elysees, Adelaide has King William (St) – same, same.”

The men’s race also includes a new finish climb on Pound Rd in the Adelaide Hills, which O’Grady considers as tough as the iconic Willunga Hill climb south of the city.

– MONKEY