Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, January 17, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
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Current racing:
- January 17 - 26: Tour Down Under
Upcoming racing:
- January 25 - February 2: Challenge Vuelta a Mallorca
- January 25: Ruta de la Cerámica - Gran Premio Castellón
- January 26: Classica Comunitat a Valenciana 1969
- February 2: GP La Marseillaise
Latest completed racing:
- January 3: X20 Trofee Koksijde-Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Cross
- January 1: GP Sven Nys Cross
- December 30: Diegem Cyclocross
- December 26: Gavere Cyclocross
- December 27: Exact Cross Loenhout-Azencross
- December 15: Namur Cyclocross-Citadelcross
- November 17: Flandriencross
- November 3: European Cyclocross Championships
- November 1: X20 Trofee Oudenaarde-Koppenbergcross
The team posted this:
Bahrain Victorious lines up as one of the 20 teams competing in the Tour Down Under, which once again opens the new WorldTour season in Adelaide. Celebrating its 25th anniversary since its inception in 1999, the race will challenge riders on South Australia’s most iconic roads under the warm Aussie summer sun.
Phil Bauhaus will be our leader for sprint stages, with the experienced compatriot Nikias Arndt as his lead-out man and also the team captain. Alongside our German duo, Robert Stannard will be our co-leader for this race, aiming to tackle one of the harder stages. Meanwhile, Roman Ermakov, Afonso Eulálio, Mathijs Paasschens, and Daniel Skerl will make both their team and TDU debuts.
Phil Bauhaus wins 2024 Tirreno-Adriatico stage 3. Sirotti photo
“We are really excited to get the team ready for the Tour Down Under in 2025. This year we are going with 3 of our established riders, plus 4 new riders of the team. We are really looking forward to trying to work out the dynamic of these guys, work out their strength, their weakness, we really try to put on together as a team.”
“We are now in Australia for 5 days. The boys are doing some fantastic training iterated around Adelaide area. We are looking at all the stages to get ourselves ready for this year’s race. Obviously, Phil Bauhaus, former winner of a stage here in the Tour Down Under, is in great shape. He would be looking forward to going up against the best sprinters in the world, to trying to get another stage win this year.”
“The main objective for the team in this year’s race, we are going for stage wins. We feel that we’ve got the right mix of both leaders and workers to be able to do well in the sprint stages, and in the harder intermediate stages, within maybe some reduced bunch sprints or even breakaways. For General Classification, we will see how it goes out of the first 3 days of the race. The main priority is the stage wins.”
Ahead of the six-day race is the Villawood Men’s Classic, a curtain-raiser criterium on January 18th. From January 21st, Stage 1 introduces a new challenge for sprinters aiming for victory and the prestigious Ochre jersey at Gumeracha after navigating an undulating loop.
Stage 2 features a start and finish in Tanunda, with action heating up on Mengler Hill (2.8 km at 6.7%). This stage could likely end in another sprint finish in the Barossa Valley, where Phil Bauhaus claimed victory in the 2023 edition.
Stage 3, known as the spring classic of the 2025 Santos Tour Down Under, presents an unrelenting challenge with the Knotts Hill climb (2.7 km at 7.7%) a fresh challenge towards the rollercoaster last approach at Uraidla finish. The total elevation on the day is 2,648m.
Stage 4, Its Glenelg start and Victor Harbor finish also featured during the race’s first edition in 1999. The stage is the longest (157.2km) one where breakaway specialist could shine on Fleurieu Peninsula in the technical finish into Victor Harbor.
Stage 5 will see riders tackle the infamous Willunga Hill climb twice—a pivotal moment for General Classification contenders to make decisive moves. Finally, Stage 6 brings the peloton back to downtown Adelaide for a short but explosive circuit, promising a thrilling sprint finish.
“In general, what we have been doing over the last few days was getting the team together. The atmosphere is good. The synergy is really good. We are very much looking forward to taking each day as an individual race. We try to do our best as we can every day. The energy level and the hypes are high for a great Tour Down Under.”
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Here’s the team’s news:
Paul Magnier was one of the most successful neo-pros of 2024. The Grenoble resident got off to an incredible start, taking our first win of the year in Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx, before making it two victories after producing an incredible uphill sprint on stage 3 of the Tour of Oman. The Frenchman also competed in a couple of races together with the Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team and the U23 French National squad, picking up a total of three wins, including two stages at the GiroNextGen, where he also claimed the points jersey.
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In the second part of the year, he came close to a resounding victory on home turf, at the Bretagne Classic, an indication of what was to come in September, where he took the Tour of Britain by storm, scoring three wins thanks to his phenomenal speed and excellent positioning.
Paul Magnier wins stage 5 of the 2024 Tour of Britain.
The Frenchman will be hoping to enjoy another strong start to the season in February, when he’ll pin on a number for the Étoile de Bessèges, the first pro stage race of his career on French soil, followed by Figueira Champions Classic. His first big appointment of the year, however, will come at the beginning of March, when Magnier will be at the start of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The prestigious one-day race, which our team has won multiple times, will see Paul take on some of Flanders’ most famous roads, and the 20-year-old is excited at this thought.
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“It’s been some time since my previous race, the Tour of Britain, and I can’t wait to be back in action and see how my body will react after all this time. I am motivated for my first race, but I can’t say I feel extra pressure after what was a very good debut year in the pro ranks. I got to learn a lot from my teammates, but also about myself, so overall it was a good experience.”
“Now I look forward to tackling bigger races, despite knowing they will be harder. I will continue to develop and hopefully get some more good results. I want to feel the race rhythm again, so I look forward to Bessèges, especially as I like racing in France and seeing the fans there”, Paul added. “From there, I will go to Portugal, and then to Belgium for my first cobblestone classic. I will do some recons first, to make sure I know the roads, as it will be something new for me, but I am excited to discover these races and determined to do my best.”
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