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2026 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (World Tour), Australia, 10th Edition

Women's race: Saturday, January 31, 2026
Men's race: Sunday, February 1, 2026

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race podium history | 2025 edition

Mens race | Women's race

Men's Race, Sunday, February 1, 2026 - Geelong - Geelong, 182.3 km

Men's race course map | Start list

Tobias Lund Andresen wins the race. Getty Photo

Bill and Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, 2019: A Year of New Faces is available in both Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Weather at the start/finish city of Geelong at 11:25 AM, local time: 20C (68F), mostly cloudy, with the wind from the southwest at 23 km/hr (14 mph). There is just a 2% chance of rain.

The race: Here's the race organizer's report.

Denmark’s Tobias Andresen won the 2026 Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race today in a brilliant bunch sprint on a crowd lined Geelong waterfront.

Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) beat Great Britain’s Matthew Brennan (Visma – Lease a Bike) and Australian Brady Gilmore (NSN Cycling Team) and 16 other riders in the final lead group of 17 to claim his second win of the 2026 season.

Andresen, winner of last year’s Surf Coast Classic from Lorne to Torquay, came into the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in strong form after the Tour Down Under in which he won stage one and podiumed in three other stages.

Today, he booked himself in for winning contention by making the decisive selection in the 186.1km race after the fourth ascents of the iconic Challambra climb that highlights the 21km finishing circuit. But he was not alone among the sprinters.

Also in the group was 2025 winner Mauro Schmid (Jayco – Alula) and Australia champion Patrick Eddy (Team Australia), and several seconds behind after his own surges form the leaders in the last kilometres, Schmid’s teammate Luke Plapp.

As expected, it was when the race hit the finishing circuits that it came alive.

The race did produce one early surprise before it began with news that Australian Sam Welsford (INEOS Grenadiers), the winner of Thursday Cadel’s Criterium in Geelong, withdrew after signing on to start due to reported stomach issues.

When it did start at 11.10am, it did so with Australian stalwart Simon Clarke (NSN Cycling Team), 39 and for whom the race was the last of his career, being invited by the peloton to lead in recognition of his 20 years in elite/professional cycling.

But as the race steered south on open roads, attacks and chases began immediately.

Norwegian Vegard Laengen (UAE Team Emirates) attacked and set off alone. He was then joined by Great Britain’s Olivier Peace (Team Picnic PostNL), to make it two. Then Australian Julian Badry (Team Australia) got across to make it three.

The trio’s lead reached 2 minutes 41 seconds as the race passed through Barwon Heads, the home of Cadel Evans, but the peloton did not grant them free reign.

Their margin was controlled by the peloton, mostly by the Team Visma-Lease a Bike with help from Jayco-Alula. With 104km to go the gap was 1min 56secs.

Inevitably, the break was reeled in to within eyesight of the peloton with 71km to on the early slopes of the first of four ascents of Challambra. Peace led over the top, with Baudry close on his wheel; but Laengen was swept up by the peloton. But within five more kilometres Baudry followed by Peace were also reeled in.

With the break caught, the race was back to square one with three more 21km circuits to go – including three ascents of Challambra before the finish line.

The Bahrain Victorious team made a push on the second ascent of Challambra, and the effort split the peloton, with 15 riders getting away. But the peloton regrouped before the second passage through the start/finish at Geelong with 40km to go.

On the third ascent of Challambra Australian Ben O’Connor (Jayco – Alula) made a huge push on the front that saw Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS – Grenadiers) and Australian Oscar Chamberlain (Decathlon CMS CGM Team).  But by the top, Colombian Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) led the charge.

The peloton was strung out on the descent, after which two riders jumped away – Australian Chris Harper (Team Australia) and Norwegian Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X Mobility) who led the race through the finish/start line for the penultimate time.

Harper and Skaarseth bravely charged on, but the chase led by the Visa – Lease a Bike team was bound to drop the curtain on their ambitious move. And it did.

As the leaders were reeled in a crash of about 10 riders in the middle of the peloton split the group in two, ending the hopes of any riders caught at the back. Up front, the pace ramped up under the impulse of O’Connor, Plapp and Great Britain’s Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), and it continued on the descent at 102kmh.

From there, and over the last six kilometres, the race turned into a serious of attacks and chases that with four kilometres to go saw seven riders in front, 15 others within eyesight of the leaders and another group chasing close behind.

The race was destined to be settled in a bunch sprint, unless someone could produce something extra special – which after almost 180km no rider could.

The podium, from left: Matthew Brennan (2nd), Tobias Lund Andresen (1st), & Brady Gilmore (3rd).

What Tobias Andresen said:
“I really feel this team is unified this year. That’s difficult to do when we have so many new riders. All the guys here, putting their trust in someone [that] they don’t even know. I’ve been feeling really good. It’s always a 50-50 in this race. If they’re going all out every time, probably it’s a bit hard for me. But with the support of the guys … I just managed to squeeze over [the climb] the last time. From there, I told the guys with one lap to go, if they put me in perfect position, the last time in, I would win the race. I was feeling good. I put myself out there, it worked out.”

What Matthew Brennan said:
“When that break went [on the final lap], it was more thinking just let the boys pull it back. I felt like we had a little bit of control. They really organised themselves well, which was good and gave me a lot of confidence, especially running into the final time at the climb, where I knew it would explode. And then it [the race] did explode. It was such a fast finish, and there were a lot of guys who were lucky to really keep the pace on. We tried. Just missed out.”

What Brady Gilmore said:
“I can’t believe it, actually. I always want to win, but it’s my first one day WorldTour race, so I can’t complain with third. I think it’s pretty good, it’s a good start to the year. [Retiring teammate] Simon Clarke has taught me mostly everything I know. How to save energy and whatnot, and I’ve been rooming with him now since the November camp, so I’m going to miss him. It was a bit of an emotional morning actually. Just knowing that he’s not going to be racing anymore. I’m happy to pay off all the hard teamwork today with this result.”

Complete Results:

182.3 kilometers raced at an average speed of 42.824 km/hr. Fastest edition ever.

Men's race course map and profile:

Mens race course map

Mens race profile

Men's Start list with back numbers, January 31, 2026:

Women's Race: Saturday, January 31, 2026 - Geelong - Geelong, 141.2 km

Women's race course map | Start list

.

Ally Wollaston wins the women race.

Bill and Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, Vol 2: 1976 - 2018 is available in print, Kindle eBook & Audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Weather at the start/finish city of Geelong at 1:00 PM, local time: 27C (80F), partly cloudy, with the wind from the south at 14 km/hr (9 mph). There is a 22% chance of light rain.

The race: Here's the report from second-place Josie Nelson's Team Picnic-PostNL.

The journey Down Under ended for Team Picnic PostNL’s Women’s program on Saturday with the Cadel Evans Road Race – where they would take on a familiar route along the roads around Geelong before the now traditional finish circuit which includes the steep Challambra climb. Team Picnic PostNL set out with one main goal for the day, and that was to protect and position finisher Josie Nelson throughout the race and put in her into contention going up the climb for the last time.

Doing just that, the team worked really well as a unit and despite unfortunately losing Juliana Londoño and Ella Heremans from the bunch just before entering the local lap due to a crash, everyone rallied around Nelson. After a hard pace on the first ascent, things regrouped with Gaia Masetti and Lucie Fityus in the reduced peloton to support Nelson ahead of the final ascent, where the peloton completely exploded.

A gutsy climb from Nelson saw her crest in the front group of eight, before another four riders then joined. Despite a few attacks late on over the final unclassified drag, which Nelson ably followed, it came down to a reduced sprint to the line. Choosing the perfect wheel to follow, Nelson produced a strong kick and put down the power to take second place in the finale; a great result and a nice reward from a strong ride and good teamwork throughout the stage.

Nelson reflected: “The race was pretty steady until about 20 kilometres before entering the local lap. There was an early break which got quite some time but was reeled in on the descent into Challambra climb. The girls did a great job positioning me into the climb and I was up there in the front over the top. I was feeling strong on the climb so I was pretty confident for the finish, I just had to make it over once more! Again, the girls did a quality job positioning me into the climb for the final time so I just followed at the front and was strong enough to follow a move but the bunch brought us back in. In the finish I just fought for the good wheels and launched my sprint but couldn’t come around Ally. But I’m super happy to finish the Australian block with a podium and can’t thanks the girls and the team enough for their support in the races!”

Another shot of a jubilant Ally Wollaston winning the race.

Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “I think the team rode together really well today. They showed some excellent fight to be there and support Josie throughout the day. That was the plan – we go all in for Josie and set her up for the finish. Even if someone was dropped, they fought to come back and give another turn. Unfortunately we lost Juliana and Ella in a crash before the first time up Challambra, but after that everyone else did a nice job. Josie showed how strong she was today; she climbed really well and sprinted on a really good level too.”

Complete results:

141.2 kilometers raced at an average speed of 36.064 km/hr.

Women's race course map & profile:

Map of the Cadel Evans Women's Road Race

Profile of the Cadel Evans Women's Road Race

Women's start list with back numbers, January 30, 2026: