The 2025 Tour Down Under provided many storylines for us to share across 10 days of racing. Of course, not all stories we come across end up making it to the site – some things aren’t big enough to earn their own story; others just never get written up for whatever reason.
Which is where our Reporter’s Notebook series comes in. In these articles we collate a bunch of the interesting tidbits and curiosities we’ve gathered throughout a race, and there were plenty at the 2025 Tour Down Under. Let’s dive in.
Crit crash commotion
The men’s Tour Down Under week began with a curtain-raiser criterium in Adelaide. Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the race, but the biggest story was a nasty crash on the final corner that saw several riders slam into the barriers. Miles Scotson (Arkea-B&B) injured his ribs and wasn’t able to race the TDU proper, and a female spectator ended up in hospital with serious injuries.
While we never want to see riders or spectators get hurt, the commercial TV networks’ reporting of the issue was … well, about what you’d expect. The pre-race press conference began with no fewer than five questions about the crash from Channel 7 and Channel 9 reporters who hounded race director Stuart O’Grady about whether the course was safe, why the course ran in the direction it did (“I don’t think direction has any difference. I mean, the guys can turn left and right,” O’Grady replied), and even whether a major inquiry into the incident was required. What?
South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas was hounded by the mainstream press about it too, but to his credit, his response was actually pretty spot on.
The best line, though, came from Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) – also in the pre-race press conference – when asked whether he thought rider safety was an issue in the crit and at TDU more generally.
“I feel like it was completely safe,” he said. “[Safety’s] always been the least of my worries coming here. My only issue on Saturday [at the crit] was it felt like my heart was going to come out of my chest. It was a bloody hard race.”
Why no Praties?
Despite being a WorldTour race, the TDU isn’t compulsory for women’s WorldTour teams (like it is for the men’s). With not all WWT teams opting to travel to Australia – and only a couple of ProTeams coming out – there ended up being room on the startlist for one Continental team.
The team that got the nod was Coop-Repsol from Norway which was perhaps a little odd when you consider an Australian team could have been invited. More specifically, why wasn’t the best Australian team, Praties (formerly BridgeLane), in attendance? The short answer is that they didn’t end up applying for a Continental license, which they needed to enter a WorldTour event, but it’s a little more nuanced than that.
Escape understands that Praties would have applied for a Continental license had they been assured they would get a TDU invite … but TDU organisers weren’t able to make that promise. Why? It took time for organisers to negotiate with WorldTeams and ProTeams to see who would make it along – and therefore how many Continental spots would be left – and by the time they had that sorted, Praties had missed the window to register for a Conti license, meaning they couldn’t race TDU.
More broadly, there’s a tricky balance for TDU organisers to strike here: they would love to have an Aussie team at the race, but they also need to invite European teams, to help get people watching the race from afar, to satisfy the race’s tourism goals (TDU is owned by the South Australian government).
There’s another wrinkle too: TDU and Cadel’s Race are a package deal: teams only tend to come to Oz if they can do both, so TDU organisers can’t just do whatever they want; they also need to work hand in hand with their Victorian counterparts.
But it wasn’t all bad for Praties. The team ended up racing the ProVelo Super League event in Adelaide instead: SA Kick It. They won two of the three stages and the overall, with Talia Appleton taking home the title. They also got the chance to line up at the Schwalbe One-Day Classic (a 1.Pro event which “club teams” are allowed to join), alongside another Aussie domestic team, Butterfields Ziptrack racing.
But speaking of Praties at the one-day race …
Ups and downs
Bike racing can be cruel. One week you’re winning, the next you’re crashing out barely having started the race. Just 3 km into the Schwalbe One-Day Classic, SA Kick It winner Appleton crashed heavily, bringing down a few other riders in the process – including pre-race favourite Ally Wollaston. While Wollaston got back to the peloton, Appleton never did. Race over.
Blacklisted?
In the lead-up to the TDU I reached out to Ineos Grenadiers’ media team to request a sit-down interview with new Aussie recruit Lucas Hamilton. One-on-one chats like this are a feature of the TDU – being so early in the year, and with the riders all staying in one location for the whole race, everyone tends to be pretty chilled.
But when Ineos’ media guy got back, the response wasn’t as positive as it could have been. “Appreciate the request but at this point that’s not something we’re going to take up,” he said.
I asked twice why the interview wouldn’t be possible. The eventual response: “If you’re accredited for the TDU, then best would be to try and ask Lucas a few questions around one of the stage starts.”
I queried whether the team just wasn’t doing sit-downs, or whether it was an Escape thing. I didn’t get a reply. My guess: Ineos isn’t too pleased with the investigative feature we wrote about the team late last year. C’est la vie.
Queens and kings
The Australian national team is a mainstay at the Tour Down Under; a team that gives young, emerging riders the chance to race at WorldTour level and hopefully attract the attention of bigger teams. Two riders, in particular, took that opportunity with both hands in the 2025 edition, and both had a point to prove.
Alyssa Polites had a torrid few seasons in Europe, racing with Liv AlUla Jayco, and then its development team, but in 2025 the now-21-year-old is out of contract and left to race back in Oz. Racing for the national team at TDU, she showed why she deserves a chance to race in Europe again.
Polites was aggressive throughout the race and found herself engaged in an intriguing battle for the QOM jersey with Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) on the final stage. In one of the most exciting contests of the entire race, Polites was rolled by the Polish rider in one QOM sprint, but then narrowly stitched up the competition on the final climb of the tour with a great tactical sprint. Brilliant.
In the men’s race, 21-year-old Fergus Browning did similar for the national team, getting up the road for each of the first three stages, and winning all but one KOM sprint along the way. That gave him enough points in the KOM competition that with half the race still remaining he couldn’t be beaten. He won the KOM jersey, putting his best foot forward for a contract again soon.
Browning, last year’s Australian U23 road race champion, was part of the Trinity Continental team the last two years, but that team folded this year, leaving Browning to race with the Ccache-Bodywrap team here in Australia. A return to a European team wouldn’t be a shock after this week. In fact, as he told us at the end of the race on Sunday, he’s already “had some interest” from teams.
Santos re-ups
Resources giant Santos has been the title sponsor of the Tour Down Under since 2010. That partnership is set to extend for another three years; through 2028. Discuss.
Cav does TDU
Mark Cavendish seemed to be everywhere at Tour Down Under. He was in town as an ambassador for the race which, as far as we can tell, meant a lot of time schmoozing, visiting wineries and AFL football clubs, signing autographs and taking photos with fans, and generally sauntering around with a fetching little man-purse.
When you spoke to Cav during his career, you never knew which version you were going to get: the grumpy, abrasive Cav, or the playful, charismatic Cav. This week he’s been in full charisma mode and seems to have charmed all and sundry around him.
Cav is the greatest sprinter of all time but he actually didn’t have a great record at the Tour Down Under – he only visited once, in 2011, and that appearance didn’t go well. He had a big crash on stage 2 and ended up with several stitches above his eye. He finished the stage (and the tour), but was justifiably upset when he reached the finish of that second stage: “They opened the f**king road, didn’t they, before we finished; I did the whole last lap on open roads,” he said at the time, prompting a contrite response from then-race director Mike Turtur.
Nowadays, Cavendish is focused on running. He’s signed up to run the Paris Marathon in April with his brother, who’s turned his life around after doing some prison time in the 2010s. Cav’s hoping for a modest marathon time of four and a half hours saying “My knees are not really up to going any faster.”
Gorilla in the house
Cavendish wasn’t the only big-name sprinter in attendance at TDU. Andre Greipel, the Gorilla, was also in town and fair to say the German still looks plenty fit.
TDU was a happy hunting ground for Greipel who still holds the stage wins record at the race with 18. Plenty of visits to the race means he’s well familiar with the regulars around the TDU, like press room barista Tony, who gave Greipel a most hearty greeting with he first saw the German.
We spotted Greipel and Cavendish together near sign-on at the start of stage 2 of the men’s race which evoked all sorts of memories from the 2010s. Between them, the pair managed 323 pro wins and they enjoyed plenty of battles over the years. In fact, if ProCyclingStats is to be believed, they faced off some 362 times between 2005 and 2021. Admittedly, only a percentage of those were bunch sprints in which they went head-to-head, but still.
In case you’re wondering, Greipel finished higher on the results sheet than Cavendish on 222 occasions with Cavendish finishing higher the remaining 140 times. But who won more, when the pair went head to head? Well, of those 362 meetings, Cavendish won 42, and Greipel won 21.
Why Wombat?
More sprinter/animal gear here with a discussion about how Sam Welsford got the nickname “Wombat”. All credit to AAP reporter Roger Vaughan who asked the question of Welsford after the West Australia’s stage 2 victory (his second of three victories at the race).
“Wombat actually originated from [Aussie track and road rider] Michael Hepburn,” Welsford said. “In 2016 we were at the World Championships in London on the track, and I think we were looking at the efforts before the race, and we were just doing a team pursuit effort. I was finishing the last two laps, and I was really going, like sprinting.
“I was rocking all over the bike and he said I looked like a wombat running because my arse was shaking around or something. So that’s where it started and then it’s literally stuck since then. Now it’s just part of my identity which is really funny.”
Honestly, kudos to Welsford for embracing it.
Plappy’s highland cows
Animals came up pre-race, too, when I had the pleasure of chatting with Luke Plapp. I didn’t put it in the published interview, but we spent a few minutes chatting about his hobby farm in Wandiligong.
You might have seen Plappy playing farmer on social media – like in the video above – and in fact when he arrived at the Hilton Hotel before the race he did so in an Aussie bush hat, shorts, and work boots. Here’s what he said about his property in the Victorian High Country.
“It’s my happy place. It’s the greatest place in the world. I’ve got a nice seven acres out there. In December, I added four highland cows to the property, and we’ve got a few sheep over there.
“I think the best way to describe it is, in Europe, you’re a cyclist 24/7 and when I’m in Wandi I feel like I’m going out training, and the second I stop, it’s a completely different lifestyle. I’m happy there, and a happy Luke’s a really fast Luke.”
A clash of roos
Last animal-related item, I promise. TV coverage caught a bunch of interesting things in the race’s periphery over the two weeks – a broadcast drone crashing during the women’s race, for instance – but this little incident proves that not all crashes at a bike race happen between riders.
Van Damn it
Ceratizit-WNT had the perfect start to their Aussie campaign with Daniek Hengeveld taking a surprise win on stage 1 of the women’s TDU. Less perfect was the way Sarah Van Dam’s campaign ended, two days before the Schwalbe One-Day Classic.
“Unfortunately, Sarah Van Dam was clipped by the wing mirror of a van during a training ride in Adelaide on Friday (24 Jan),” the team posted on its website. “She thankfully didn’t come down but reported pain in her shoulder as a result of the impact. After x-rays it was discovered that she has a broken collarbone, sadly ruling her out of the remaining races in Australia.” Ugh.
Juanpe booted
It was a busy week for the race jury in the men’s TDU. First there was Danny van Poppel getting relegated and a yellow card for pulling off dangerously after his stage 2 lead-out. Then there was Laurence Pithie getting relegated for deviating from his line in the stage 4 sprint. And then, on the morning of the final stage, the race jury informed Lidl-Trek that it had ejected Juan Pedro López from the race after the Spaniard took the stickiest of bidons on the Willunga stage.
López later apologised for what he called a “stupid decision”, saying “he will learn from” the infraction.
Where are the white knicks?
And finally, here’s something a little fun. When Jayco AlUla rocked up to the teams presentation before the men’s race, those with an eye for cycling fashion would have noticed that Luke Durbridge had opted for white knicks to go with his white, green, and gold jersey of Australian champion (or more specifically, he was wearing an all-white skinsuit).
White knicks are a divisive choice but in the eyes of your humble correspondent, they’re an aesthetically pleasing part of the Aussie champion’s ensemble (and indeed world champion’s, of course). So when Durbridge opted not to wear white knicks at any point during the TDU, the question was: why?
I set myself the task of asking him that Very Important Question during the race. I finally caught up with him at the start of stage 5. Here’s how the conversation went.
Matt de Neef: White knicks: when are we gonna see you in them?
Luke Durbridge: To be honest I have one skinsuit. I thought potentially, like an Aussie Day [Australia Day – January 26] come out tomorrow. But I mean, I’ll just play it … I’m just gonna keep the people wanting more.
MdN: So you’re not saying no?
LD: I’m not saying no, but it’s gonna have to be a very special occasion. Maybe just like a wedding or something like that.
MdN: We saw you wearing them at the teams presentation and got excited, but then you were straight back into regular kit!
LD: No, I only [wore them] because that’s all the kit I had. I hadn’t got my batch of kit yet. I used the black set for training so it was dirty. So I looked at myself, and I was like “Oh, it’s gonna have to happen.” That was a bit of fun.
MdN: But you’re not a fan, in general?
LD: I don’t know. I’ve always had this thing: if you’re world champion, you wear the white knicks. Not saying this is not special enough, but I’ve never thought the national champ should be wearing white knicks.
MdN: Has Plappy been putting the hard word on you?
LD: Yeah definitely, he loves them.
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