2018 UCI World Tour, race 1 of 37 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dates | 16–21 January 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stages | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distance | 783.8 km (487.0 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Winning time | 20h 03' 34"[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2018 Tour Down Under was a road cycling stage race, that took place between 16 and 21 January 2018 in and around Adelaide, South Australia. It was the 20th edition of the Tour Down Under and the first race of the 2018 UCI World Tour.[2]
Daryl Impey (Mitchelton–Scott) became the first South African rider to win the race overall, after edging out BMC Racing Team's Richie Porte on countback after both riders completed the course in the same time.[3] Porte won on Willunga Hill for the fifth year in succession, but Impey finished eight seconds in arrears in second position, which was enough to take the ochre jersey.[4] The podium placings were completed by another former winner, Tom-Jelte Slagter of Team Dimension Data, who finished third on Willunga Hill, taking four bonus seconds that put him ahead of the four other competitors that he had finished with; Slagter finished 16 seconds down on Impey overall.[5]
In the race's other classifications,[6] world champion Peter Sagan (Bora–Hansgrohe) won the sprints classification, taking five top-five stage finishes during the event, including a stage win into Uraidla. Team Dimension Data's Nicholas Dlamini led the mountains classification from start to finish, while Egan Bernal of Team Sky took the young rider classification in his first start for the team, finishing sixth overall. The teams classification was won by Bahrain–Merida, who placed Gorka Izagirre in the top-ten overall.