The 2026 Santos Tour Down Under will take place from 17th to 25th January, with a significant boost for the women’s race and a technical twist added to the men’s opener. Organisers have confirmed that all 15 Women’s WorldTour teams will take the start, while the men’s race will open with a city-centre prologue for the first time since 2023.
After the calendar initially listed the women’s race with ‘dates TBC’, clarity has now arrived: the three-stage women’s event will run from 17th to 20th January. The increase from nine Women’s WorldTour teams in 2025 to a full house in 2026 marks a notable step forward in prestige and depth of competition. The new UCI rules play a part in this, with WWT teams only able to skip one Women’s WorldTour race per season from 2026 after having no restrictions beforehand.
The men’s race, which begins on 20th January, will open with a 3.6km prologue through the heart of Adelaide. The short time trial will begin in Victoria Square and finish at Victoria Park, setting the tone for a potentially more aggressive week of racing.
“A prologue is a great way to kick start the first UCI WorldTour race of the season because it shakes up the dynamic of the Tour, throwing man and machine against the clock, straight away,” said race director Stuart O’Grady.
“Instead of a traditional sprint stage to start, it should create a more aggressive style of racing for the rest of the week because there might be guys who find themselves 10 or 20 seconds behind and they need to get that time back somewhere.”
The men’s prologue will be contested on road bikes, continuing the format used in 2023, when the race returned post-COVID with a 5.5km opener. The logistical demands of flying time trial equipment to Australia remain a barrier to a full-blown TT setup, but the 2026 edition will still feature a start ramp and hot seat setup to add to the atmosphere.
Both the men’s and women’s routes will be unveiled in full next Thursday.
In 2025, the women’s race was won by Noemi Rüegg, who took control of the GC with a victory atop Willunga Hill. The men’s event also turned on Willunga, where Jhonatan Narváez claimed both the stage and the ochre jersey ahead of the final day. The Tour Down Under continues to serve as the bookend to the Australian summer, coming after the national championships and just before the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
