As it happened: Sprinters shine at Tour Down Under stage 1

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of the Tour Down Under, the first event of the WorldTour. Stage 1 starts at 11:10am local time or 12:30am GMT and finishes roughly four and a half hours later.

For its 25th edition, the opening WorldTour race goes back to its previous formula, with more fun for the sprinters combined with three stages that offer the potential to create gaps in the GC. Stage 3 will take the racers over Norton Summit, and a new climb – Knott’s Hill – a fierce tilts up to a punishing 22.2% grade that will be tackled twice, stage 4 to Victor Harbor, and the double ascent of the iconic Willunga Hill on stage 5.

For stage 1 of the Tour Down Under, racers will head north from Prospect to Williamstown, tackling Gorge Road at Paracombe as their opening climb of the day before turning back towards the Adelaide Hills and the stage finish in Gumeracha. The peloton to pass through the first time host town Gumeracha twice and return for a furious push to the line after 150.7km of racing and 2386 metres of elevation gain.

Stage 1 is underway, starting with a 12.6km neutral section. Today’s course is predicted to favour the sprinters with a fast finish in Gumeracha.

Short stop to defending champion Stephen Williams (Israel-PremierTech) to get his power meter sorted out with his team mechanic.

No panic in such a long neutral.

Wiliams, with the help of his team car, is back in the peloton. 

Speaking of Stephen Williams. Here’s what he said at the pre-race media conference:

“We have a great, a great team and I think the strength and depth is clear and yeah, hopefully we can have another good race here. I think the parcours is suited quite well to me and I do enjoy these races where they are decided on bonuses. They’re really tricky and technical, and it’s always a bit of a dog fight so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully we can go out in style like last year but I’m under no illusion that there’s 140 world class riders here that all want to do the same thing. So we’ll just try our best and see what the outcome is next Sunday.”

Of the 140 riders set to start the stage, two –  Manilo Moro (Movistar)  and Miles Scotson (Arkea-B&B Hotels) did not line up in Prospect following a…