Bahrain Victorious lines up as one of the 20 teams competing in the Tour Down Under, which once again opens the new WorldTour season in Adelaide. Celebrating its 25th anniversary since its inception in 1999, the race will challenge riders on South Australia’s most iconic roads under the warm Aussie summer sun.
Phil Bauhaus will be our leader for sprint stages, with the experienced compatriot Nikias Arndt as his lead-out man and also the team captain. Alongside our German duo, Robert Stannard will be our co-leader for this race, aiming to tackle one of the harder stages. Meanwhile, Roman Ermakov, Afonso Eulálio, Mathijs Paasschens, and Daniel Skerl will make both their team and TDU debuts.
“We are really excited to get the team ready for the Tour Down Under in 2025. This year we are going with 3 of our established riders, plus 4 new riders of the team. We are really looking forward to trying to work out the dynamic of these guys, work out their strength, their weakness, we really try to put on together as a team.”
“We are now in Australia for 5 days. The boys are doing some fantastic training iterated around Adelaide area. We are looking at all the stages to get ourselves ready for this year’s race. Obviously, Phil Bauhaus, former winner of a stage here in the Tour Down Under, is in great shape. He would be looking forward to going up against the best sprinters in the world, to trying to get another stage win this year.”
“The main objective for the team in this year’s race, we are going for stage wins. We feel that we’ve got the right mix of both leaders and workers to be able to do well in the sprint stages, and in the harder intermediate stages, within maybe some reduced bunch sprints or even breakaways. For General Classification, we will see how it goes out of the first 3 days of the race. The main priority is the stage wins.”
Ahead of the six-day race is the Villawood Men’s Classic, a curtain-raiser criterium on January 18th. From January 21st, Stage 1 introduces a new challenge for sprinters aiming for victory and the prestigious Ochre jersey at Gumeracha after navigating an undulating loop.
Stage 2 features a start and finish in Tanunda, with action heating up on Mengler Hill (2.8 km at 6.7%). This stage could likely end in another sprint finish in the Barossa Valley, where Phil Bauhaus claimed victory in the 2023 edition.
Stage 3, known as the spring classic of the 2025 Santos Tour Down Under, presents an unrelenting challenge with the Knotts Hill climb (2.7 km at 7.7%) a fresh challenge towards the rollercoaster last approach at Uraidla finish. The total elevation on the day is 2,648m.
Stage 4, Its Glenelg start and Victor Harbor finish also featured during the race’s first edition in 1999. The stage is the longest (157.2km) one where breakaway specialist could shine on Fleurieu Peninsula in the technical finish into Victor Harbor.
Stage 5 will see riders tackle the infamous Willunga Hill climb twice—a pivotal moment for General Classification contenders to make decisive moves. Finally, Stage 6 brings the peloton back to downtown Adelaide for a short but explosive circuit, promising a thrilling sprint finish.
“In general, what we have been doing over the last few days was getting the team together. The atmosphere is good. The synergy is really good. We are very much looking forward to taking each day as an individual race. We try to do our best as we can every day. The energy level and the hypes are high for a great Tour Down Under.”