The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race also known as Great Ocean Road Race or Cadel Road Race is an annual professional one-day

road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on Road surface, paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional sport, professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and ...

for both men and women starting and finishing in

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and routed along the picturesque

Great Ocean Road The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage listed stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated t ...

. The first race was held in 2015, as the farewell race for

Cadel Evans Cadel Lee Evans (; born 14 February 1977) is an Australian former professional racing cyclist, who competed professionally in both mountain biking and road bicycle racing. A four-time Olympian, Evans is one of three non-Europeans – along wi ...

—Australia's only

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

winner or Road World Champion. The 2017 edition was added to the

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour (2009–2010: ''UCI World Ranking'') is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an annual ...

for the first time. In November 2020, it was announced that the 2021 race would not be held due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. This was due in part to a number of UCI WorldTour teams making the decision to stay in Europe due to uncertainty around international travel conditions and logistics of quarantine requirements. The event returns in 2023 to be held on 28-29 January.

Course

The men's version is , while the women's is . In 2023, the mass participation People's Ride includes three distance options—35km, 50km, or 125km. The race starts on the

waterfront in

, and travels westward to the rolling hills of

Moriac Moriac is a town in Victoria, Australia, located approximately west of Geelong. It forms part of the Surf Coast Shire. At the 2016 census, Moriac had a population of 782. A Post Office opened on 1 August 1854 as Duneed, was renamed Mount Mor ...

, turning south toward the famous surf beach of

Bells Beach Bells Beach is a coastal locality of Victoria, Australia in Surf Coast Shire and a renowned surf beach, located 100 km south-west of Melbourne, on the Great Ocean Road near the towns of Torquay and Jan Juc. It is named after William Bell ...

, following the surf coast to

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

and through Cadel’s hometown of

Barwon Heads Barwon Heads (previously known as Point Flinders) is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the west bank of the mouth of the Barwon River below Lake Connewarre, while it is bounded to ...

and Ocean Grove, before heading north back to a Geelong circuit before finishing back around on the waterfront. The course is suited to ''

puncheur A puncheur or puncher is a road bicycle racer who specialises in rolling terrain with short but steep climbs. The ideal races for this type of rider are one-day spring classics, which are characterized by multiple hills with a 10–20% gradient ...

s''.

Men's race

Women's race

Melbourne pre-race criterium

In 2017 the pre-race criterium was known as the ''Race Melbourne - Albert Park'', becoming the ''Towards Zero Race Melbourne'' in 2018. In 2019 the race was held in a team-based format with points awarded for sprints. Deceuninck-QuickStep won the men's event and Trek Segafredo won the women's event. In 2020 the race was not held and was replaced by

Race Torquay Race Torquay is a one-day cycling race held annually in Australia since 2020. The race is held a few days before the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. It is rated as a 1.1 event on the UCI Oceania Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series ...

Men's race

Women's race

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race Geelong UCI World Tour races UCI Oceania Tour races Cycle races in Australia Recurring sporting events established in 2015 2015 establishments in Australia Men's road bicycle races Women's road bicycle races Annual sporting events in Australia Great Ocean Road