2025 Adelaide Tour Down Under – by Mark   Recently updated !

Adelaide – Tour Down Under January 2025 by Mark

Introduction

The Pro Cycling Holidays trip to Adelaide, a chance to be cycling in the sun, experiencing South Australian scenery and culture, watching the Tour Down Under stage races, participating in the many events on offer, meeting cycling legends, current heroes, grabbing selfies with them, visiting famous wineries, beaches and last but not least, spotting as many Koalas and Kangaroos as possible!

This is written by Mark and I may skip over a few things (like each days ride) as I’ve done this trip quite a few times now, so you may want to read some of the earlier blogs for this trip, or Zuzanas for this year as you will get an entirely different perspective of it.

Adelaide

Adelaide is in South Australia, an area with a beautiful scenic coastline, lots of vineyards, a ridge of hills to the East of the city (mini mountains really) and plenty of flatter roads for the easy days. Drivers who are mostly very courteous towards the cyclists, lots of bike lanes within the city and it’s only 7-10km to be out of the city.

Places to Stay

We stayed in an apartment for the first few weeks to have lots of flexibility and the comforts of a washing machine, tumble drier and breakfasts as early as we liked, to enable those early morning bike rides!  There are lots of places to stay in Adelaide, all of a really high standard, Apartments, Hotels, AirBnb, etc.  For the remainder of the month, we stayed in the Hilton Adelaide, as that’s where the race is based, the Tour Village is outside and you get the chance to mingle with all the many riders and people associated with the events.

The Adventure

After a quick shop to stock up on the essentials that you need for a few weeks of cycling, unpacking the bikes, we were headed out to enjoy our favourite routes from previous trips.  Out cycling in shorts and short sleeves, warm sunshine and spotting the riders already training for the race.  The first ride was a flat one, out past Henley, Port Adelaide and Glenelg, enjoying the coastal views of golden white sands and pale blue waters.  It was as good as we remembered and with much excitement, we were then deciding which rides to do the following days and what non cycling events to fit in.  The city has lots of green areas, near the centre by the Oval, a beautiful park with the Torrens River running through it, complete with cycling friendly tarmac paths. Lots of churches, historic buildings, the food market, shopping malls, a tram system to get around as well as the buses and trains, all running on time and at a very reasonable cost. Most days, it’s 15-20 minutes getting to the edge of the city, then the roads become quiet and you enjoy the sights, sounds, smells and terrain of the hills. Looking out for the Koalas and Kangaroos was definitely our thing and every sighting was exciting! The early part of January you don’t see very many larger groups of cyclists, you see some of the Pro Riders getting in their training but mostly its small groups of 2-4 riders out enjoying their bike rides. The first external sign of the TDU approaching is the TDU Village being setup. This definitely created interest and you can feel the excitement building up in the city! Next is the dramatic increase in the number of cyclists. Suddenly, all of the Pro Teams are out checking the stages and it feels like every road rider in Australia has turned up in Adelaide! So many groups of riders every day.  

Heading out of the city, you have a choice of which hill to climb, the most common is probably Norton summit.  I was going to describe each of them but they are all tough, interesting and have a Koala somewhere, so instead, here is a table with the stats of each and my time on them as a guide.

Other Favourite Climbs

The Adventure during TDU Race Days

When the race days are on, our favourite format is to get out early, do the bike ride and when you get back, have some food and then heading to the tour village to watch the last hour of the stage on the big screen with all the other cyclists. If your legs are willing, you can wander around the Expo and see the various manufacturers bikes, equipment or clothing and there are some good deals to be had. Most days at 5:30 PM there is a talk from rider, ex rider, director sportif, etc. These are worth attending. You can also get a massage, physio, cold therapy or just to relax with a drink. Some days we take a ride that’s goes via the stage start and you can see the riders signing on and the race start. Another option is to take a ride to the stage finish and watch the finish live. The stages that go up Willllunga Hill are popular for spectating and the side of the road is lined with cyclists! The Santos organisation puts on lots of activities so if you don’t want to be riding the bike there are many options for a winery tour or some VIP treatment.  One of the stages is used for a sportive type ride, this year it was called the Adelaide Epic. It was 120 km and there were 1600 participants. It started at 6:00 AM, so was five hours ahead of the race peloton which started at 11:00 AM. There were two shorter distance options to allow everybody to enjoy themselves. It is always well organised and has some drink and nutrition stops on the way.

The Adventure – Post Race Days

When the racing finishes Within two days, most of the cyclists have left the city and gone home! It is quite strange after the exciting atmosphere of the previous two weeks. For us it meant less complicated days as we didn’t have to coordinate with other activities.  Back out on our favourite routes!

Last Day

Travel day, short bike ride today, pack the bikes, Glenelg for a beach stroll, remembering all the amazing bike rides of the last month!

For more about these rides, check out our website, FaceBook, Instagram and YouTube channel pages.

Web: http://www.procyclingholidays.com

Web: https://www.mallorcacyclingtours.com

FB:     http://www.facebook.com/mallorcacyclingtours

Inst:   https://www.instagram.com/mallorcacyclingtours

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mallorcacyclingtours5780

Selection of Photos from the trip

Garmin Data for the Rides on this trip

Strava Route/Data Links, from various activities