Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race is a men's one-day WorldTour bike race held each January or early February in Victoria, Australia. Named for the country's only Tour de France winner, it runs along the coast southwest of Melbourne and finishes in Geelong. Since the 2026 edition its official name has been the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race is a one-day WorldTour race that starts and finishes on the Geelong waterfront in Victoria, in late January or early February. It was first held in 2015 as the last race of Cadel Evans’s career, and its first ten editions produced ten different winners.

Cadel Evans’s retirement and the first race in 2015

Evans’s Australian home is Barwon Heads, on the coast near Geelong. He won the world championship road race in 2009 and in 2011 became the first Australian to win the Tour de France. After that Tour there was talk of a statue, or of a bridge in his name. His manager, Jason Bakker, had another idea: “let's do a bike race with a big public event.”

On September 25, 2014, in Ponferrada, Evans announced that the first edition, on February 1, 2015, would be his last race. He designed the 174-kilometer route with Scott Sunderland, a former professional who became race director, and it passed through Barwon Heads.

The day began on wet roads after rain overnight, and it was windy. Evans made the small group that went clear in the last 10 kilometers, but cramp stopped him from coming around it in the sprint. He finished fifth, on the same time as the winner, Gianni Meersman, with Simon Clarke second and Nathan Haas third. “It was almost like riding a world championship,” Evans said.

Challambra Crescent and the Geelong circuit of the 2010 Worlds

Geelong had hosted the road world championships in 2010, when Evans was the defending champion and led the chase of Philippe Gilbert on the last lap before Thor Hushovd won the sprint. Challambra Crescent was part of that circuit, and the race named for Evans climbs it four times. From the roundabout on Barwon Boulevard it rises 87 meters in one kilometer, an average of 8.7 percent, with 11 percent near the top.

The riders reach it after a loop through Barwon Heads, along Thirteenth Beach, where crosswinds often pick up, and past Torquay and Bells Beach. After each ascent the road drops through Queens Park, kicks up again on Melville Avenue and runs down to the waterfront. That leaves room for dropped riders to chase back, so the race can end with a solo attacker or a sprint.

Peter Kennaugh’s solo win in 2016

Peter Kennaugh had been in the front group with Evans in 2015. A year later, with the race promoted to the UCI’s 1.HC class, he rode across to Rafa Valls on the last climb of Challambra and left him with 12 kilometers to go. His lead was 20 seconds inside the last 10 kilometers and 18 with five to go. He won by six seconds from Leigh Howard, who took the bunch sprint for second.

His teammate Luke Rowe had told him to stay calm and to sit up from an earlier move. Once clear, Kennaugh said, he told himself: “head down, don't look back until you're on the finishing straight.”

When did the race join the WorldTour?

The race joined the WorldTour in 2017, for its third edition, after one year in class 1.1 and one in 1.HC. It became Australia’s second WorldTour event after the Tour Down Under and the first one-day race of the WorldTour season. It is still the only one-day WorldTour race in Australia.

In the first WorldTour edition Chris Froome and Richie Porte both attacked in the last five kilometers and were brought back. Cameron Meyer went clear about 800 meters from the finish. Nikias Arndt passed him inside the last 10 meters and held off Simon Gerrans.

Jay McCarthy, Elia Viviani and the 2020 two-man finish

Jay McCarthy won in 2018, on a day when the temperature passed 40 degrees Celsius, and became the first Australian winner. No Australian has won since. Elia Viviani was second that day after his group rejoined the leaders inside the last kilometer. He came back in 2019, stayed with the front group through the attacks of the last two laps and won the sprint from Caleb Ewan and Daryl Impey. “This is one of the four or five WorldTour classics I can win, so it means a lot to me,” he said.

In 2020 Pavel Sivakov attacked with five kilometers left. Dries Devenyns was the only rider to reach him, and Devenyns won the two-man sprint.

The pandemic gap in 2021 and 2022

Australia’s border closure and quarantine rules stopped the race in 2021 and again in 2022. It returned in January 2023 on a 176-kilometer course. Taco van der Hoorn attacked two kilometers into the race and rode alone for 130 kilometers before he was caught after the second ascent of Challambra. On the fourth and last ascent Sven Erik Bystrøm attacked, Mauro Schmid joined him, and the two were caught 350 meters from the line. Marius Mayrhofer, 22, won the sprint for his first professional victory.

Pithie, Schmid and Andresen: the winners from 2024 to 2026

Laurence Pithie won in 2024 by less than half a wheel from Natnael Tesfatsion, his first WorldTour victory. In 2025, with the temperature near 40 degrees, Schmid attacked a 12-rider group eight kilometers from the finish. He held on by three seconds for the first win by Jayco AlUla, the Australian WorldTour team, in its home one-day race. No one had won alone since Kennaugh.

Tobias Lund Andresen won in 2026 from the small group that survived the fourth ascent of Challambra. Matthew Brennan started the sprint early, just inside 300 meters, and Andresen came past him. Brady Gilmore, an Australian in his first one-day WorldTour race, was third. Simon Clarke, second behind Meersman in the first edition, rode the last race of his career that day, and the peloton honored him in the opening moments.

This is the race that tells you who spent the off-season well. Held in the middle of the Australian summer, it rewards riders who can handle heat, crosswinds off Bass Strait, and a finish circuit that includes enough climbing to punish anyone still carrying December weight. The route hugs one of the country's most scenic stretches of coastline, and the timing makes it a reliable indicator of early-season form before the European calendar begins in earnest.