The racing is over and the celebration of 25 years too, as another double edition of the Tour Down Under opens the women's and men's WorldTour calendars in Australia and another pair of ochre-clad winners are crowned champions of their respective races.
This year it was Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly who claimed the top victories of the Australian summer, leading a podium full of international riders after tackling an array of stages which delivered some of the toughest terrain yet.
The victories were grasped amid a sense that the race has entered a new era. The ice stockings and vests were out in force, but the heat was not enough to dampen the power of the European professionals. They are clearly coming well prepared for whatever the Australian summer can dish out and the domination of the overall podiums by international riders provided plenty of evidence of that.
