Boasting Tour de France and Giro d’Italia champions, a WorldTour team and plenty of excited fans and bike brands, Australia is a country with a strong connection to cycling culture. The nation has hosted top-level bike races since the 1990s, usually during the European winter.
Despite time zone differences, there’s still a strong Australian fan base for the pro sport globally. I mean, what’s the Tour de France without a couple of inflatable kangaroos on the roadside? However, isn’t it about time Aussie fans were able to turn off the 3am alarm and enjoy a Grand Tour of their own?
Having already conquered the UK, Ireland, and the USA, Australia is next in our fantasy Grand Tour crosshairs. With plenty of stunning landscapes, big cities and gravel roads (spoiler) crying out for a major bike race, does Australia have enough to warrant its own three-weeker?
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Tour Down Under & Co.
It’s hard to argue that Australia needs more WorldTour races. Of course, there’s already the Tour Down Under. Running since 1999, the week-long race in South Australia has managed to survive the pandemic, forging a name for itself as the calendar’s first top-level race. On top of that, a different part of the nation holds its own one-day event: the Great Ocean Road Race.
This is impressive enough. Out of all the countries we have tackled in this series, Australia is the only one still to have a WorldTour race on the men’s side, let alone two. It’s pretty good at hosting bike races.
That said, one key race has fallen by the wayside in the past decade. The Herald Sun Tour failed to restart after the pandemic, having become Victoria’s flagship cycling event. Sure enough, this casualty was quickly forgotten about, especially with the success of the other races.
However, cycling is still concentrated in certain pockets of the country. The Tour Down Under circles around Adelaide and the state of South Australia. Victoria boats the Great Ocean Road Races, but New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia barely get a look in.
Our argument, therefore, should be to find new corners of Australia and give all corners of Down Under a little more TV time. We know the fans are there, the sponsors are willing and there’s certainly enough land to host the damn thing, so let’s test it out.
Finding the mountains
Every Grand Tour needs its distinct flourish. Whether these be mountaintop finishes, city centre finales or off-road sectors, it's important to establish a race's identity with its route.
If you've watched the Tour Down Under, you'll be very familiar with Willunga Hill. The ramp just south of Adelaide has become the race's most iconic climb, having been the focal point of Tour Down Unders for the past two decades. At 4km at an average gradient of 6%, however, Willunga Hill isn't going to cut it for a Grand Tour-level race, so we'll need to find higher and harder climbs across Australia.
The peaks are always a good place to start when trying to plan a route, it's there where the GC race will be decided after all. Australia is blessed with a long swooping chain of mountains in its southeastern corner. The Alpine National Park is the most Grand Tour-ready with its ski stations, hairpin bends and gradients. Tasmania, the Snowy Mountains and the Blue Mountains are three other pockets to consider.
Mount Baw Baw
Mount Baw Baw has often been described as the 'toughest climb in Australia'. This is for good reason, it's just 7km long but it is almost constantly above the 10% marker and 2km of the climb is at an average of 13.9%, similar to the likes of the Angliru or Zoncolan.
The Herald Sun Tour came here twice back in the early 2000s. Giro King of the Mountains Matthew Lloyd took the victory in 2004 when a pro race last visited its summit. It's certainly possible to get to the top, the roads are well-paved and there's a whole ski village at the summit.
Mount Wellington
Tasmania – home region to serial Tour Down Under victor Richie Porte – offers some of Australia's toughest climbs. The island's trickiest two-wheeled test is Mount Wellington just on the outskirts of Tasmania's largest city Hobart. The 19km-long ascent averages out at 6.3% in gradient. It's no Mont Ventoux, but the final 5km reaches an average gradient of around 8%.
No pro race has ever visited Mount Wellington. Given Tasmania's abundance of mountain roads and beautiful vistas, it's a no-brainer. That said, we have egg on our face because we have omitted Tasmania from our proposed route – more on that to come. It's always good to keep something for next time I guess.
Falls Creek
Falls Creek often pops up on lists of Australia's best climbs. Its ribbon-like hairpin route and grand vistas certainly help it to stand out among the plethora of climbs in Victoria's Alpine National Park.
Although its gradients aren't the most challenging, its beauty is where it stands out. The ascent is exposed in its latter half, furnished with colourful poles to indicate the roadside during the unthinkable snowy season. It's probably as close as Australia gets to the Alps or Pyrenees.
Our route
As we've done with the other Grand Tours proposed in this series, it now comes down to our blueprint route. The 21 stages on offer will span the width and breadth of the country in a realistic attempt to deliver a Grand Tour that could rival the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. We've looked to balance out time-trials with mountaintop finales and inevitable sprint arrivals to create a three-week route worth a European waking up at 3am to watch.
In our proposed route, Perth has been awarded the honour of hosting the opening stages. Recently the city in Western Australia has had good fortunes courtesy of local riders Ben O'Connor and Jai Hindley. Yes, Perth is far away from the bulk of Australian cities – and mountain passes – but Grand Tours have been abroad plenty of times.
The Giro d'Italia has been the most ambitious with this, having started in Ireland, Denmark and even Israel in recent years. The distance between Perth and Adelaide is just shy of 3,000km, so the race may need to hop on the short-haul two-hour flight to cut the corner to Adelaide. In the Giro's cases, the race took an extra rest day to travel after three stages. The same would happen here.
On top of that, the Australian National Championships just took place in Perth in front of huge crowds, so the appetite for cycling is definitely there.
With that caveat addressed, Stage 1 would take the riders down the coastline from central Perth down to Mandurah. This would give the sprinters, like Perth-born Sam Welsford, a chance to pull on the leader's jersey. Their time in the spotlight will quickly fade, however, as Stage 2 offers a Classics-style profile through the hills of the Jarrah Forest.
To round out Perth's Grand Départ, the city would play host to a short 9km time-trial from the riverside to King's Park. The gaps would be small, but there's a real chance that the GC lead could switch three times in three days during this stint in Western Australia.
After a travel day, the race resumes for the first headline name of this extended Tour of Australia at the end of Stage 4. It's a smorgasbord of familiar names from the Tour Down Under, with Mount Lofty, Corkscrew Road and Willunga Hill on offer – the latter of which is climbed on two occasions. There's no Richie Porte to tame its slopes anymore, but it could certainly mix up the GC early on.
The sprinters can rejoice as their days come soon after, however, Stages 5, 6 and 7 all offer very different stages for the sprinters, some more challenging than others. The bumpy run into Coleraine and Ballarat could suit the hardy sprinters, while Stage 8's long downhill stretch into Melbourne is open to either a sprint or a breakaway depending on how the day pans out.
The second and (spoiler alert) final time-trial on this parcours rounds out the first week of racing through downtown Melbourne. Starting off from the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, the race honours the city's sporting heritage with a lap around Melbourne Albert Park F1 circuit to finish the day off.
We stay in Melbourne for the rest day before setting off from its suburb St Kilda on Stage 10. On this meaty stage, we pass the 1,000m marker on two occasions while en route to the summit of Mount Baw Baw. As mentioned earlier, the final 6km is infernal, with gradients well into the double digits. This is all washed down with a tame sprint stage across the foothills towards Bairnsdale the following day.
This middle week is concentrated on the Alpine National Park's mountain passes.
Stage 12 tackles mainland Australia's highest road up to Mount Hotham's undulating 60km-long ascent. The stage ends with the jagged climb up to Mount Buffalo (29km at 4.5%), a climb used twice before at the Herald Sun Tour.
The following day is spent tackling Falls Creek (31km at 4%) for the most part. The last pro to win up there was Jai Hindley who took the victory up the creek during the 2020 edition of the Herald Sun Tour. The climb won't be the final obstacle on the stage as the descent down to Omeo offers one of the more tame mountain profiles.
Stage 14 will be a test of endurance once it comes to the final 29km-long drag up Charlotte Pass on the back of a tough day's climbing across the Kosciuszko National Park.
To close off the second week of racing, the peloton leaves the mountains behind on a mostly downhill profile towards the nation's capital Canberra. Although it's not the most populated of Australia's cities, it's still worth ticking off our list. Not only that, the riders will have the chance to spend the night here before another rest day the following afternoon.
You didn't think we were going to miss Sydney out, did you? Well, we spend a rest day in the New South Wales capital, with a hopeful start to Stage 16 right by the city's famed Opera House. From Sydney, the route heads up the coast towards Newcastle.
The following day, however, is a real goliath of a stage, offering almost 30km of gravel roads across 2,200m of elevation gain. The toughest sections come with around 50km to go when the riders climb Mount Gibraltar (9km at 6.6%) along Comboyne Road. The technicalities continue onto the fast downhill sector at Lorne Road. Although the gravel tapers off, the final ramps to North Brother (4.5km at 9.9%) are a real kick in the teeth. With 200km and gravel racing in the legs, it's anyone's game.
There's no let-up as the following stage offers 200km+ of racing with another sting in the tail at Gibraltar Range (16km at 6%). Serving as one of the last summit finishes, it'll be a real drag race up this wide-open climb.
On the other hand, Stage 19 could allow the GC riders to switch off on the breakaway-friendly profile. The rolling final 25km could serve as a platform for puncheurs to light up the race having patiently waited for a profile suited to their strengths.
The penultimate stage features almost 3,000m of elevation gain on a bumpy profile that could inspire long-range moves. Ultimately, it's the last chance to spice up the GC before Stage 21's processional arrival from Gold Coast to Brisbane. The city circuit around the Queensland capital snakes around the CBD, passing by Roma Street Parkland and the Botanical Gardens.
From Perth to Brisbane, our route covers 21 stages, passing through five states over seven flat stages, six hilly stages, five mountain stages and two individual time-trials. Our Tour of Australia parcours covers a grand total of 3,443km, including 30km against the clock and 31km on gravel roads.
In all honesty
With everything mapped out, Australia could pull off a three-week bike race in theory. Our blueprint proves that you can tick all the necessary boxes for a Grand Tour route while visiting big cities and tourist hotspots along the way. That said, there are some factors that make this idea more fanciful.
Australia has a similar problem to the USA: it's too big for a Grand Tour. To get from Perth to Adelaide alone – without the travel day we proposed – it would take around 14 stages of a Grand Tour. To make it within the three-week limit with a reasonable amount of transfers, only a fraction of the country could be visited.
There's another natural issue too. Australians might need to cover their ears for this one, but the country just doesn't have A-list climbs. Mount Baw Baw is a brutal test, but none of the other climbs come close to rivalling the likes of Mont Ventoux, the Passo dello Stelvio or Lagos de Covadonga. The highest road in the whole country is 1,840m (Great Alpine Road). That's barely higher than your average hors-catégorie climb at the Tour de France. At a glance as well, the gradients for these more Alpine-style climbs rarely go over the 7% marker. These aren't great signs if you're looking for a blockbuster climb.
Australia has a strong gravel scene, so this could be a good way for the country to stand out on the cycling map. There are few gravel stage races, let alone a stage race for road teams on gravel roads. If you are looking to include New South Wales and Victoria into the mix, this could be something to think about.
All things considered though, Australia already has a couple of WorldTour races. It's got a good footing in the sport and its early season placing sure helps to give Australia a USP in the pro calendar. If the Herald Sun Tour makes a return and New South Wales gets a slice of the fun, Australia could be an even bigger force on the cycling map. A Grand Tour might not even be necessary to unlock Australia's true cycling potential after all.
