The story
Tour Down Under in Adelaide/Statewide
The Tour Down Under is a professional cycling race through Adelaide and South Australia's wine country, held each January as the traditional opening event of the UCI WorldTour. Launched in 1999 to replace the departed Australian Grand Prix, it became the first WorldTour race outside Europe in 2008 and now runs men's and women's elite fields across stages through the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula.
When the Australian Grand Prix left Adelaide for Melbourne in the late 1990s, the South Australian government went looking for a new marquee event to fill the gap on the state's sporting calendar, and cycling won out.