It'll now be the 8th year that the Santos Tour Down Under is the opening race of the UCI WorldTour (which will end with the Tour of Lombardy on 4 October this year). The Santos Tour Down Under 2015 will start this Tuesday 20 January from Tanunda for 6 stages down to Adelaide.

Hereunder you'll find the list of participating riders in this race, with their bib numbers.

Reminder: the Santos Tour Down Under 2015 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth

On 26 December already, velowire.com showed you the detailed race route of the Santos Tour Down Under 2015 in Google Maps/Google Earth. If you haven't seen it yet or if you'd like to see the race route again a few hours before the start, please don't hesitate to check out this article:

>> The Tour Down Under 2015 race route in Google Maps/Google Earth

The participating riders in the Santos Tour Down Under 2015

Here are the riders who participate in this first UCI WorldTour race of the 2015 season:

BMC Racing Team

Since Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) won the Santos Tour Down Under last year, it would've been logical that bib number 1 went to the Orica-GreenEDGE team. However, in the American BMC Racing Team, the Australian rider Cadel Evans will end his cycling career in February, after the inaugural edition of the race which carries his name, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Enough reason for the organisor of the Santos Tour Down Under to award the rider who participated in the very first edition of the race in 1999 and who participed in no less than 8 of its editions and ended at the 2nd place at 1 second from Gerrans in 2014, bib number 1.

On his side, Evans will find 2 other Australian riders (Flakemore and Dennis), 3 Swiss riders (Schär, Wyss and Dillier) and the American Peter Stetina.

1 Cadel Evans (Aus)
2 Michael Schär (Swi)
3 Peter Stetina (USA)
4 Danilo Wyss (Swi)
5 Silvan Dillier (Swi)
6 Campbell Flakemore (Aus)
7 Rohan Dennis (Aus)

Orica-GreenEDGE

For the Orica-GreenEDGE team, the winner of last year's race, Simon Gerrans, can not defend his title and there will thus not be a new battle between him and Cadel Evans for his forelast race before he ends his career. Indeed, the Australian rider broke his collarbone at the end of December during a training.

Cameron Meyer, winner of the Tour Down Under 2011, will thus wear the first number of his Orica-GreenEDGE team, which carry the numbers in the tens:

11 Cameron Meyer (Aus)
12 Simon Clarke (Aus)
13 Mathew Hayman (Aus)
14 Sam Bewley (NZl)
15 Daryl Impey (RSA)
16 Luke Durbridge (Aus)
17 Michael Hepburn (Aus)

Team Giant-Alpecin

The Giant-Shimano team has exchanged its second title sponsor for the Alpecin brand during the interseason, a pharmaceutical shampoo brand. Would that be to keep Marcel Kittel's hair in shape, one of the big sprinters of the team which is now based in Germany?

Anyway, the German sprinter started his season in a good way, winning the People's Choice Classic this Sunday, the opening criterium for the Santos Tour Down Under which starts on Tuesday.

21 Marcel Kittel (Ger)
22 Simon Geschke (Ger)
23 Lawson Craddock (USA)
24 Koen de Kort (Ned)
25 Tom Dumoulin (Ned)
26 Albert Timmer (Ned)
27 Chad Haga (USA)

Team Sky

The winner of the Willunga Hill stage in 2014 and very recent time trial champion of Australia, Richie Porte, will be the leader of Team Sky in this Tour Down Under 2015]. Two other riders of the English team have already won stages in this race, Geraint Thomas and Chris Sutton, while two others participate for the first time in the Australian race, Pete Kennaugh and Salvatore Puccio.

31 Richie Porte (Aus)
32 Peter Kennaugh (GBr)
33 Luke Rowe (GBr)
34 Ian Stannard (GBr)
35 Salvatore Puccio (Ita)
36 Geraint Thomas (GBr)
37 Christopher Sutton (Aus)

Lotto-Soudal

The Belgian team which became Lotto-Soudal instead of Lotto-Belisol during the inter-season comes to the Australian race without its "serial winner" André Greipel and Thomas de Gendt thus takes the lead of the team, having done 4 editions of the Tour Down Under already.

Adam Hansen, the "serial Grand Tourer" of the team (the Australian rider participated in and ended all Grand Tours [Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España] since 2012) will defend his King of the Mountains title in the Tour Down Under.

41 Thomas de Gendt (Bel)
42 Lars Bak (Den)
43 Gert Dockx (Bel)
44 Kenny Dehaes (Bel)
45 Adam Hansen (Aus)
46 Gregory Henderson (NZl)
47 Boris Vallée (Bel)

Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team

Ryder Hesjedal, the winner of the 2012 Giro d'Italia will be leading the Cannondale-Garmin team, which is the result of the fusion between the Garmin-Sharp and Cannondale teams.

51 Ryder Hesjedal (Can)
52 Nathan Haas (Aus)
53 Lasse Norman Hansen (Den)
54 Jack Bauer (NZl)
55 Alex Howes (USA)
56 Moreno Moser (Ita)
57 Davide Villella (Ita)

Trek Factory Racing

The Trek Factory Racing team will come to the start of this first UCI WorldTour race of 2015 with two Australian riders: one surprise rider, Daniel McConnell, who is part of Trek's MTB team and who will thus exceptionally participate in a road race, and Calvin Watson who was part of the breakaway in Sunday's People's Choice Classic.

Next to these two Australian riders we find 3 Italians, Eugenio Alafaci, Marco Coledan who joined Trek from the Bardiani-CSF team, and Giacomo Nizzolo (photo). Finally, the team is completed by the rider from Luxembourg Laurent Didier and the New-Zealander Hayden Roulston.

61 Eugenio Alafaci (Ita)
62 Marco Coledan (Ita)
63 Laurent Didier (Lux)
64 Daniel McConnell (Aus)
65 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita)
66 Hayden Roulston (NZl)
67 Calvin Watson (Aus)

Tinkoff-Saxo

Michael Rogers, leading the team with its new fluo coloured shirt, will go for a top 5 classification in his home race!

71 Michael Rogers (Aus)
72 Pavel Brutt (Rus)
73 Manuele Boaro (Ita)
74 Christopher Juul Jensen (Den)
75 Michal Kolár (Svk)
76 Oliver Zaugg (Swi)
77 Jesper Hansen (Den)

AG2R La Mondiale

For the French AG2R La Mondiale team, Domenico Pozzovivo will wear the first number in the 80 series.

81 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita)
82 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra)
83 Axel Domont (Fra)
84 Blel Kadri (Fra)
85 Christophe Riblon (Fra)
86 Julien Berard (Fra)
87 Alexis Gougeard (Fra)

Astana Pro Team

The Astana team got its UCI WorldTeam licence after a thorough investigation due to its recent doping cases. Luis Leon Sanchez will be leading the Kazakh team after having joined it in the inter-season, which is also the case for Lars Boom, Dario Cataldo, Davide Malacarne and Laurens de Vreese, which means almost the whole team!

91 Luis León Sánchez (Spa)
92 Lars Boom (Ned)
93 Dario Cataldo (Ita)
94 Davide Malacarne (Ita)
95 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz)
96 Lieuwe Westra (Ned)
97 Laurens de Vreese (Bel)

Team Katusha

A Russian rider will be leading the Russian Team Katusha: Maxim Belkov.

101 Maxim Belkov (Rus)
102 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita)
103 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) (photo)
104 Tiago Machado (Por)
105 Rudiger Selig (Ger)
106 Alexey Tsatevich (Rus)
107 Vladimir Isaychev (Rus)

FDJ

In the FDJ team, Jérémy Roy deliberately chose to start his season in the Tour Down Under again, to change a bit and to start off under the sun. Indeed, the season has started off a bit frisky in France and in Europe in the past few years and the French rider thus chose to get away from that this year.

In the French team we also find the young Lorrenzo Manzin who will try to get a chance in one of the numerous sprints of the Tour Down Under 2015.

111 Jérémy Roy (Fra)
112 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra)
113 Olivier Le Gac (Fra)
114 Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra)
115 Cédric Pineau (Fra)
116 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra)
117 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin)

Movistar Team

The Movistar team will mainly be Spanish in this Tour Down Under, except for the number 1 of the team, Eros Capecchi.

121 Eros Capecchi (Ita)
122 Rubén Fernandez (Spa)
123 Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Spa)
124 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa)
125 Juan Jose Lobato (Spa)
126 José Herrada Lopez (Spa)
127 Enrique Sanz (Spa)

IAM Cycling

The Swiss team which discovers the UCI WorldTour and at that occasion also the Santos Tour Down Under sends Martin Elmiger as the team leader. Heinrich Haussler, the most German rider among the Australians and fresh Australian Champion, will most probably try to win one of the stages of the Australian race.

131 Martin Elmiger (Swi)
132 Stef Clement (Ned)
133 Heinrich Haussler (Aus)
134 Roger Kluge (Ger)
135 Jarlinson Pantano (Col)
136 Vicente Reynes (Spa)
137 David Tanner (Aus)

Etixx-QuickStep

This Belgian team also changed its name during the inter-season and removed Omega Pharma for Etixx (the sports nutrition brand of Omega Pharma) and thus became the Etixx-QuickStep team.

The Australian rider Mark Renshaw wears the first number for this team and Maxime Bouet is one of the riders who will do his first race in his new colours in Australia.

141 Mark Renshaw (Aus)
142 David De La Cruz (Spa)
143 Yves Lampaert (Bel)
144 Gianni Meersman (Bel)
145 Pieter Serry (Bel)
146 Martin Velits (Svk)
147 Maxime Bouet (Fra)

Team LottoNL-Jumbo

The Belkin team became Team LottoNL-Jumbo thanks to its new sponsors, the national lotto operator and a big supermarket chain. George Bennett will be the leader of the Dutch team in the Tour Down Under 2015 and the New-Zealander will be accompanied by 6 Dutch guys!

151 George Bennett (NZl)
152 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned)
153 Timo Roosen (Ned)
154 Barry Markus (Ned) (photo)
155 Martijn Keizer (Ned)
156 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned)
157 Rick Flens (Ned)

Lampre-Merida

The Italian rider Niccolo Bonifazio will get company from 4 other Italian riders, the Croatian Kristijan Durasek and the Ethiopian Tsgabu Grmay who joined the team from MTN-Qhubeka.

161 Niccolò Bonifazio (Ita)
162 Matteo Bono (Ita)
163 Davide Cimolai (Ita)
164 Kristijan Durasek (Cro)
165 Roberto Ferrari (Ita)
166 Manuele Mori (Ita)
167 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth)

Drapac Professional Cycling

For the Australian Pro Continental team Drapac the Dutch rider Wouter Wippert will be leading the team which will mainly be made of Australian riders (except for the Swiss rider Martin Kohler, photo) and among them we find some names who've been part of the highest level teams in the past!

171 Wouter Wippert (Ned)
172 William Clarke (Aus)
173 Timothy Roe (Aus)
174 Graeme Brown (Aus)
175 Martin Kohler (Swi)
176 Jordan Kerby (Aus)
177 Travis Meyer (Aus)

UniSA-Australia

As usual, a team entirely made up of Australian riders and sponsored by the University of South-Australia will again participate in the Tour Down Under this year, this time led by Jack Bobridge who left the Belkin team (which has become LottoNL-Jumbo since) to join the smaller Team Budget Forklifts.

181 Jack Bobridge (Aus)
182 Alex Edmondson (Aus)
183 Jack Haig (Aus)
184 Robert Power (Aus)
185 Steele von Hoff (Aus)
186 Neil van der Ploeg (Aus)
187 Miles Scotson (Aus)

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under 2015

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