Top 5 2017 Tour Down Under Contenders

The 2017 UCI WorldTour kicks off with the 19th edition of the Tour Down Under on Sunday 15 January with the People's Choice Classic, a 50 kilometre criterium event round Park 15 in the East End of Adelaide, followed by the first of six stages on Tuesday 17th.

Although it doesn't have anywhere near the history or precedence of the three Grand Tours, it has seen a meteoric rise in popularity - more than doubling it's economic impact between 2008 ($17.3 million) and 2009 ($39 million) - and a five-fold media increase in the last eight years. As has now become commonplace, there will be a plethora of top talents vying to take the first race win of the new season, with some looking to make up for missed opportunities in 2016. Here is a rundown of the five favourites.

5. Geraint Thomas - Team Sky

Thomas, 30, has only ridden the TDU twice before - as leader of Team Sky in 2013 and supporting Australia's Richie Porte in 2014. He took the TDU 2013 by storm, nearly winning the overall classification, only to crack on the penultimate stage, leaving the Welshman fighting back into third place via a time bonus on the final stage. It wasn't a total disappointment though - Thomas managed to console his frustration by winning the sprinters jersey.

Thomas was pivotal as part of the nine-man team that once again propelled Chris Froome to yet another Tour de France win in 2016, and had not too bad a year individually either. He won Paris-Nice and Volta ao Algarve, as well as finishing fourth and ninth in the UCI World Team Time Trial Championships and Olympic Games respectively.

With his sights reportedly set on an overall victory at the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia in May, a win in the 2017 TDU is a chance to start cementing himself as the rightful successor to Froome at Team Sky, once the three-time Tour de France winner decides to step aside as Bradley Wiggins did for him in 2013.

4. Simon Gerrans - Orica-Scott

There aren't many riders who become synonymous with winning their native cycling Tours - Bernard Hinault with five Tours de France, Fausto Coppi with five Giros d'Italia and Alberto Contador with three Vueltas a Espana - but veteran Gerrans, 36, has excelled as the foremost Aussie winning the TDU (2012, 2013, 2014, 2016), taking over from and beating inaugural winner Stuart O'Grady's record (1999, 2001).

As seasons go, 2016 was unspectacular for Gerrans, mainly due to him taking on domestique duties throughout the year for Esteban Chaves and the Yates twins - Adam and Simon. Aside from his fourth TDU victory in January, he finished fifth in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and won the combativity award on stage 14 of the Vuelta.

Gerrans, understandably given his age, isn't the main man at Orica-Scott - nor arguably is he second or third with the emergence of the Yates' - so the TDU is really his only realistic chance of the year of picking up a stage race win, even just going by the talent in his team alone. His success in Adelaide will depend highly on another man on this list, Chaves, but it's not too far fetched to believe he could be standing on the top step of the podium a week on Sunday with his fifth TDU title.

3. Sergio Henao - Team Sky

The little Colombian climber, 29, is often restricted to the mountains classification in the WorldTour and has only finished inside the top ten of general classification in a Grand Tour once before - ninth in the 2009 Giro when he was riding for Colombia es Pasion - but a hilly/medium mountainous week long stage race like the the TDU seems to be a promisingly good combination for the Team Sky man.

For a rider who is a specialist in the mountains, Henao had a very good 2016 indeed. He finished second in the Tour of the Basque Country, taking the points jersey in the process, second in Colombia's National Road Race Championships, second in the Grand Prix Miguel Indurain and sixth in Paris-Nice. Very respectable for someone of Henao's stature within the Team Sky machine.

Henao also has a great record at the TDU, having come third and won the white climber's jersey at last year's event, so will be looking to improve and climb one or even two more steps higher on that podium. That is, of course, only going to happen if he can fight off his compatriot, Chaves, which going off the Orica-Scott rider's form last year will be a tough ask. Henao may have to be content with just defending his mountains jersey, especially if teammate Thomas has major aspirations for glory.

2. Esteban Chaves - Orica-Scott

Chaves, the Daniel Ricciardo of cycling for his constant, endearing beam, had an absolutely stellar 2016, showing signs that point towards him one day being capable of attaining multiple Grand Tour wins. He took everyone by surprise when he finished second to Vincenzo Nibali in the Giro - much to the amazement of his own director sportif, Matt White - third at the Vuelta and capped off the year with a well deserved win in the last stage race of 2016, Il Lombardia, fighting off Astana's Diego Rosa and fellow Colombian, Cannondale's Rigoberto Uran (pictured above).

It's not like Chaves hadn't had any WorldTour experience before 2016 though. The perky Colombian won the Abu Dhabi Tour in 2015 and at the Vuelta held every classification jersey at least once on his way to finishing fifth overall. He also finished eighth in Il Lombardia.

Chaves will turn 27 on the day of the first stage of the TDU and if the last two seasons are anything to go by, 2017 could well be the year we see him mature into the rider we all know is capable of taking at least two WorldTour wins.

1. Richie Porte - BMC Racing Team

Porte, 31, hasn't been able to assert himself as a regular winner on the WorldTour stage as yet, despite having massive opportunities to do so at both Team Sky and BMC in the last few years. He took over leadership of Team Sky at the 2014 Tour de France after Froome accumulated too many injuries to continue over the cobbles of northern France, but clearly wasn't strong enough to seriously challenge in the mountains against the eventual winner Nibali. Despite a fairly notable season - winning Paris-Nice, the Giro del Trentino and the Volta a Catalunya - Porte took the plunge at the end of the 2015 season, jumping ship to BMC, knowing that he couldn't be anymore than a super domestique at the Grand Tours while Froome was arguably the best road rider in the world.

In 2016 though, he learned that even having the backing of being BMC's focal Grand Tour rider and a troop of top WorldTour riders around him, including Tejay van Garderen and Olympic Road Race Champion in waiting Greg Van Avermaet, wouldn't be enough to topple his former captain. As he gave deflated interview after deflated interview with each passing mountain stage in the final phase of the Tour de France, he reluctantly realised he didn't have the team nor the legs to claw back his time deficit to the superior Froome, disappointingly finishing fifth behind Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet.

Overall, Porte had a poor 2016, only once finishing in the top two of a stage race - that being the TDU. His bad form in 2016 was summed up when, infamously, on the slops of Mont Ventoux, he collided face first into the back of a TV motorbike that had stopped due to the viscosity of the crowds just before the finish at Chalet Reynard, with Froome and Bauke Mollema crashing on top of him too, just to add insult to injury.

2017 will be a massive season for Porte if he's to achieve anywhere near the success he's been temping for going on seven years now when he came seventh in the Giro, won the Young rider classification and held the Pink Jersey for two stages as a Team Saxo Bank rider in 2010.

Being his native Tour, the TDU is the perfect race to remind everyone why he's one to watch this year. If he does win, it'll make for a remarkable statistic too - never have three different Australians won the TDU in three consecutive years (Rohan Dennis - 2015, Simon Gerrans - 2016).

TV Coverage

People’s Choice Classic – January 15

8.45am, LIVE, Bike Channel UK
3.00pm, Live repeat, Bike Channel UK
9.00pm, Live repeat, Bike Channel UK