Startlist Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2026 - Adam Yates, Ben O'Connor, Sam Welsford and defending champion Mauro Schmid headline

As the WorldTour convoy settles into its Australian rhythm after the Tour Down Under, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race offers a very different examination of form. Not a sprint festival. Not a mountain test. But a nervy, wind-touched, leg-sapping war of positioning and timing around Geelong, where the repeated sting of Challambra Crescent has a habit of exposing who is truly ready for the season and who is still searching for rhythm.

The 2026 startlist suggests this will be one of the most tactically open editions in recent memory. Defending champion Mauro Schmid returns with Team Jayco AlUla and is joined by a heavy Australian core, including Ben O'Connor and Luke Plapp, ensuring the home team will not be short of options if the race fractures on the climbs or in the coastal crosswinds.

Elsewhere, the blend of fast finishers, classics engines and opportunists is unusually deep. INEOS Grenadiers bring both speed and experience through Sam Welsford and Michal Kwiatkowski. Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe field last year’s winner here, Laurence Pithie, a rider perfectly suited to this terrain. UAE Team Emirates - XRG add climbing strength and race craft with Adam Yates, while Soudal - Quick-Step and Lidl - Trek arrive with line-ups that can play multiple cards depending on how selective the race becomes.

Then there are the outsiders who rarely stay outsiders for long on this course. Michael Gogl for Alpecin - Premier Tech, Santiago Buitrago for Bahrain Victorious, Andreas Kron for Uno-X Mobility, and a string of young, aggressive riders from Decathlon CMA CGM Team, EF Education - EasyPost and Tudor Pro Cycling Team who will view this as the perfect race to force the issue rather than wait for a sprint that may never come.

That is always the quiet truth of the Cadel Evans race. On paper, it looks controllable. In reality, the combination of terrain, wind and repeated pressure points turns it into a thinking rider’s classic where timing, not just strength, decides the outcome. With this calibre of startlist, 2026 has all the ingredients to follow that script once again.

Team Jayco AlUla

1 Schmid, Mauro

2 Durbridge, Luke

3 Porter, Rudy

4 O'Brien, Kelland

5 O'Connor, Ben

6 McKenzie, Hamish

7 Plapp, Luke

UAE Team Emirates XRG

12 Laengen, Vegard Stake

13 Molano, Sebastián

15 Oliveira, Ivo

17 Yates, Adam

Team Visma - Lease a Bike

21 Brennan, Matthew

22 Fiorelli, Filippo

23 Hagenes, Per Strand

24 Schiffer, Anton

26 Mattio, Pietro

27 Rex, Tim

Lidl - Trek

31 Bagioli, Andrea

32 Ghebreigzabhier, Amanuel

33 Konrad, Patrick

34 Mosca, Jacopo

35 Oomen, Sam

36 Sobrero, Matteo

Soudal - Quick-Step

41 Dainese, Alberto

42 Eenkhoorn, Pascal

43 Raccagni, Andrea

44 Reinderink, Pepijn

45 Pedersen, Casper

46 Bossche, Fabio Van den

47 Zana, Filippo

INEOS Grenadiers

51 Haig, Jack

52 Hamilton, Lucas

53 Kwiatkowski, Michal

54 Svestad-Bårdseng, Embret

55 Swift, Ben

56 Watson, Sam

57 Welsford, Sam

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe

61 Drizners, Jarrad

62 Etxeberria, Haimar

63 Fisher-Black, Finn

64 Pithie, Laurence

65 Thornley, Callum

66 Tuckwell, Luke

67 Poppel, Danny van

Alpecin - Premier Tech

71 Ballerstedt, Maurice

72 Busatto, Francesco

73 Glivar, Gal

74 Gogl, Michael

75 Marsman, Tim

76 Plowright, Jensen

77 Sentjens, Sente

Decathlon CMA CGM Team

81 Andresen, Tobias Lund

82 Chamberlain, Oscar

83 Gautherat, Pierre

84 Gudmestad, Tord

85 L'Hote, Antoine

86 Prodhomme, Nicolas

87 Scotson, Callum

Bahrain Victorious

91 Buitrago, Santiago

92 Eržen, Zak

93 Miholjević, Fran

94 Stannard, Robert

95 Stockwell, Oliver

97 Zambanini, Edoardo

Groupama - FDJ United

101 Bower, Lewis

102 Cavagna, Rémi

103 Donnenwirth, Tom

104 Fontaine, Titouan

105 Geniets, Kévin

106 Martin-Guyonnet, Guillaume

107 Paleni, Enzo

EF Education - EasyPost

111 Leonard, Michael

112 Cepeda, Alexander

113 Lee, Jardi van der

114 Sweeny, Harry

115 Walker, Max

116 Mackellar, Alastair

117 Lamperti, Luke

Lotto - Intermarché

121 Fox, Matthew

122 Rutsch, Jonas

123 Taminiaux, Lionel

124 Thompson, Reuben

126 Zimmermann, Georg

127 Veistroffer, Baptiste

NSN Cycling Team

131 Bennett, George

132 Gilmore, Brady

133 Schultz, Nick

134 Clarke, Simon

135 Strong, Corbin

136 Vernon, Ethan

137 Smith, Dion

Movistar Team

141 Cepeda, Jefferson Alveiro

142 Moro, Manlio

143 Novák, Pavel

144 Romo, Javier

145 Serrano, Gonzalo

146 Tesfatsion, Natnael

147 Torres, Albert

XDS Astana Team

151 Kajamini, Florian

152 Romele, Alessandro

153 Schrettl, Marco

154 Bekkum, Darren van

155 Velasco, Simone

156 Toneatti, Davide

157 Gate, Aaron

Team Picnic PostNL

161 Dinham, Matthew

162 Hamilton, Chris

163 Knox, James

164 Märkl, Niklas

165 Peace, Oliver

166 Haquin, Henri-François

167 Uden, Casper van

Uno-X Mobility

171 Kron, Andreas

172 Charmig, Anthon

173 Skaarseth, Anders

174 Fredheim, Stian

175 Resell, Erik

176 Ingebrigtsen, Storm

177 Bugge, Martin Urianstad

Tudor Pro Cycling Team

181 Brenner, Marco

182 Kelemen, Petr

184 Stork, Florian

185 Suter, Joel

186 Wirtgen, Luc

187 Zijlaard, Maikel

ARA Australian Cycling Team

191 Harper, Chris

192 Eddy, Patrick

193 Walsh, Liam

194 Bleddyn, Oliver

195 Greenwood, Matthew

196 Stevenson, Lucas

197 Baudry, Julian