Tour Down Under scores despite absence of top stars

Stuart O'Grady will cheer every cycling success that Chloe Dygert and Jhonatan Narvaez achieve this season as the Tour Down Under strives for higher-quality start lists.

The Santos Tour race director can point to a number of highlights over the last nine days as the Adelaide event celebrated its 25th anniversary.

But the women's and men's race fields were also notable for the lack of the WorldTour's very best talent.

O'Grady tried for 18 months to lure three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar, only for the project to stall weeks from the race.

Just as the men's field was missing Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard or Remco Evenepoel, so the women's race did not feature Lotte Kopecky or Demi Vollering.

A bruising article in the Dutch media last week described the men's field as a "grey list".

But every big result that Dygert and Narvaez in particular achieve this season will be a counterpoint to that European negativity, helping send a message through the peloton that Adelaide can be the springboard for solid form.

"To see those riders (Dygert and Narvaez) winning on our roads, I guess as an organiser that's my dream come true," O'Grady said after the men's Tour ended on Sunday.

Dygert and Narvaez, two big overseas names, spoke glowingly of the race after their successful Tour Down Under campaigns.

Dygert, the two-time world time trial champion, hobbles down stairs like a 100 year old as she continues to recover from her horrific 2020 race crash.

But the American's storming stage win in Stirling on the last day of the women's Tour was a crucial marker as she tries to regain top form.

Narvaez was the top-ranked rider in the men's race and is on the brink of stardom.

He is the first Ecuador rider to win the Tour, snaring the title by prevailing in arguably the best battle seen on the Tour's iconic Willunga climb.

This is not the first time that the quality of the Tour Down Under fields has been questioned and the race craves another "Lance effect".

For all his sins, Lance Armstrong starting his 2009 comeback in Adelaide was a massive boost for the Tour.

Likewise, two-time world champion Peter Sagan was a major drawcard.

O'Grady can point to Pogacar starting his WorldTour career in Adelaide (2019) - then winning his first Tour de France title a year later.

Two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador calls his 2005 Tour Down Under stage win the biggest result of the Spaniard's career, given it came only months after major surgery.

Importantly this month, Sam Welsford was the only Australian to win a stage or the overall across the two races.

"It felt like a really international Tour Down Under. The Australians have been challenged across the women's and men's, which means the quality of the field and the level of racing and rider is better," O'Grady said.

Crucially, Santos has renewed its title sponsorship for three years and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas speaks of the Tour continuing for another 25 years.

"That's just a really big acknowledgment, confirmation that we're doing something right," O'Grady said.

There had been a gnawing feeling around the Tour Down Under that Malinauskas was perhaps aligning his shooting political star more with Liv Golf and the AFL's Gather Round, rather than the bike race.

His rousing speech at the 25-year celebration dinner on Friday night was a telling endorsement.