2023 Santos Tour Down Under 9 Day Premium Race HQ
Greatness returns. International cyclists are back.
Join the excitement of the return of the Santos Tour Down Under
Our weeklong Adelaide bike holiday coincides with the 2023 UCI World Tour events for men and women.
9 days
Adelaide, South Australia
Tour Departs
Adelaide, South Australia, January 14, 2023
Tour Finishes
Adelaide, South Australia, January 22, 2023 | Optional finish 23 January 2023
Tour Style
Group Size: 30 guests – 5 staff
Rides: Ride the Adelaide Hills, Adelaide Beaches, Winery Regions and the famous routes of the Santos Tour Down Under. Our rides will intersect with each road stage of the Santos Festival of Cycling.
Challenge Rating: All rides have the option to leave from and return to the hotel. Our support vehicle will allow you to shorten your ride should it be necessary.
Accommodation: Stay at race headquarters, adjacent to the festival village at the Hilton Adelaide, close to the Gouger Street dining precinct and Adelaide Central Markets.
Trip Suitability
Social Riding and Leisure: We understand that your cycling holiday is a HOLIDAY! You may not normally ride every day at home. Our ride routes allow you to cherry-pick the sort of riding that you’d like to do. Choose the days you want to climb, the days to ride flat, and days to rest.
Experienced Riders: Your cycling holiday is actually about the bike! Our epic and challenging ride options seek more vertical metres and longer miles. Choose your rest days or recovery rides, or just ride, and ride, and ride.
Meals Included
- Buffet breakfast every day
- Welcome drinks and canapes
- Picnic lunches
- McLaren Vale Lunch
Tour Inclusions
Accommodation and Transport
- Transport throughout
- Transport for your bike with professional bike carriers
- 8 nights accommodation in 4-star hotel at race headquarters
- Arrival transfer on day one from Adelaide Airport
- Departure transfer to Adelaide Airport
Meals
- Buffet breakfast daily
- Picnic lunches as shown in the itinerary
- Welcome function
- Gourmet Lunch in McLaren Vale
Professional Ride Support
- Hosted by our experienced tour guides and professional drivers
- Mechanical assistance with your bike
- Ride support vehicle when you need it most
- Navigation assistance on all guided rides
- Sports powders, water and bars during your ride
Why we Love this Tour
- Travel with the longest operating Travel Specialist to the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under. Our trips to the Santos Tour Down Under have run since Adelaide first welcomed the biggest cycling event in the southern hemisphere.
- Ride the great climbs of the Adelaide Hills, always enjoying a downhill run back to your hotel. Our years of experience ensure you ride along the most scenic and safest routes.
- One hotel, one week, at Race Headquarters, sharing the elevator with the who’s who of cycling royalty. It is not unusual to share the lift with the stage winners.
- Visit the famous winery regions of McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, and Adelaide Hills.
- Optional extra night, making the 9-day trip
- View every stage of the men’s and women’s World Tour event, for the first time being held on consecutive days.
Pricing
Price: AUD $4590 (twin share) | AUD$180 (twin share) for additional night Sunday 22nd Jan
Single Supplement: AUD $1500 | AUD$350 for additional night Sunday 22nd Jan
Note: All trip costs are per person, not including airfare and based on two persons per room. If travelling alone we will match you with a person to share. Alternatively, you may choose to have a room of your own by paying the single supplement.
Note: It is a requirement of Bikestyle Tours that you have Travel Insurance for your trip. Please take out Travel Insurance at your earliest convenience. We recommend at the same time as paying your deposit.
2023 Santos Tour Down Under Trip Summary
Visit locations like Hahndorf, Stirling, Lobethal, McLaren Vale, and Barossa Valley. We guarantee a rich experience on and off the bike. Coffee shops, bakeries, cheese-makers, wine producers, micro-breweries and local produce – discover Adelaide, the Adelaide Hills, and the wine growing regions of Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale.
Your rides have been carefully selected to experience the great climbs like Checkers Hill, Norton Summit, Gorge Road, Corkscrew and all those connections across the Adelaide Hills. We’ve even spiced up a few of our rides with some great gravel deviations.
Bikestyle Tours is the most experienced Tour Operator hosting trips at the Santos Tour Down Under since its inaugural year.
Greatness is back in 2023 with international riders contesting the first UCI World Tour event in the calendar year.
2023 will also be the first time that the Women ‘s event has UCI World Tour status.
International Super Stars. Summer cycling. Staying at Race HQ.
After a prolonged absence, the international cyclists are returning and descending on Adelaide for the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under. For the first time, the Women’s event has also be granted UCI World Tour status. So teams will be hungry to kick-start their 2023 season. Join us as we celebrate all things cycling and immerse in the RADelaide culture – divine international food, stunning wineries, and famous ride routes of the Santos Tour Down Under.
Our base for the week-long festival will be the headquarters of the event – Hilton Adelaide. The Festival village is on your doorstep with evening entertainment, showcase events, and technology hubs. We are also located beside the famous Adelaide Central Markets. Each morning enjoy a full buffet breakfast, fuelling up for a ride along the routes made famous by the Tour Down Under. Each one of our rides conveniently takes us to watch the live racing of the Women’s and Men’s World Tour events.
What are the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under Stages?
UCI has granted the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under World Tour status. This means that Adelaide will host the world’s best riders from both the men’s and women’s peloton.
Racing will commence with a curtain raiser event on the city circuit close to your hotel. The Women will then fight it out for 3 stages before our focus goes to the men’s race, with 5 stages being contested.
There are 9 consecutive days of racing in and around Adelaide, featuring UCI World Tour teams.
Schwalbe Classic
Watch the men and women light up the street before dusk on the Victoria Square circuit.  | 18:00 Women |
| 19:30 Men |
Ziptrak Women's Stage 1
Watch the opening stage of the Women's world tour event.
Route to be announced this September.
Women's Stage 2
Watch the second stage of the Women's world tour event.
Route to be announced this September.
Women's Stage 3
Watch the third and final stage of the Women's world tour event. Route to be announced this September.EFEX Prologue
For the first time at the Santos Tour Down Under, riders will race against the clock along the riverbank at dusk.  | Start: 18:00 Finish:20:30 |
| Distance: 5.5km |
Ziptrak Men's Stage 1 - Barossa
Head out to the Barossa Valley for the opening stage of the Men's UCI World Tour event - an action packed circuit race starting and finishing in Tanunda.
 | Start: 11:00 Finish: 14:45 |
| Distance: 150km |
Men's Stage 2 - Victor Harbor
Head through the Fleurieu Peninsula to Victor Harbor for the exciting sprint finish to the scenic coastal town. Or, will a breakaway spoil the ambitions of the sprinters.
 | Start: 11:00 Finish: 15:00 |
| Distance: 156km |
Men's Stage 3 - Corkscrew
Watch the race on the infamous Corkscrew Road.
 | Start: 11:00 Finish: 14:15 |
| Distance: 118km |
Men's Stage 4 - McLaren Vale
Head to McLaren Vale amongst the wineries for the strongly contested finish to Willunga.
 | Start: 11:00 Finish: 14:30 |
| Distance: 135km |
Men's Stage 5 - Mt Lofty
See the heavily contested final stage on the circuit through Adelaide Hills involving the climb to the scenic Mt Lofty, one of South Australia's biggest tourist destinations.
The winners will be crowned on the summit.
 | Start: 11:00 Finish: 14:15 |
| Distance: 114km |
2023 Santos Tour Down Under – Trip Itinerary
Curtain Raiser
Arrival, warm-up and curtain raiser
Your staff will meet you at the Airport, with a number of scheduled transfers today. Your transfer is made easy as we will also assist with transporting your bike and luggage to our accommodation, at race headquarters. Depending on your arrival time, your room may or may not be ready. Either way, we will help ready your bike, and give you access to a room to get changed for our afternoon ride to the beaches.
This evening, we will walk down to the criterium circuit and watch the curtain raiser, before the sunsets. Both the women and men will be in full attack mode, for the 1-hour long criterium on the inner streets of Adelaide. You are free this evening to find a local restaurant and explore the Bike Expo Village, conveniently across the road from our accommodation. There will be some night entertainment, rider presentations and interviews with your favourites.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Arrival and airport transfer
- Wam-up ride
- Evening curtain raiser
Our ride follows the Torrens, past the West End brewery and down to Henley beach, where we can capture a few pictures of the Henley jetty. We then make our way back along the coastline via Glenelg and into the city. The easy ride will help test your bike and legs, for the more challenging rides ahead of us.
Women’s Stage One
We will follow stage one of the Women’s Tour Down Under today.
The women’s race will have much more energy than ever before, with UCI World ranking points up for grabs. Being a UCI World Tour classification, more of the international elite riders will participate. However, the Australian women will be eager to win on their home soil. The race routes are not published at the moment, but we may see a stage in the Adelaide Hills on Sunday or Monday. So we will finalise our ride to best coincide with great race viewing.
We plan to make a stopover at Hahndorf, today or tomorrow.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Women's Stage One
- Hahndorf
- Adelaide Hills
- Old Norton Summit Road
Our Hahndorf ride has been a popular ride for our previous guests, and we continually improve our course with new sectors of road. We will make our way into the hills using the Old Norton Summit road. We then make our way across the Basket Range, before reaching Balhannah. There are a few little sections of good gravel road that we have the option to take to reach Hahndorf. Our shorter ride today can start in the Adelaide Hills and enjoy the quiet roads, and rolling terrain.
Women’s Stage Two
Today we will follow the Women’s stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under.
Once again, we will wait for the race route to be published, but again we can expect the racing to be close to Adelaide. We will take the opportunity before the Men’s race starts to ride some of the infamous climbs that have animated the Santos Tour Down Under over the years. Our ride is planned to take in some of those climbs.
Today, we have scheduled our welcome dinner, including wine. The exact location will depend on the women’s course.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Women's Stage Two
- Torrens Hill
- Checker Hill
- Gorge Road
- Lobethal
- Welcome Dinner (incl. wine)
Today’s ride will challenge the most seasoned riders. We will head out along Gorge Road, and make our way up the Torrens Hill climb, also known as the climb to Paracombe. The gradients are steepest along this road, compared to the surrounding roads. However, it is short and punchy. It is a popular finish on Torrens Hill. Once we reach the summit, we will enjoy the exhilarating twists through Chain of Ponds, before heading for the also steep climb of Checker Hill.
Once we climb over Check Hill we’ll make our way to Lobethal for a well-deserved refuel stop. Our shorter ride may skip the climbs and make a more direct route to Lobethal.
Women’s Stage Three and Prologue
After a couple of solid days in the saddle, we will take today a little easier. We also have a plethora of cycling activities to be involved in. It is the final stage of the Women’s UCI World Tour race. Who will be the Queen of the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under and claim victory? The 2023 Ochre jersey will be ever more sought after this edition.
Our ride today will work around the Women’s race once more. Once the stages are published, we will be able to finalise our rides. Our aim is to get you up to Mt Lofty for a scenic view of Adelaide, as well as explore a few little gems in the Adelaide Hills. We will watch the women’s race and return to our accommodation in time for you to head down to the exciting Prologue for the men’s race. The riders will be presented and roll off the starting ramp for a quick lap of the Torrens Riverbank, in a race against the clock. A new format for the Santos Tour Down Under, but will surely bring the similar excitement that a prologue brings to the Tour de France.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Final stage of Women's Santos Tour Down Under
- EFEX Prologue for 2023 Santos Tour Down Under
- Mt Lofty Summit
Our ride today will be up to Mt Lofty for a scenic view. Depending on the location of the stage today for the Women, we will also pick a few more gems in the Adelaide Hills. Our return to Adelaide will have us back at our accommodation in time to freshen up for this evening’s prologue.
Barossa Valley
Today’s opening stage highlights the Barossa Valley.
We will head out to the Barossa and watch all of the action on the 5 lap circuit. With multiple laps, there are multiple viewing opportunities for the race. As we will ride out to Tanunda, we will remove the difficulty of the return and transport you and your bike back to Adelaide. This will give you the opportunity to taste some of the famous wines from this stunning region.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Barossa Valley Stage
- Whispering Wall
- Wine Tasting in the Barossa
We will set off in the cool of the morning after a nice buffet breakfast. We will take a scenic way into the hills without too much challenge of climbing. There may be time to make a short detour to the Whispering Wall, before joining onto the Barossa Wine Trail through the wineries to our viewing spot in Tanunda.
Our shorter ride can skip the bulk of the climbing, and enjoy more time at the Whispering wall before riding the bike trail into Tanunda.
Old Willunga Hill
We visited the Barossa Valley yesterday, it would only make sense to cover off another of the great wine regions of Australia today. We will head down for the finish of today’s stage in Victor Harbor. It is a break from tradition, Old Willunga Hill is not included in the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under. Given that Old Willunga Hill is on-route to Victor Harbor, we will take the opportunity for you to test yourself on the climb.
We will arrive in Victor Harbor for lunch, just before the arrival of the race. It is always an exciting and very scenic finish at Victor Harbor. You can enjoy a rewarding cold beverage in Victor Harbor as we will transport you and your bike back to Adelaide.
This evening we will welcome additional guests on our long weekend trip to the Santos Tour Down Under. Together, we will host an evening pre-dinner function to meet your fellow travellers.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Victor Harbor stage finish
- Old Willunga Hill
- Port Elliot
- Pre-dinner cocktail function
Our ride today heads out of Adelaide using the Belair road, another scenic lookout that rewards your climbing effort. Nearly without fail our ride from Belair to Clarendon allows us to spot a koala, so keep an eye out as we go over the undulations. We will ride through the McLaren Vale wineries and arrive at Willunga Village. From here our main climb starts, the infamous Old Willunga Hill. Once we reach the top, we will regroup, refuel and head off to Victor Harbor along some less busy roads. We will reach the coast at Port Elliot, and follow the coastline to Victor Harbor. It is common to witness whales with their calves in this sanctuary.
Our short ride today, will start and finish in Victor Harbor, with a scenic ride along the coast through Port Elliot to Goolwa and return.
Corkscrew
Today’s stage is close to Adelaide, starting in an inner suburb. We will take the opportunity to see the start of the race, and then ride out to the final challenge of today’s stage – the Corkscrew. It is a popular road for cyclists and rally car drivers. It follows the Corkscrew road, and you’d say it is aptly named. The tight twists quickly climbs up from Gorge Road to Montacute – where we will watch the race.
We’ll also provide you with a picnic lunch prior to the arrival of the race. With a great view of the riders on the climb, today will be a special memory of the 2023 Santos Tour Down Under. After seeing the last rider, we have a downhill run back to our hotel and you can enjoy an easier day on the bike as well as a earlier arrival to your hotel.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Stage Start in Norwood
- Corkscrew Road
- Picnic Lunch
We will keep our rides shorter today. We will barely get started before we pause and watch the riders prepare and sign on for the stage from the funky suburb of Norwood. Once the race heads out, and we’ve fueled up on coffee, we will head up Gorge Road, before taking the right turn onto Corkscrew Road, you’re on the corkscrew. We’ll watch the race and return down the newly surfaced Montacute road back to our hotel.
McLaren Vale Stage
We’ll retrace some of our steps today and head back to McLaren Vale. For those that didn’t climb Old Willunga Hill earlier in the week, you’ll have another opportunity today. After breakfast we will head to the stage start at Aldinga Beach, we will follow the Pat Jonker bikeway, which cuts out most of the hills. After seeing the stage start on the esplanade, we will head to Willunga and watch the race multiple times, as well as the exciting stage finish.
It will be an uphill finish, still favouring the sprinters. However, timing the sprint will be everything. Once the race has finished, we’ll head back to Adelaide and enjoy dinner together and celebrate our 2023 cycling holiday in Adelaide, at the Santos Tour Down Under.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Stage Start in Aldinga
- Stage Finish in Willunga
- Pat Jonker bikeway
- Farewell dinner, including wine
Our main ride today is to Aldinga beach along the Pat Jonker bikeway. It will be bursting with other cyclists today, so we will have a number of regrouping points so that you can ride at your own pace, and still have our guides on hand to support you. Once we watch the stage start, it is a short ride to the finish area, where we’ll watch the race a number of times.
We have an extension option available today, for stronger riders. We will keep a firm pace and return to Adelaide on the bike. If you’ve enjoyed a drink in Willunga or aren’t up for keeping firm pressure on the pedals, our transport is on hand to transport you and your bike back.
Mt Lofty Finale
Today’s stage starts in Unley, which is a short distance from our hotel. We’ll head down and enjoy another stage start, in a popular cafe precinct. Once the riders head off, we will make our way to Stirling, Crafers and onto the final climb to Mt Lofty to watch the race. We can pause in Stirling and enjoy some local Adelaide Hills produce. Today’s stage is a break from tradition and will be sure to invigorate to competition for the Ochre jersey. The undulating circuits before the climb to Mt Lofty will provide an opportunity for a number of attacks and possibly isolate riders. It will be a fast stage.
Once the race finishes on Mt Lofty, we will head back to our hotel and for anyone flying home this evening we will help you pack your bike and shuttle you and your luggage to the airport. You have the option to stay the additional night (additional cost) at the Hilton before heading home tomorrow. We’ll have a number of shuttles going to the airport tomorrow.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Final stage of 2023 Santos Tour Down Under
- Unley Stage Start
- Mt Lofty Stage Finish
- Airport Transfers
Our ride takes us to the start of the stage and then takes a quiet road up through Belair National Park to Crafers and Stirling. You will see the stage multiple times today, before the finish on Mt Lofty.
Why Book with Bikestyle Tours?
A COVID-Safe plan
- All staff and guests must complete a pre-travel questionnaire prior to the start of the trip
- Bikestyle Tours complies with the COVID requirements of the local authorities (Tourism and Accommodation, Bike Tours); such as controls for social distancing, cleaning and hygiene, vehicle transport
- All guests must be fully vaccinated to join the tour
- Check your departure and return requirements for your country of residence
Are Trips Guaranteed Departures?
We make every effort to guarantee departures to give you peace of mind that once you’ve booked your trip – you’re going! We do not cancel trips due to insufficient numbers leaving you stranded.
