Long live Challambra Crescent - Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race preview

When the course for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race was being designed before the first event played out in 2015 there was an obvious inclusion, a climb up what, until the World Championships in 2010, had been an innocuous suburban street – Challambra Crescent.

Back then, crowds thronged to the footpaths and nature strips of the normally peaceful location with views over Geelong and its surrounds. And so it was an obvious addition as a decisive point in this new race, named after the Australian who had claimed the rainbow stripes in 2009 and the yellow jersey of the Tour de France in 2011.

Milan San Remo has the Poggio, the Tour Down Under Willunga Hill and the one-day women’s and men’s WorldTour races in the southern state of Victoria have the Challambra.

"Challambra was iconic in the World Championships, and it still is today, and I think every year in this race it's the crucial point,” race director Scott Sunderland told Cyclingnews in the days leadding up to the WorldTour races. “While we have got beautiful Great Ocean Road and Torquay, Thirteenth Beach, Barwon Heads, its Challambra that is where it all happens – whether it's the breakaway duking it out or the peloton coming in there for the final lap.”

Those final battles of the Australian season of international racing will be decided after 140.8km of racing at the women's event on Saturday, January 27 and after the 174.4km of the men's event the following day.

In both the women’s and men’s events, riders head out from the waterfront in Geelong, often with sailing boats making the most of of the summer weekend on Corio Bay providing a backdrop. The race works its way through the streets of the city, which is located little more than an hour out of Melbourne, and tackles the uphill to at the historic town of Ceres before continuing to head inland through the rolling farmland hills. 

After that it is towards the coast with the riders passing Bells Beach, Torquay and Thirteenth Beach, though there will not be much time to enjoy the stunning ocean views, particularly if cross winds hit. Then it is back to Geelong via Barwon Heads and the Bellarine Peninsula and into loops of the finishing circuit, where Challambra awaits.

Hype and excitement

The men’s and women’s races are identical to this point – just swap out QOM for KOM on Sunday – but it's the number of laps of the 17km finishing loop that creates the variation in distance. The women take on two laps, therefore tackling Challambra twice, while it is four rounds for the men.

The Challambra QOM/KOM, which goes up in ramps, is 1km long with an average gradient of 8.7%, but the race guide book puts the maximum at 22%. The peak comes at 9km from the line, but there is also the short but sharp pinch up Melville Avenue at around 6km to go, just 420m at 8.5% but with a maximum gradient of 25%. It is then a largely downhill run through the final 4km, with a pinch thrown in at around 2km, and then in the final lap the victor will claim their prize on the Geelong waterfront.

It’s a course that can play to the hands of a variety of riders – and regularly throws up a surprise outcome – though the women’s race tends to lean more towards a rider taking the win from a solo effort or small group while the men’s race can often come down to a sprint from a larger – but still massively reduced – group.

That means the favourites list includes everyone from riders like 2019 winner Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) to climbers like regular podium finisher Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), who won in 2016. 

There have been some changes to the course since both won, like adding another lap to the women’s event or delivering a reversal of the direction of the initial loop out of Geelong, but while race director Scott Sunderland may have a folder full of ideas and options for the race, it seems unlikely that there will be any incarnation of the event where Challambra is not a pivotal.

“When you're standing on top of Challambra, you are looking back over Geelong and anticipating the riders coming to there, that's a great feeling,” said Sunderland, pointing to the electric atmosphere of climbs that have achieved legend status – from the Muur van Geraardsbergen at theTour of Flanders to the Alpe d'Huez at the Tour de France – and the benefit of bringing some of that sense of anticipation into the Geelong event. 

“That sort of hype and the excitement that the fans get, they love it. I mean, we've seen it in the past, the kids running up the sides of the roads, cheering on the riders and so forth, the crowds we get there and the iconic helicopter views back over the city. So, yeah, I think I would have to come with a damn good argument to remove it, put it that way, and I'm not sure I want to put my self in that position,” he said with a chuckle.