Alberto Bettiol wins a wet prologue at the Tour Down Under

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Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) captured victory on the first race day of the 2023 WorldTour season, powering into the overall lead at the Tour Down Under after the opening prologue in Adelaide.

The Italian perhaps wasn’t the top favourite for victory on the 5.5km course, but circumstances turned the day to his favour. Having set off as the fourth starter, Bettiol was one of the few men who could tackle the course in dry conditions before the heavens opened early on.

His time of 6:19 set him up for a long spell in the hot seat and, almost two-and-a-half hours later, nobody had managed to go any quicker, even the specialists who headed out on drying roads late on.

The effect of the downpour that hit the race after the first 15 minutes of action was such that only Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and Julius Johansen (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), who set off two hours after Bettiol, were able to get within 10 seconds of the leader.

Sheffield set a time of 6:27 to take second place, while the Dane went a fraction under 10 seconds slower to round out the podium.

"I’m really happy and I feel really lucky at the same time," Bettiol said. "I knew I could do well but not to win. The weather of Australia helped me. I really appreciate the help of all my team today. I just had to pedal full gas for six-and-a-half minute.

"The strategy was a bit different. I asked the sporting director to start first because I think I had enough experience. In the end I won. It’s a surprise and I’m really happy. There’s not a lot of strategy. You have to learn the corners but sometimes you have to be lucky.

"I like this race and I’ll be really proud to wear the jersey of the Tour Down Under tomorrow morning. It’s a prologue and the real race starts tomorrow."

After the opening day of the race, Bettiol now wears the ochre jersey of leader with an eight-second buffer over Sheffield. The 29-year-old has a solid gap over the main GC favourites, too, with Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) at 14 seconds, Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) at 19 seconds, and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) at 26 seconds, among others.

How it unfolded

The Tour Down Under, run for the first time since 2020, kicked off in dry conditions in Adelaide on a technical course in the race’s home city of Adelaide. However, it wouldn’t stay that way for long as the drizzle soon started before turning into pouring rain after the first quarter of an hour.

Bettiol was perfectly placed among the early riders to take advantage of the situation, flying around the course in a time that not even the other dry runners could come close to matching.

Among the other riders who had the advantage of dry roads, Samuel Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck) ended up in fifth at the finish, with Hugo Page (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) in sixth while Michael Vink (UAE Team Emirates) and Patrick Bevin (Team DSM) also finished inside the top 20.

Few challengers to the top of the standings emerged over the course of the next two hours, understandably given the weather conditions. In fact, it took 80 minutes before anyone else would even break the top 10.

Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) got within 14 seconds of Bettiol, while Marc Brustenga (Trek-Segafredo) was 18 seconds down. Meanwhile, a tricky late corner saw numerous riders hit the deck, with Emils Liepins (Trek-Segafredo) becoming the first crash of the 2023 WorldTour with EF pair Mikkel Honoré and Sean Quinn also falling on the slick road along with Chris Hamilton (Team DSM), Jensen Plowright (Groupama-FDJ), and Tim van Dijke (Jumbo-Visma).

After the impressive efforts of Matthews and Brustenga, there would be another wait before further challenges to Bettiol’s time were mounted as the roads slowly dried. Half an hour later, Sheffield and Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) broke into the top 10, though the latter won’t have been overjoyed to race into what was an eventual 15th place.

The drying roads continued to benefit those coming soon after, with Australian time trial champion Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck) slotting into the top 10 alongside his new teammate Kaden Groves, as well as Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM), and Jannik Steimle (Soudal-QuickStep).

Johansen, however, would be the closest of the lot to Bettiol and Sheffield, meaning it was left up to Hayter, fourth-last to set off, as the last realistic challenger for the stage win. However, by that point the rain spots had reappeared on the television cameras, the showers returning at the most inopportune time.

The British time trial champion managed eighth at the first checkpoint but wouldn’t go faster in the second part of the course, meaning Bettiol’s victory was sealed after a long, long wait in the hot seat.

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