Watson, who had already won the prologue at the Tour de Romandie last year and had thus already proven his qualities on the short distance against the clock, needed 4:16 minutes for the 3.6 kilometres through Adelaide and thus achieved an average speed of 50.6 km/h. This was despite the fact that all the pros were on road bikes. And this despite the fact that all the pros were travelling on road bikes. Only disc wheels were permitted.

Watson finished one second faster than Vernon and three seconds faster than Pithie. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), who was the favourite going into the race, which is always difficult to assess at the start of the year, finished fourth, four seconds behind. The best German was Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl - Trek) in eighth place, five seconds behind the winner. The German trio from the Tudor Pro Cycling Team also did well. Florian Stork (+9 seconds), Marco Brenner (+10) and Marius Mayrhofer (+11) all delivered a good performance.

"It's a big relief for me. I'm so happy to start the season with a win," said Watson, British road champion, in his winner's interview. It was his sixth victory as a professional. Four of the previous five were last year. After his victory, Watson slips into the ochre-coloured jersey of the overall leader and wants to do some work for his team-mate Sam Welsford tomorrow. The INEOS newcomer has "won six sprint stages here in the last two years. So it's all for him," he announced.

Tour Down Under 2026 - Results of the prologue

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This is how the prologue of the Tour Down Under 2026 went

Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Premier Tech) kicked off the first WorldTour race of the year. The Austrian did not push hard on the course, which was only straight ahead in the first part and only became twisty at the back, but his time was ultimately enough for a midfield finish. It was a different story for Brenner. The 23-year-old meant business and set a new best time as the third starter. However, this was not to last very long, as it turned out that the top three in the results all started among the first 17 riders.

Pithie took to the track shortly after Brenner, followed by Watson in eleventh place. Vine proved that the conditions remained constant, however, as the newly crowned Australian time trial champion rolled off the ramp in last place. Teutenberg also started from the top 10 of the final standings in the last ten riders.

Watson turns up the heat in the second part

The results looked different at the two split times that were recorded en route. The best start was made by Matthew Brennan (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), one of last season's high-flyers. He needed 1:05 minutes for the first kilometre, putting him on a par with the Czech Petr Kelemen (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and his new team-mate Filippo Fiorelli. Brenner was also still in contention for the stage win, one second behind in fifth place.

The eventual winner Watson was just under two seconds behind there and was twelfth after all 140 riders had passed the mark. But by the second timekeeping one kilometre later, he had already worked his way into the lead and was two seconds ahead of nine riders, who were all separated by just tenths of a second.

Teutenberg was not yet in the top 10 at this point, nor was Vine. However, the gaps were all still so small that a lot changed in the final and longest section. The Norwegian Erik Resell (Uno-X Mobility) dropped back from second place to eleventh.