The Tour Down Under starts cycling's WorldTour calendar this week in Adelaide, Australia. Eyes are on its impressive startlist of sprinters, but the two climbs–Paracombe and Willunga–should shape the overall in the 2020 edition.

An Overall For Puncheurs

Scoring early Down Under, especially for the sprinters, will boost one's confidence going into the remainder of the season. The bonus seconds available in the sprints helped Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), a rouleur who can manage the hard rollers and sprint too, win the last two editions. However, with two hilltop finishes in the 2020 race, the finish line bonuses may not prove as important.

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The sprint stars will battle in stages 1, 4, and 5. The classic Stirling stage, stage two, is a tougher rolling course that ends with a slight uphill. It suits Impey and others like him–including World Champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).

But the Paracombe and Old Willunga Hill summit finishes, the third and final stages, should decide the race overall. The addition of the Paracombe climb lessens the importance of time bonuses and shifts the race in favour of riders like Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo).

The Sprint Battle

Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) leads the list of sprinters. The Australian won Sunday's opening criterium ahead of Elia Viviani, who now races for team Cofidis. They will battle for the first WorldTour points on offer in 2020 against a deep list of sprinters: Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates), Kristoffer Halvorsen (EF Education First), André Greipel (Israel Start-up Nation).

Note: Bennett steps-in for Viviani as Deceuninck-Quick Step's marque sprinter, while Viviani steps-in for Greipel at Cofidis.

The Key Contenders

The race typically tilts in favor of the Australians, who have higher motivation on home roads and have been training all winter in a warm environment. However, a mixture of riders should be making the headlines.

Rohan Dennis (Ineos) is racing for the first time in a trade team event after a tumultuous 2020 season, in which he mysteriously dropped out of the Tour de France midway through the race, was fired by Bahrain-Merida, and won the World Championship Time Trial in Australian colors. For 2020, Ineos signed the double-worlds champion. Dennis' mixture of grit and climbing ability makes him an overall contender.

Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) should be beginning the season stronger than normal given his focus on the Giro d'Italia instead of the Tour de France in 2020. Expect him to take advantage of the two hilltop stages, and the final day's double ascent of Willunga Hill.

Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) won the Willunga Hill climb six times in a row, but in that run he only went on to win the race overall once. Time bonuses had played their part, but now the door is opened wider for the Australian.

Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) will begin his 2020 campaign in the rainbow stripes. He is determined to start this season better than 2019, which should see him in contention for the Stirling stage.

Elia Viviani (Cofidis) needs to begin strongly to build confidence in his new team, which steps up to the WorldTour level for 2020. The mechanics of their sprint train will be worked out Down Under and employed in the bigger events ahead.

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) has a proven team, Viviani's former team, but looks to gel with his new group. A sprint win in Australia will mean so much for him as he takes his first steps away from Team Bora-Hansgrohe.

Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) should continue to blossom. In 2019, he debuted in the Tour de France and won three stages with his new team. This year should see more of the same, and since he is Australian, he will have even more of an advantage in the three sprint stages. He already showed so in the opening criterium.