Tobias Lund Andresen has taken the victory at the 2026 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. The Decathlon CMA CGM rider was able to survive the day’s climbs and went on to take a superb win, perhaps the biggest of his career after he also succeeded at the Tour Down Under earlier in January.
Three riders formed the breakaway of the day in Vegard Stake Laengen, Oliver Peace and Julian Baudry. The trio didn’t have many chances, but also didn’t last long as it was reeled back in with 69 kilometers to go. This led to a few moves right afterwards and even a split in the peloton with over 50 kilometers to go.
On both third and second-to-last climbs of Challambra Crescent Santiago Buitrago was at the front and active, trying to split the peloton. After the penultimate ascent, there was an attack from Chris Harper and Anders Skaarseth with 25 kilometers to go which built a small gap into the final lap of the race. The speed ramped up into the final ascent with 9 kilometers to go and a crash in the peloton split it into two bits. Ben O’Connor and then Luke Plapp led the final climb, with Mauro Schmid, Laurence Pihie and Plapp going over the summit in first positions after being in the back of the peloton only a few kilometers earlier. They didn’t move away from the peloton but only about 20 riders remained in front.
In the final climb with 6 kilometers to go Santiago Buitrago attacked and was followed by Luke Lamperti. Matthew Brennan closed the gap whilst a few other riders managed to bridge across to the front. Eventually the gap was fully closed. There were a few moves in the following kilometers however there were plenty interested riders in both attacks and a sprint, so no-one managed to get away.Matthew Brennan was left to launch his sprint first and from relatively early on after covering an attack from Luke Plapp, and in the final sprint Tobias Lund Andresen was able to go through him. Brady Gilmore sprinted to third place.