{"id":432154,"date":"2026-01-23T12:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T12:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432154\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T12:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T12:15:11","slug":"tour-down-under-removes-old-willunga-hill-due-to-extreme-fire-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432154\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour Down Under removes Old Willunga Hill due to extreme fire risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Santos <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/tour-down-under\" title=\"Tour Down Under\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tour Down Under<\/a> has announced a major adjustment to the men\u2019s Stage 4 due to extreme conditions forecast in the region. The Old Willunga Hill will not be climbed due to extreme heat and fire risk, changing the outlook of the race dramatically.Among the key changes, the stage will start earlier. The peloton will roll out from Brighton at 10:10, one hour ahead of the original schedule.  The route has also been reworked. <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/results-tour-down-under-2026-sam-welsford-takes-second-ineos-grenadiers-win-of-the-year-on-stage-3\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Willunga Hill<\/a>, one of the race\u2019s signature climbs, has been removed. Instead, the stage will finish on High Street in the town of Willunga. With these changes, the total distance is reduced to 131 kilometres.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Organisers have asked fans not to ride up Willunga Hill on the day, to take heat precautions, seek shade, and stay well hydrated. They also stress the importance of following emergency services\u2019 instructions throughout the day.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tour-down-under-11195160087.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Narv\u00e1ez on Willunga Hill: key win for UAE\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez won on Willunga Hill in 2025<\/p>\n<p>GC tilting towards UAERemoving Willunga Hill pushes the general classification further towards UAE Team Emirates -XRG after the <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/jay-vine\" title=\"Jay Vine\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jay Vine<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/jhonatan-narvaez\" title=\"Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez<\/a>, who dominated the stage into Uraidla. Last year the Ecuadorian built his overall win on Old Willunga Hill.<\/p>\n<p>In the fight for the final podium spot, Mauro Schmid now carries a small buffer over Harry Sweeny, Marco Brenner, Andreas Kron, Adam Yates, and Ben O&#8217;Connor.<\/p>\n<p>PositionRiderTeamTime \/ Gap 1  Vine Jay  UAE Team Emirates-XRG  09:50:16  2  Narvaez Jhonatan  UAE Team Emirates-XRG  + 00:06  3  Schmid Mauro  Team Jayco-AlUla  + 01:05  4  Sweeny Harry  EF Education-EasyPost  + 01:12  5  Brenner Marco  Tudor Pro Cycling Team  + 01:14  6  Kron Andreas  Uno-X Mobility  + 01:16  7  Leonard Michael  EF Education-EasyPost  + 01:22  8  Raccagni Noviero Andrea  Soudal Quick-Step  + 01:22  9  Yates Adam  UAE Team Emirates-XRG  + 01:23  10  Charmig Anthon  Uno-X Mobility  + 01:23  11  Zana Filippo  Soudal Quick-Step  + 01:23  12  Sobrero Matteo  Lidl-Trek  + 01:27  13  O&#8217;Connor Ben  Team Jayco-AlUla  + 01:28  14  Romo Javier  Movistar Team  + 01:28  15  Tesfazion Natnael  Movistar Team  + 01:29  16  Cepeda Jefferson  Movistar Team  + 01:30  17  Schiffer Anton  Team Visma | Lease a Bike  + 01:31  18  Svestad-B\u00e5rdseng Embret  INEOS Grenadiers  + 01:33  19  Prodhomme Nicolas  Decathlon CMA CGM Team  + 01:33  20  Harper Chris  Australia  + 01:36  21  Hamilton Chris  Team Picnic PostNL  + 01:36  22  Oomen Sam  Lidl-Trek  + 01:39  23  Glivar Gal  Alpecin-Premier Tech  + 01:39  24  Schultz Nick  NSN Cycling Team  + 01:42  25  Bleddyn Oliver  Australia  + 01:54 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Santos Tour Down Under has announced a major adjustment to the men\u2019s Stage 4 due to extreme&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,89775,219358,85,198973],"class_list":["post-432154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-jay-vine","tag-jhonatan-narvaez","tag-sports","tag-tour-down-under"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}