The youngest rider in the Tour Down Under has been “very, very impressive” according to his sports director.
Stevenson during the 2026 Santos Tour Down Under prologue.
Stage 2 of the 2026 Santos Tour Down Under was a big day for Lucas Stevenson. In his very first WorldTour race, having only recently turned 18, Stevenson got in the day-long breakaway on one of the hardest stages the TDU has ever seen.
Riding for the Australian national team, Stevenson was up the road with six seasoned WorldTour and ProTeam professionals with instructions from sports director Martin Barras to “do the bare minimum you can get away with”. He did just that, but as Barras recalled, the other riders saw exactly what was going on.
“As he’s trying to skip turns, the WorldTour guys are backing him out [of the break],” Barras told Escape. “One of them came and told him ‘Listen’, he said, ‘you’re in the WorldTour now – you take solid turns like everybody else.’ And his reply was, ‘Mate, I’m still in school!’”
Barras later described Stevenson’s ride as “very, very impressive”. The youngest rider in the race by more than two years, Stevenson “held his own” out front and was only caught with around 25 km to go, on approach to the second ascent of Corkscrew Road; before UAE Team Emirates-XRG ignited the race.
This post is for subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in
Did we do a good job with this story?
👍Yep
👎Nope