Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under may have had some general classification hopefuls on the hunt for bonus seconds, but the battle for the overall will truly kick into action on Thursday, with the Corkscrew climb positioned just shy of the finish on stage 3.
The double ascent of Willunga Hill on the penultimate stage will settle the general classification but the steeper gradients of Corkscrew, 2.5 kilometres long at an average nine per cent, will be just as important in the battle for overall honours. Whoever's going to emerge victorious will need to descend just as well as he can climb, with the ascent preceded by a speedy trip down Gorge Road and followed by a 5.7-kilometre drop to the finish line in Campbelltown.
Team Sky have posted a video on Twitter in which Geraint Thomas, who won the Corkscrew stage two years ago, describes the climb, from the fast and furious approach to the lower slopes and the steep hairpin bends, and finally the run-in to the line.
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"There's a big race down to the bottom. That descent, there's a few real fast corners and a few little rises but it's 70-80km/h down there and it's like a full-on bunch sprint. It's tough and it's pretty sketchy," Thomas said.
"Once you turn left onto Corkscrew it drags for two or three minutes - you're climbing but just getting into it. Then it really ramps up and the steepest part has to be around 15 per cent. It's steep, then you have that bit with a few hairpins, then it flattens out towards the top.
"The run-in, there was a crash a couple of years ago, but if you compare it to something like [Milan-]San Remo it's nothing like the Poggio, there's maybe like two corners at the start of the descent, which are, I wouldn't say dangerous, but just a bit more technical."
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) January 20, 2016
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