Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2025: Crowds, riders, 10-year milestone

Tour de France winner Cadel Evans reveals what it took to turn his namesake race into a world-class cycling spectacle.

Cadel Evans in front of Eastern Beach ahead of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Picture: Brad Fleet

About 4000 participants, 120,000 spectators and many, many more in front of the television screens around the globe – only few events have the power of connecting large masses of people with the wider Geelong region like the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

Founded in 2015 as the farewell race for Cadel Evans, the only Australian to ever win the Tour de France, the race brings in elite athletes from across the globe in late January each year.

Evans who calls Geelong home said the event was a unique opportunity to showcase the region in an engaging and effective way.

“I see it as such a fantastic way to promote Geelong, the Bellarine and Surf Coast region to people from intrastate, interstate and international markets,” he said. “It’s our very own ‘event on a postcard’.”

The men’s and women’s Great Ocean Road races are the first “One-Day Classics” on the annual calendar of the UCI World Tour – the top tier of professional road cycling which includes the world’s most prestigious races, such as the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

This means the Road Race attracts high-profile cyclists each year and is broadcast across the globe, including in more than 40 countries in Europe, nearly 20 in Asia, and across North America.

It is not just the elite races – the men’s and women’s Great Ocean Road Race and Surf Coast Classic – that bring Geelong together.

The TAC People’s Ride has more than 3000 amateur cyclists taking part, including Evans, and the GeelongPort Family Ride sees nearly 1000 children and their parents get involved.

Hundreds of bikes and riders of all sizes took part in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Family Ride. Picture: Alan Barber

“Blending the world’s best cyclists with our community via the participation rides and also cheering on the professionals on the side of the road is working very well and seems to have become standard bearer in the world of cycling now,” Evans said.

In 2025, the races drew in 120,000 spectators to watch the more than 4000 cyclists across the week’s events.

“For the week and weekend of the event each year we are the focus of the cycling world,” Evans said.

Evans who is also a four-time Olympian aspires for the race to be the “biggest and best one day race” outside of the traditional European ‘Monument’ races.

“It is my personal hope that one of these young girls or boys watching on the roadside today will be inspired and one day in the future win the Great Ocean Road Race. We are not so far off that.”

Taegan, Grant and Marigold James took part in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Family Ride. Picture: Alan Barber

The event is now 10 years old, a journey that Evans confessed “hasn’t been easy” – the 2021 and 2022 races were not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“But we’re not scared of hard work and overcoming obstacles, so that’s a good starting point.

“Not too many events reach 10 years of age so we are really proud of that and I hope the people of Geelong are really proud of that milestone and what the event has become too,” he said.

Originally published as Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2025: Crowds, riders, 10-year milestone