Tour Down Under 2016: National champs flying flags

EIGHT national champions are bringing extra colour to the Tour Down Under peloton in Adelaide this week.

Current National Road Racing Champions who will be contesting this week's Santos Tour Down Under. Pictured Front is Jack Bobridge of Australia(Team - TREK SEGAFREDO), with fellow Current National Road Racing Champions, L-R Luka Pibernik of Slovania(Team - LAMPRE MERIDA), European Road Race Champion Luis Leon Sanchez of Spain(Team - TEAM ASTANA), Petr Vakoc of Czech Republic (Team - ETIXX QUICK STEP), Aleksejs Saramotins of Latvia(Team - IAM CYCLING), Danilo Wyss of Switzerland(Team - BMC RACING TEAM), Tsgabu Grmay of Ethiopia(Team - LAMPRE MERIDA) and Peter Kennaugh of Great Britain(Team - TEAM SKY) Picture: Dylan Coker

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EIGHT national champions are bringing extra colour to the Tour Down Under peloton in Adelaide this week.

As champions of their respective countries, the riders have earnt the right to wear their national colours as part of their team kit throughout the season.

Trek-Segafredo’s Jack Bobridge is eye-catching in green and gold following his win in Ballarat this month, while Sky’s Peter Kennaugh has the red, white and blue jersey of the Old Enemy Great Britain.

The almost all red jersey of BMC belongs to Swiss champion Danilo Wyss and the light blue of Astana is Spaniard Luis-Leon Sanchez who is the current European road race champion.

Lampre-Merida has two national champions in Luka Pibernik of Slovenia and Ethiopian Tsgabu Grmay, Etixx-Quickstep has Petr Vakoc of the Czech Republic and IAM Cycling has Aleksejs Saramotins of Latvia.

The Tour Down Under became a truly world-class international event in 2008 when it was granted ProTour status by the UCI and since then an Australian, Dutchman and German have all finished on top of the podium.

It has been a warm welcome for the Europeans this week with temperatures in their mid-30s to continue until Friday.

Originally published as Tour Down Under 2016: National champs flying flags