The 2017 Jayco Herald Sun Tour was a

road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws a ...

stage race A race stage, leg, or heat is a unit of a racing, race that has been divided in several parts for the reason such as length of the distance to be covered, as in a multi-day race, multi-day event. Usually, such a race consists of "ordinary" stages ...

that took place in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, between 1 and 5 February 2017. The race was rated as a 2.1 event as part of the

2017 UCI Oceania Tour The 2017 UCI Oceania Tour is the 13th season of the UCI Oceania Tour. The season began on 22 January 2017 with the New Zealand Cycle Classic and finished on 4 March 2017 with the Continental Championships. The points leader, based on the cumulati ...

. The race included five stages: the first was a

prologue A prologue or prolog (from Ancient Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier st ...

individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' "stopwatch stage"). There are also trac ...

stage, with the remaining four stages being road stages. The champion of the 2016 Herald Sun Tour,

Chris Froome Christopher Clive Froome, (; born 20 May 1985) is a British professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI ProTeam . He has won seven Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de France (in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017), one Giro d' ...

attempted to defend his title. The race was won by

Damien Howson Damien Howson (born 13 August 1992) is an Australian cyclist, who rides for UCI ProTeam . Career Howson started his athletic career in basketball, becoming a state champion aged 13. He moved to cycling when South Australian Sports Institute di ...

of , who took his first professional victories at the race; having won the race's queen stage to Falls Creek, Howson was able to maintain a 38-second race lead for the remainder of the Tour. The remaining podium places were taken by those that finished immediately behind Howson at Falls Creek;

Jai Hindley Jai Hindley (born 5 May 1996) is an Australian professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Hindley is primarily a climber, notable for winning the Giro d'Italia in 2022. He was the first Australian to win the general classification, and o ...

finished second for an Australian select team, and took out the white jersey for the young rider classification, while a further 15 seconds in arrears, Kenny Elissonde took third place for . Just as he did in the 2016 edition of the race, 's Ben Hill won a jersey, this time taking the polka dot jersey as winner of the mountains classification, while Jacob Kauffmann took the green jersey as winner of the sprints classification for the . The teams classification was won by , having taken three of the five stage victories through

Luke Rowe Luke Rowe (born 10 March 1990) is a British former racing cyclist from Wales, who rode professionally for and its later iterations between 2012 and 2024. Largely deployed as a domestique during his professional career, Rowe took two wins – st ...

Ian Stannard Ian Dexter Stannard (born 25 May 1987) is a Great Britain, British former professional Track cycling, track and road racing cyclist, who rode professionally in 2006 and from 2008 to 2020 for the , , and teams, before retiring after being diagno ...

and

Danny van Poppel Danny van Poppel (born 26 July 1993) is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Early and personal life Danny van Poppel is the son of former professional cyclists Jean-Paul van Poppel and Leontine van der Liend ...

Teams

Fifteen teams were invited to take part in the race. These included two

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road bicycle racing, road cycling, the UCI World Tou ...

s, four

UCI Professional Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

teams, seven

UCI Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

teams and two national teams.

Route

The race route was released on 1 December 2016, with a route described by race director, and former three-time race winner, John Trevorrow as the "toughest course in recent history".

Stages

Prologue

;1 February 2017 —

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, ,

(ITT)

Stage 1

;2 February 2017 —

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census. The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...

to Falls Creek,

Stage 2

;3 February 2017 —

Mount Beauty Mount Beauty is a town in north-eastern Victoria, Australia. The town lies alongside the Kiewa River, at the junction of the Kiewa Valley Highway and Bogong High Plains Road in the Alpine Shire local government area. History The town was origi ...

Beechworth Beechworth is a town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. At the , Beechworth had a population of 3,290. Beechworth's many historical buildings are well pr ...

Stage 3

;4 February 2017 —

Benalla Benalla is a small city in the Hume (region), Hume region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The town sits on the Broken River (Victoria), Broken River, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. As of the , the population wa ...

to Mitchelton Winery, Nagambie,

Stage 4

;5 February 2017 — Kinglake to Kinglake,

Classification leadership table

References

External links

* {{Herald Sun Tour

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Herald Sun Tour The Herald Sun Tour is an Australian professional bicycle race held in Melbourne and provincial Victoria, sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The first tour was held in October 1952 as a six-day event. It is now held annuall ...