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In November 2020, it was announced that the 2021 race would not be held due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. This was due in part to a number of UCI WorldTour teams making the decision to stay in Europe due to uncertainty around international travel conditions and logistics of quarantine requirements.
The event returned in January 2023, featuring on both the men's and women's World Tour calendars.
Course
The men's version is 176 km (109 mi), while the women's is 143 km (89 mi). In 2023, the mass participation People's Ride includes three distance options—35km, 50km, or 125km.
The race starts on the Geelong waterfront in Victoria, and travels westward to the rolling hills of Moriac, turning south toward the famous surf beach of Bells Beach, following the surf coast to Torquay and through Cadel’s hometown of Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove, before heading north back to a Geelong circuit before finishing back around on the waterfront. The course is suited to puncheurs.
In 2017 the pre-race criterium was known as the Race Melbourne - Albert Park, becoming the Towards Zero Race Melbourne in 2018. In 2019 the race was held in a team-based format with points awarded for sprints. Deceuninck-QuickStep won the men's event and Trek Segafredo won the women's event. In 2020 the race was not held and was replaced by Race Torquay.
Gianni Meersman (BEL)
Laurence Pithie (NZL)
Rachel Neylan (AUS)
Rosita Reijnhout (NED)
Great Britain
Germany
Italy
Cuba
Ireland