SBS's sports schedule sizzles in January with Dakar Rally, Kooyong Classic and Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

SBS's sports schedule sizzles in January with Dakar Rally, Kooyong Classic and Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

18 December, 2025

Media releases

Sports fans are in for a feast with SBS's summer schedule, which includes exclusive broadcasts of the legendary Dakar Rally, Kooyong Classic tennis action, the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and the AusCycling Road National Championships.

The new year kicks off with the Dakar Rally, to be held in Saudi Arabia from 3-18 January, with extended highlights broadcast daily on both SBS and SBS On Demand from 4 January, as Australian Daniel Sanders defends his motorcycle title.

Returning to Australia, SBS will broadcast the AusCycling Road National Championships from Perth, 9-11 January, showing the Elite and U23 Men's and Women's Road Races live across SBS/SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.

SBS will then turn the spotlight to Melbourne, when tennis returns to its traditional home for the Kooyong Classic, 13-15 January. The exhibition tournament, which leads directly into the Australian Open, will be broadcast live on SBS and SBS On Demand, with the mercurial Nick Kyrgios among the stars on show.

The road cycling resumes as SBS's coverage of the 2026 ProVelo Super League launches with the SA Kick It on 25 January. The national series, broadcast live on SBS, SBS VICELAND and SBS on Demand, continues through February and March, showcasing Australia's emerging riders.

SBS is delighted to announce it will also broadcast the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race from 28 January to 1 February - taking in the women's and men's Surf Coast Classic races and the Elite races live and exclusively on SBS and SBS On Demand.

SBS Director of Sport Ken Shipp said: SBS is Australia's home of cycling and we are excited to bring the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race to a national audience of passionate cycling fans this summer, along with the Road Nationals and the ProVelo Super League. More widely, we have put together a sensational January schedule of unique and varied sports events, which is certain to intrigue and entertain sports fans during the summer holiday season.

Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally returns to Saudi Arabia for the seventh consecutive edition in 2026 and SBS will again bring audiences all the best action exclusively and free from 3-18 January (AEDT).

Australian rider Daniel Sanders in action

SBS will begin coverage by broadcasting the documentary Seeing Double: Daniel Chucky' Sanders at 5.30pm AEDT on Saturday, 3 January on SBS VICELAND. The documentary will also be available on SBS On Demand from 7pm AEDT tonight (18 December).

Australian dirtbike champion Sanders, riding for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, will attempt to win his second Dakar Rally, having also claimed the 2025 FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship.

He said the Dakar race was the ultimate test of man and machine .

It's a two-week race and adventure that you have to navigate by yourself in the desert and conquer all types of terrain and scenarios that the race throws at you,'' he said. It's super-tough and draining, mentally and physically. It's just the ultimate race where you can really challenge your mind and body to try to win.

Sanders' goal is to successfully defend his title, and he said he was super-confident in both his body and his bike going into the race.

The biggest challenge for this year is going back-to-back. The pressure is on after almost having the perfect season in racing and almost going undefeated. All eyes are on me to perform, and everyone is hunting me down. (But) I'm just going to go in with the same mindset (as last year).''

When the race begins, extended highlights of the most recent stage will be broadcast every evening on SBS, from 5pm AEDT, with SBS On Demand viewers able to catch up on all the action earlier in the morning.

The Dakar Rally is famous for its tough terrain and off-road endurance as competitors race across a highly challenging course traversing sand dunes, rocks, gravel and tarmac.

The 2026 route will feature a pair of two-day Marathon-Refuge stages, split between the two weeks of racing. Each Marathon-Refuge will strip competition back to the bare essentials, with participants only allowed to receive assistance from their fellow competitors.

SBS viewers will witness motorcycles, cars, quads, and trucks take on the difficult conditions, where the battle between each discipline's heavyweights will be all the more crucial given the race kicks off the first round of the 2026 FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship.

Australia's first Dakar winner Toby Price, having twice conquered the race on two wheels, will return with four wheels, driving for the Toyota Gazoo Racing factory team.

He said the Dakar race was always a massive challenge , made greater by his inexperience in the car.

What sets Dakar apart is the vast rugged terrain, and the race goes for two weeks so a lot of things can happen in that period of time and you just have to make sure you are in the right spot at the right time, which is the unknown,'' he said.

Price, working with navigator Armand Monle n, said he hoped to finish in the top five in the car category.

That would be super-nice but we have a very stacked field of great competitors,'' he said.

The most challenging part is the marathon stages - that was where we had some issues last year - and with no outside assistance apart from yourself and your own teammates it makes it very difficult to stay near the pointy end of the field, so we need to make sure we take it easy on those days, and when we are back to the normal stages, it's foot down and away we go.''

Fellow Australian David Brock (Joyride Race Service), the nephew of the late motor racing champion P

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