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Last year at the Tour of Bright two 19-year-old riders, Jack Ward and Talia Appleton, set heads turning when they charged up Tawonga Gap on the opening stage to claim victory. Now a year later both are heading into the new season with development team contracts, Ward with Lidl-Trek Future and Talia Appleton with the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental team while the overall winner in 2024, Alli Anderson, is also joining Appleton at the Australian squad.
This three-stage race in the high country of Victoria is one where opportunity knocks. For a start there is testing terrain across the event with two summit finishes and a time trial. Then there is also the unique combination of domestic riders eager to prove they have what it takes against those that have already sealed their pathway with development team contracts and also the sprinkling of professionals that line up while back in Australia from Europe.
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Tawonga Gap tear aways – stage 1
Will Cooper (St George) was the big surprise of the day, with the 21-year-old himself confessing that he ‘wasn’t expecting that” when he continued to push on from the break even as all his rivals fell away as the climb of Tawonga Gap progressed. He looked rock solid right to the end, showing no signs of fatigue or letting up as neared the top, remaining remarkably composed as he claimed the first Men’s A victory of the tour. It was a ride that put him in the leader’s jersey with a 1:51 gap to defending champion Plapp and set him up to take second overall at the end of the race. Cooper, however, wasn’t the only rider in the men’s field to make an impression with Oliver Ward (Team Brennan) being the last to fall away from Cooper’s wheel. Despite clearly having pushed it to hang on, the 17-year-old kept his composure, only allowing teammate Tristan Saunders to pass. That meant he secured third on the stage and held off the charge of Plapp, who couldn’t quite, despite a scorching pace, close down the big gap the break had pulled out before the climb.
There was also another 17-year-old who couldn’t be missed on Tawonga and that was Neve Parslow (ARA Skip Capital). While last year’s revelation, Appleton, may have ridden the rest of the field off her wheel with an all out effort from the bottom it was a remarkable performance on the climb by Parslow, also a strong rider on the track. She matched the pace of seasoned WorldTour professional Chapman and Parslow, in fact, finished in second place as she crossed the line ahead of the UAE Team ADQ rider who would ultimately claim overall victory at the Tour of Bright. It was certainly a powerful reminder of the strength of the developing rider who in September claimed eighth in the junior road race at World Championships.
The test of time – stage 2
There was no questioning the strength of the field lining up for the race against the clock, not with the two Australian elite time trial champions at the start, Plapp and Chapman, both of whom also helped claim a rainbow jersey for the nation in the Mixed Team Trial at the Kigali World Championships. Though behind the predictable winners of the stage, others emerged with powerful performances. Firstly, the best of the rest behind Chapman was the 19-year-old Kirsty Watts (Meridian Blue p/b 99 bikes) who reminded her rivals that there was a reason she was the U23 time trial champion for New Zealand. Watts came second, fending off a list of powerful competitors from Sophie Marr – who is also heading to the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental team in 2026 with Anderson and Appleton – and Australian U23 champion Anderson who managed to clinch eighth in the U23 Road World Championships time trial.
Then in the Men’s A time trial, even though there was no one who could match up to Plapp and O’Brien one rider came impressively close. That rider was the 19-year-old Julian Baudry (Team Brennan), who finished 36 seconds behind Plapp and just 7 back from O’Brien. The rider may have managed to sweep up the U23 men’s road race title at the Australian championships at the start of this year, but now that the field knows how strong he is they are unlikely to let him go again. However, he’s just shown that it is now the time trial where he could well earn his next set of U23 national stripes.
Buffalo brilliance – stage 3
There was a pivotal moment on the Mt Buffalo stage for Levi Hone (Team Brennan) and that was being in the right spot when the break of 17 went. It hadn’t been the plan but it was an unexpected circumstance which the 19-year-old played to perfection. “It just happened to be that I was able to sneak away with a few guys, and everyone forgot about me, and I got pretty lucky, probably sitting on for a lot of the time there,” Hone told Cyclingnews. “There were a lot of guys who were happy to work and get a handy buffer headed into Buffalo.” Although what certainly wasn’t luck was that when the the strong and experienced form of Mark O’Brien (Trappist) broke apart the break with his pace on the climb, Hone was ready and able to jump in the wheel and hold it right through to the line. He knew that the sprint was just the opportunity he needed to take the place on the top step of the podium in Sunday’s final stage of the Tour of Bright.
Further back, stage 1 winner Cooper may not have been able to hold the vicious pace set by Plapp so had to hand over the race GC lead to the now three-time winner but he played a clever hand, watching the rest of his GC rivals carefully, to make sure he at least walked away with the runner-up spot in Men’s A.
Parslow also once again showed her climbing class, holding onto the back of the front group which just fell shy of catching the winner from the break, Katelyn Nicholson (Butterfields ZipTrak). That front bunch of Women’s A included WorldTour professional Chapman and riders like Appleton and Emily Dixon (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto Generation) who have already secured their contacts with top development teams. The group was more than five minutes ahead of the rest of the field and Parslow’s sixth on the stage, 12 seconds back from the victorious Nicholson, secured her fifth overall at the Tour of Bright.
While these were some of the standout performances of the weekend from up-and-coming riders, they certainly weren’t the only ones so if you want to add your pick into the mix, jump into the comments below.
