There’s lots at stake within the Q Excursion of the ProVelo Tremendous League, the brand new Australian home racing sequence, with excess of the delight of victories and winners’ cheques at stake as the overall struggle a few of the under-23 riders unfolds – the highest spots may also earn them contracts to race the world over.
The lads in with a shot on the stagiaire position with WorldTour workforce Jayco-AlUla are Jack Ward (Crew Brennan p/b TP32) and Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak). The U23 duo are main the full standings, and are a long way sufficient forward in their opponents that it’s right down to a two-way struggle. Ward is on best with 381 features whilst Marriage is sitting on 338 features.
The ladies, technically, have 3 U23 riders who’re inside of achieve of the win and year-long 2026 contract with Liv-AlUla-Jayco’s Continental construction focussed workforce. Praties teammates Sophie Marr and Talia Appleton within the best two spots of the U23 and general scores whilst Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak) is 1/3 however with a features deficit that will likely be close to unattainable to triumph over within the ultimate spherical. Marr is on 496 features and Appleton on 423, whilst Anderson sits at 342, which is a 154-deficit to the highest.
A blank sweep of the full win, 4 phases and Mountains and Issues classifications would ship on the subject of 250 features throughout Queensland’s Q Excursion, which is able to play out from Friday March 21 to Sunday March 23 with a criterium, highway race, time trial and circuit highway race with a hilltop end. Nonetheless so much must move proper for third-placed Anderson and so much mistaken for each her opponents for the Butterfields Ziptrak rider to get even on the subject of bridging the distance. It’s, on the other hand a extra possible activity between the highest two puts of each the lads’s and ladies’s U23 leaderboard.
Ladies’s U23
Sophie Marr (Praties) wins degree 2 on the Excursion of Tasmania, the 1/3 spherical of the 2025 ProVelo Tremendous League (Symbol credit score: Con Chronis/ProVelo Tremendous League)Sophie Marr (Praties)Issues general at finish of spherical 5 – 496Age – 20Top sequence effects – SA Kick It degree 2 win, Excursion of Tasmania degree 2 win and general victory, Harbour Town GP degree 1 and degree 2 wins, 2nd on degree 3 of SA Kick It in addition to on degree 1 and four of the Excursion of Tasmania
Sophie Marr got here into 2025 after a powerful end to remaining season, claiming the overall degree of the Excursion of Gippsland which was once additionally the tip of the long-running Nationwide Highway Sequence that the ProVelo Tremendous League changed. Then she went on to come back an excellent 8th within the Ladies’s WorldTour ranked Excursion of Guangxi in Nanning as she farewelled ARA-Skip Capital, the workforce she had raced with thru 2023 and 2024.
Beginning 2025 with the robust Praties squad, Marr was once fast to make her mark at the new sequence. She received the SA Kick It degree 2 criterium in entrance of the packed crowd on the tournament, which ran along the Excursion Down Below, and 2nd position in degree 3 at The Bend Motorsport Park. Excursion of Tasmania delivered extra luck, with Marr now not as soon as deviating from the rostrum and taking the highest spot on degree 2 and general. On best of that the rider who’s made up our minds to make it to the pro ranks in 2026 clinched the outlet two phases of the Harbour Town GP and delivered a cast 8th on the Mt Mitchell to Inverell, which was once received by means of the smash. That has left Marr because the main general contender in a powerhouse workforce because the sequence heads towards the overall degree.
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Talia Appleton (Praties)Issues general at finish of spherical 5 – 423Age – 19Top sequence effects – SA Kick It degree 1 time trial win and general victory, 2nd on degree 3 of Harbour Town GP
On the finish of 2024, Talia Appleton made positive that there was once indubitably about her mountain climbing prowess with a win on the best of Tawonga Hole on degree 1 of the Excursion of Shiny, after which a runner-up spot at the Mount Buffalo finale which additionally delivered 2nd within the excursion general.
The successful shape carried into the outlet spherical of the ProVelo Tremendous League, with victory within the degree 1 time trial up Willunga Hill and likewise general. It was once an excellent get started, even though one who had come at a value with Appleton sacrificing her position within the Australian workforce for the ladies’s Santos Excursion Down Below, which clashed with the outlet spherical, so she may chase the ones league features in South Australia. Via the remainder of the rounds, Appleton hasn’t as soon as fallen out of the highest 10, constantly up there amassing features. That places Praties in an impressive place on the best of the full with two riders, even though it will after all be a state of affairs with some headaches as whilst biking is a workforce game, each can not stroll away with the doubtless life-changing prize.
Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak)Issues general at finish of spherical 5 – 342Age – 21Top sequence effects – Excursion of Tasmania degree 2 win, Harbour Town GP degree 3 win and general victory plus 2nd general on the Excursion of Tasmania
It was once on the Excursion of Shiny in December that Alli Anderson made it transparent that she was once again from the well being issues that had stymied her run, coming 2nd on degree 1 at the back of Appleton, successful the degree 2 time trial after which taking 1/3 on Mount Buffalo to protected the full excursion.
When it got here to the brand new season, Anderson could not have made a greater get started, successful the U23 time trial on the AusCycling Highway Nationwide Championships in Perth. She then made the verdict to forgo the primary spherical of the ProVelo Sequence, as in contrast to Appleton, she took up her spot at the Australian nationwide workforce for the Santos Excursion Down Below. That left her at the again foot points-wise, however she was once at the assault in the second one spherical on the Melbourne to Warrnambool. She ended up in 6th nevertheless it was once her race savvy that helped clinch her workforce the win as she precipitated teammate Katelyn Nicholson to jump on the proper second and ship the successful transfer. Degree wins at each the Excursion of Tasmania and Harbour Town Grand Prix in addition to the full victory on the Sydney race helped the South Australian gather features. Alternatively, with a smash taking the win on the Grafton to Inverell, the alternatives to near the distance narrowed, making it most likely a bridge too a long way within the ultimate spherical.
Males’s U23Jack Ward (Crew Brennan p/b TP32)
Jack Ward (Crew Brennan p/b/ TP 32) on the Excursion of Tasmania, the 1/3 spherical of the 2025 ProVelo Tremendous League (Symbol credit score: Con Chronis/ProVelo Tremendous League)Issues general at finish of spherical 5 – 381Age – 19Top sequence effects – Excursion of Tasmania degree 4 win and general victory, 2nd on degree 2 of SA Kick It degree 1 Willunga time trial in addition to 2nd on degree 2 of each the Excursion of Tasmania and Harbour Town GP
It was once crystal transparent that Jack Ward’s skills went past mountain cycling when the 19-year-old was once the one rider who may stick with WorldTour skilled Luke Plapp’s wheel at the summit end on degree 1 of the Excursion of Shiny after which even went round to clinch the win. And what is extra, he sponsored it up with every other best spot on Mount Buffalo day after today. His possible was once transparent and the newly shaped Crew Brennan p/b TP32 have been fast so as to add him to their roster to take in this 12 months’s ProVelo Tremendous League.
It was once a call that in an instant paid dividends, with Ward coming 1/3 general at SA Kick It however topping the U23 standings after which when he moved on thru to the Excursion of Tasmania and the uphill terrain that fits him so smartly he claimed the hilltop victory and general. A cast appearing on the Harbour Town GP then left him in a powerful sufficient place to skip the 5th spherical Grafton to Inverell so he may participate within the Australian Mountain Motorcycle Championships – the place he took the elite quick monitor name and got here 2nd within the go nation. Lacking the penultimate tournament, did not forestall him keeping the sequence lead into the overall spherical.
Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak)Issues general at finish of spherical 5 – 338Age – 21Top sequence effects – Runner up spots on degree 3 and degree 4 of Excursion of Tasmania in addition to 2nd general, 2nd on the Grafton to Inverell
Zac Marriage went instantly to the highest step as he began the 2025 season, successful the Australian males’s U23 time trial name in emphatic taste. After Perth, he was once set to line up for the lads’s Australian nationwide squad on the Santos Excursion Down Below however that did not stay him totally clear of the outlet SA Kick It spherical of the ProVelo sequence as smartly.
Made up our minds to benefit from each probability he raced the opening Willunga HIll time trial at the morning of Saturday, January 18 with Butterfields Ziptrak, coming fourth, then the Villawood Males’s Vintage pre-Excursion Down Below criterium with the nationwide workforce. Sunday night time it was once a 5th at ProVelo Tremendous League’s Victoria Park criterium after which Monday he skipped the street race finale of SA Kick It to get in a position to start out racing the six degree WorldTour race on Tuesday. Even then when he began available in the market was once no sitting again, he took phase in a gutsy 126km smash at the first degree with teammate Fergus Browning after which in the long run ended the WorldTour race within the best 20 general and 2nd within the formative years classification.
That efficiency in South Australia was once a reminder to opponents that Marriage was once a transparent danger within the new league, regardless of lacking out on some features when he skipped a race within the opening spherical. An especially constant efficiency all the way through, a Excursion of Tasmania the place he was once at the podium in each degree in addition to coming 2nd general then a hard earned Grafton to Inverell runner-up place has helped put him inside of achieve of the highest spot. Nonetheless, it isn’t going to be simple to trump Ward within the four-stage Q Excursion and pull again 43 features however his Butterfield Ziptrak workforce backing him the entire manner.
“Our men’s team remains firmly committed to our goal for the season, the series victory for Zac Marriage.” mentioned Butterfield Ziptrak in an Instagram publish. “A big ride by the whole team at Grafton sees us with more than a sniff and we will be laying it all out there to get the job done.”
Issues on offerSwipe to scroll horizontallyOverall normal classification in excursions and one-day racesPositionPoints110028036845854964273683192610221119121613141412151016-25526-50351+1Swipe to scroll horizontallyOverall mountain and features classification in toursPositionPoints124220317Swipe to scroll horizontallyStage classification in toursPositionPoints120216314412510
