Thrilling conclusion to inaugural league shows Australian cycling in good hands

Rising stars Sophie Marr and Jack Ward have punched their ticket to cycling’s World Tour with thrilling victories in the inaugural ProVelo Super League.

The ProVelo Super League replaced the National Road Series with a compressed, six-event series of events that took place over three months.

The competition featured four stage races — The SA Kick It, Spirit of Tasmania Cycling Tour, the Harbour City GP and the season finale Q Tour — and two one-day classics, the Grafton to Inverell Classic and Melbourne to Warrnambool.

The winners of the under-23 classification were set to earn contracts with Green Edge cycling’s World Tour teams, Team Jayco AlUla and Liv Jayco AlUla.

And, in a huge boost to the fledgling competition, both the men’s and women’s events came down to the final event, with both Marr and Ward sealing their spots in the World Tour on the final climb of the entire series.

However, with so many impressive performances, the sport’s fans can be certain they will not be the only riders making the move to Europe in the near future.

The women’s series saw 20-year-old Marr all but seal the overall series victory on the second day of the Q Tour, celebrating by claiming the third stage around Lakeside Raceway and ensuring the will join Liv AlUla Jayco’s development team in Europe for the 2026 season.

However, the brutal 18 per cent gradient up Campbell’s Pocket Road to the finish line on Sunday’s final stage still provided a stunning sting in the tail, a dramatic climb that left almost all the riders gasping for air and Marr herself sprawled on the ground.

“I’m so excited. I’m lost for words, really, truly,” Marr said at the conclusion of the stage.

“Everyone was like, ‘You’ve got this … the pen’s in your hand.’ I was like, ‘Guys, don’t talk too soon,’ obviously this last stage is a real fight.”

Marr finished sixth on that final 90.3km stage, but had won five of the 15 stages she started over the course of the season, including the general classification at the Tour of Tasmania.

Her closest rival, Talia Appleton won the lung-busting stage with a brutal final effort, although ultimately fell just short of the title.

Appleton had made waves earlier in the year by turning down the chance to ride in the Tour Down Under for the ARA Australia team in order to maximise her chances of earning that highly sought-after contract.

It initially paid off, with the 19-year-old climber winning the opening stage of the entire competition, a time trial up Willunga Hill, to take the overall classification in the SA Kick It round and an early lead in the overall standings.

However, her Praties Cycling teammate Marr overhauled her with a series of impressive sprint wins and, when Appleton finished a disappointing ninth in the Joyner time trial on Saturday, the overall prize was out of her grasp.

“I think I can be proud with how I raced this series,” Appleton said.

“I wanted to finish with a bang, so [I’m] really proud that I was able to pull it off.

“Obviously I was little disappointed [not to win overall].

“I was targeting the overall series, but I’ve finished off with a high. It’s really satisfying.”

In the men’s race, Ward was pushed all the way by Zac Marriage, culminating in a thrilling final-stage, winner-takes-all showdown on the 18 per cent slopes of Campbell’s Pocket Road.

In the men’s event, the two key protagonists, Ward (Team Brennan p/b TP32) and Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing) had gone toe-to-toe over the entire series, with this final stage no different.

As the cycling world marvelled over one of the all-time great Milan-Sanremo races the day prior, as Mathieu van der Poel, Filippo Ganna and Tadej Pogačar went hammer and tongs against each other on the sport’s grandest stage, the two young Australians matched everything their World Tour counterparts could muster in terms of drama in the Q Tour’s final 111.7km stage.

As the race blew up on the final slope, Ward and Marriage, the two outstanding riders of the ProVelo Super League, went flat out for glory.

In the end, it was Ward who claimed the stage, the Super League crown and the six-month stagiaire, or trainee, contract with Jayco AlUla, while Marriage had to settle for the Q Tour general classification crown and second place overall.

“It was pretty special,” Ward said after the “really hard” final ascent, claiming his second victory of the series.

“It’s such a great opportunity that they’ve [Jayco AlUla] provided.

“They’ve done so much for Aussie cycling. It’s pretty special.”

Marriage, who rode in the Tour Down Under with the ARA Australia team and finished second in the young rider classification, was full of praise for Ward.

“Jack Ward’s an incredible bike rider. Congrats to him,” he said.

“We’d have liked to get the win on the day but he was just too strong.”

Once the dust settles, though, the South Australian youngster may look back on a series where he fell just on the wrong side of some desperately close calls.

Marriage had won just one stage in the series, but finished on the podium an impressive six times, and finished just one second behind Ward in the overall standings at the Tour of Tasmania in February.

He also finished second in the Grafton to Inverell race, an event in which Ward competed in the Australian national mountain bike championships.

Team Brennan’s Tristan Saunders helped his absent teammate on that occasion by beating Marriage in a two-up sprint which, given how tight the final standings were, was crucial to Ward winning the contract.

“We came in with a plan at the start of the series and we’ve done it to perfection,” Saunders said.

“The boys have been so good all series. It’s been so good to be a part of.”