ProVelo Super League Q-Tour preview: The last battle to resolve who will get the Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco spots

There is a lot at stake within the Q Tour of the ProVelo Super League, the brand new Australian home racing sequence, with excess of the delight of victories and winners’ cheques at stake as the ultimate battle among the many under-23 riders unfolds – the highest spots may even earn them contracts to race internationally.

The males in with a shot on the stagiaire function with WorldTour staff Jayco-AlUla are Jack Ward (Team Brennan p/b TP32) and Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak). The U23 duo are main the general standings, and are far sufficient forward of their rivals that it’s right down to a two-way battle. Ward is on high with 381 factors whereas Marriage is sitting on 338 factors.

The girls, technically, have three U23 riders who’re inside attain of the win and year-long 2026 contract with Liv-AlUla-Jayco’s Continental improvement focussed staff. Praties teammates Sophie Marr and Talia Appleton within the high two spots of the U23 and total rankings whereas Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak) is third however with a factors deficit that might be close to unattainable to beat within the last spherical. Marr is on 496 factors and Appleton on 423, whereas Anderson sits at 342, which is a 154-deficit to the highest. 

A clear sweep of the general win, 4 phases and Mountains and Points classifications would ship near 250 factors throughout Queensland’s Q Tour, which is able to play out from Friday March 21 to Sunday March 23 with a criterium, street race, time trial and circuit street race with a hilltop end. Still so much must go proper for third-placed Anderson and so much fallacious for each her rivals for the Butterfields Ziptrak rider to get even near bridging the hole. It is, nevertheless a extra possible activity between the highest two locations of each the boys’s and ladies’s U23 leaderboard.

The full particulars of the factors on provide are under, however first Cyclingnews gives a better have a look at every of the riders in competition for the ProVelo Super League U23 win and the chance to race in Europe as an expert that comes together with that victory.

Women’s U23

Sophie Marr (Praties)

• Points complete at finish of spherical 5 – 496
• Age – 20
• Top sequence outcomes – SA Kick It stage 2 win, Tour of Tasmania stage 2 win and total victory, Harbour City GP stage 1 and stage 2 wins, second on stage 3 of SA Kick It in addition to on stage 1 and 4 of the Tour of Tasmania

Sophie Marr got here into 2025 after a robust end to final season, claiming the ultimate stage of the Tour of Gippsland which was additionally the tip of the long-running National Road Series that the ProVelo Super League changed. Then she went on to come back a formidable eighth within the Women’s WorldTour ranked Tour of Guangxi in Nanning as she farewelled ARA-Skip Capital, the staff she had raced with via 2023 and 2024.

Starting 2025 with the robust Praties squad, Marr was fast to make her mark on the brand new sequence. She gained the SA Kick It stage 2 criterium in entrance of the packed crowd on the occasion, which ran alongside the Tour Down Under, and second place in stage 3 at The Bend Motorsport Park. Tour of Tasmania delivered extra success, with Marr not as soon as deviating from the rostrum and taking the highest spot on stage 2 and total. On high of that the rider who is decided to make it to the skilled ranks in 2026 clinched the opening two phases of the Harbour City GP and delivered a stable eighth on the Mt Mitchell to Inverell, which was gained by the break. That has left Marr because the main total contender in a powerhouse staff because the sequence heads towards the ultimate stage.

Talia Appleton (Praties)

• Points complete at finish of spherical 5 – 423
• Age – 19
• Top sequence outcomes – SA Kick It stage 1 time trial win and total victory, second on stage 3 of Harbour City GP

At the tip of 2024, Talia Appleton made sure that there was little doubt about her climbing prowess with a win on the high of Tawonga Gap on stage 1 of the Tour of Bright, after which a runner-up spot on the Mount Buffalo finale which additionally delivered second within the tour total.

The successful kind carried into the opening spherical of the ProVelo Super League, with victory within the stage 1 time trial up Willunga Hill and likewise total. It was a really perfect begin, although one which had come at a price with Appleton sacrificing her place within the Australian staff for the ladies’s Santos Tour Down Under, which clashed with the opening spherical, so she might chase these league factors in South Australia. Through the remainder of the rounds, Appleton hasn’t as soon as fallen out of the highest 10, constantly up there gathering factors. That places Praties in a robust place on the high of the general with two riders, although it might in fact be a scenario with some issues as whereas biking is a staff sport, each cannot stroll away with the doubtless life-changing prize.

Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak)

• Points complete at finish of spherical 5 – 342
• Age – 21
• Top sequence outcomes – Tour of Tasmania stage 2 win, Harbour City GP stage 3 win and total victory plus second total on the Tour of Tasmania

It was on the Tour of Bright in December that Alli Anderson made it clear that she was again from the well being issues that had stymied her run, coming second on stage 1 behind Appleton, successful the stage 2 time trial after which taking third on Mount Buffalo to safe the general tour.

When it got here to the brand new season, Anderson could not have made a greater begin, successful the U23 time trial on the AusCycling Road National Championships in Perth. She then made the choice to forgo the primary spherical of the ProVelo Series, as in contrast to Appleton, she took up her spot on the Australian nationwide staff for the Santos Tour Down Under. That left her on the again foot points-wise, however she was on the assault within the second spherical on the Melbourne to Warrnambool. She ended up in sixth but it surely was her race savvy that helped clinch her staff the win as she prompted teammate Katelyn Nicholson to leap on the proper second and ship the successful transfer. Stage wins at each the Tour of Tasmania and Harbour City Grand Prix in addition to the general victory on the Sydney race helped the South Australian accumulate factors. However, with a break taking the win on the Grafton to Inverell, the alternatives to shut the hole narrowed, making it possible a bridge too far within the last spherical.

Men’s U23

Jack Ward (Team Brennan p/b TP32)

• Points complete at finish of spherical 5 – 381
• Age – 19
• Top sequence outcomes – Tour of Tasmania stage 4 win and total victory, second on stage 2 of SA Kick It stage 1 Willunga time trial in addition to second on stage 2 of each the Tour of Tasmania and Harbour City GP

It was crystal clear that Jack Ward’s abilities went past mountain biking when the 19-year-old was the one rider who might keep on with WorldTour skilled Luke Plapp’s wheel on the summit end on stage 1 of the Tour of Bright after which even went round to clinch the win. And what’s extra, he backed it up with one other high spot on Mount Buffalo the subsequent day. His potential was clear and the newly shaped Team Brennan p/b TP32 had been fast so as to add him to their roster to tackle this yr’s ProVelo Super League. 

It was a choice that instantly paid dividends, with Ward coming third total at SA Kick It however topping the U23 standings after which when he moved on via to the Tour of Tasmania and the uphill terrain that fits him so nicely he claimed the hilltop victory and total. A stable displaying on the Harbour City GP then left him in a robust sufficient place to skip the fifth spherical Grafton to Inverell so he might participate within the Australian Mountain Bike Championships – the place he took the elite brief monitor title and got here second within the cross nation. Missing the penultimate occasion, did not cease him retaining the sequence lead into the ultimate spherical.

Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak)

• Points complete at finish of spherical 5 – 338
• Age – 21
• Top sequence outcomes – Runner up spots on stage 3 and stage 4 of Tour of Tasmania in addition to second total, second on the Grafton to Inverell

Zac Marriage went straight to the highest step as he began the 2025 season, successful the Australian males’s U23 time trial title in emphatic type. After Perth, he was set to line up for the boys’s Australian nationwide squad on the Santos Tour Down Under however that did not maintain him fully away from the opening SA Kick It spherical of the ProVelo sequence as nicely.

Determined to benefit from each probability he raced the  opening Willunga HIll time trial on the morning of Saturday, January 18 with Butterfields Ziptrak, coming fourth, then the Villawood Men’s Classic pre-Tour Down Under criterium with the nationwide staff. Sunday night it was a fifth at ProVelo Super League’s Victoria Park criterium after which Monday he skipped the street race finale of SA Kick It to prepare to begin racing the six stage WorldTour race on Tuesday. Even then when he began on the market was no sitting again, he took half in a gutsy 126km break on the primary stage with teammate Fergus Browning after which in the end ended the WorldTour race within the high 20 total and second within the youth classification.

That efficiency in South Australia was a reminder to rivals that Marriage was a transparent risk within the new league, regardless of lacking out on some factors when he skipped a race within the opening spherical. An extraordinarily constant efficiency all through, a Tour of Tasmania the place he was on the rostrum in each stage in addition to coming second total then a hard-earned Grafton to Inverell runner-up place has helped put him inside attain of the highest spot. Still, it is not going to be simple to trump Ward within the four-stage Q Tour and pull again 43 factors however his Butterfield Ziptrak staff backing him all the best way. 

“Our males’s staff stays firmly dedicated to our objective for the season, the sequence victory for Zac Marriage.” stated Butterfield Ziptrak in an Instagram post. “A giant trip by the entire staff at Grafton sees us with greater than a sniff and we might be laying all of it on the market to get the job executed.”

Points on provide