ProVelo Super League Q-Tour preview: The final battle to decide who gets the Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco spots

There is plenty at stake in the Q Tour of the ProVelo Super League, the new Australian domestic racing series, with far more than the pride of victories and winners' cheques at stake as the final battle among the under-23 riders unfolds – the top spots will also earn them contracts to race internationally.

The men in with a shot at the stagiaire role with WorldTour team Jayco-AlUla are Jack Ward (Team Brennan p/b TP32) and Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak). The U23 duo are leading the overall standings, and are far enough ahead of their rivals that it is down to a two-way battle. Ward is on top with 381 points while Marriage is sitting on 338 points.

The women, technically, have three U23 riders who are within reach of the win and year-long 2026 contract with Liv-AlUla-Jayco's Continental development focussed team. Praties teammates Sophie Marr and Talia Appleton in the top two spots of the U23 and overall rankings while Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak) is third but with a points deficit that will be near impossible to overcome in the final round. Marr is on 496 points and Appleton on 423, while Anderson sits at 342, which is a 154-deficit to the top. 

A clean sweep of the overall win, four stages and Mountains and Points classifications would deliver close to 250 points across Queensland's Q Tour, which will play out from Friday March 21 to Sunday March 23 with a criterium, road race, time trial and circuit road race with a hilltop finish. Still a lot would have to go right for third-placed Anderson and a lot wrong for both her rivals for the Butterfields Ziptrak rider to get even close to bridging the gap. It is, however a more feasible task between the top two places of both the men’s and women’s U23 leaderboard.

The full details of the points on offer are below, but first Cyclingnews provides a closer look at each of the riders in contention for the ProVelo Super League U23 win and the opportunity to race in Europe as a professional that comes along with that victory.

Women's U23

Sophie Marr (Praties)

• Points total at end of round 5 - 496
• Age - 20
• Top series results - SA Kick It stage 2 win, Tour of Tasmania stage 2 win and overall victory, Harbour City GP stage 1 and stage 2 wins, second on stage 3 of SA Kick It as well as on stage 1 and 4 of the Tour of Tasmania

Sophie Marr came into 2025 after a strong finish to last season, claiming the final stage of the Tour of Gippsland which was also the end of the long-running National Road Series that the ProVelo Super League replaced. Then she went on to come an impressive eighth in the Women's WorldTour ranked Tour of Guangxi in Nanning as she farewelled ARA-Skip Capital, the team she had raced with through 2023 and 2024.

Starting 2025 with the strong Praties squad, Marr was quick to make her mark on the new series. She won the SA Kick It stage 2 criterium in front of the packed crowd at the event, which ran alongside the Tour Down Under, and second place in stage 3 at The Bend Motorsport Park. Tour of Tasmania delivered more success, with Marr not once deviating from the podium and taking the top spot on stage 2 and overall. On top of that the rider who is determined to make it to the professional ranks in 2026 clinched the opening two stages of the Harbour City GP and delivered a solid eighth at the Mt Mitchell to Inverell, which was won by the break. That has left Marr as the leading overall contender in a powerhouse team as the series heads toward the final stage.

Talia Appleton (Praties)

• Points total at end of round 5 - 423
• Age - 19
• Top series results - SA Kick It stage 1 time trial win and overall victory, second on stage 3 of Harbour City GP

At the end of 2024, Talia Appleton made certain that there was no doubt about her climbing prowess with a win at the top of Tawonga Gap on stage 1 of the Tour of Bright, and then a runner-up spot on the Mount Buffalo finale which also delivered second in the tour overall.

The winning form carried into the opening round of the ProVelo Super League, with victory in the stage 1 time trial up Willunga Hill and also overall. It was an ideal start, though one that had come at a cost with Appleton sacrificing her place in the Australian team for the women's Santos Tour Down Under, which clashed with the opening round, so she could chase those league points in South Australia. Through the rest of the rounds, Appleton hasn't once fallen out of the top 10, consistently up there gathering points. That puts Praties in a powerful position at the top of the overall with two riders, though it could of course be a situation with some complications as while cycling is a team sport, both can't walk away with the potentially life-changing prize.

Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak)

• Points total at end of round 5 - 342
• Age - 21
• Top series results - Tour of Tasmania stage 2 win, Harbour City GP stage 3 win and overall victory plus second overall at the Tour of Tasmania

It was at the Tour of Bright in December that Alli Anderson made it clear that she was back from the health problems that had stymied her run, coming second on stage 1 behind Appleton, winning the stage 2 time trial and then taking third on Mount Buffalo to secure the overall tour.

When it came to the new season, Anderson couldn't have made a better start, winning the U23 time trial at the AusCycling Road National Championships in Perth. She then made the decision to forgo the first round of the ProVelo Series, as unlike Appleton, she took up her spot on the Australian national team for the Santos Tour Down Under. That left her on the back foot points-wise, but she was on the attack in the second round at the Melbourne to Warrnambool. She ended up in sixth but it was her race savvy that helped clinch her team the win as she prompted teammate Katelyn Nicholson to leap at the right moment and deliver the winning move. Stage wins at both the Tour of Tasmania and Harbour City Grand Prix as well as the overall victory at the Sydney race helped the South Australian accumulate points. However, with a break taking the win at the Mt Mitchell to Inverell, the opportunities to close the gap narrowed, making it likely a bridge too far in the final round.

Men's U23

Jack Ward (Team Brennan p/b TP32)

• Points total at end of round 5 - 381
• Age - 19
• Top series results - Tour of Tasmania stage 4 win and overall victory, second on stage 2 of SA Kick It stage 1 Willunga time trial as well as second on stage 2 of both the Tour of Tasmania and Harbour City GP

It was crystal clear that Jack Ward's talents went beyond mountain biking when the 19-year-old was the only rider who could stick to WorldTour professional Luke Plapp's wheel on the summit finish on stage 1 of the Tour of Bright and then even went around to clinch the win. And what's more, he backed it up with another top spot on Mount Buffalo the next day. His potential was clear and the newly formed Team Brennan p/b TP32 were quick to add him to their roster to take on this year's ProVelo Super League. 

It was a decision that immediately paid dividends, with Ward coming third overall at SA Kick It but topping the U23 standings and then when he moved on through to the Tour of Tasmania and the uphill terrain that suits him so well he claimed the hilltop victory and overall. A solid showing at the Harbour City GP then left him in a strong enough position to skip the fifth round Grafton to Inverell so he could take part in the Australian Mountain Bike Championships – where he took the elite short track title and came second in the cross country. Missing the penultimate event, didn't stop him retaining the series lead into the final round.

Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak)

• Points total at end of round 5 - 338
• Age - 21
• Top series results - Runner up spots on stage 3 and stage 4 of Tour of Tasmania as well as second overall, second at the Grafton to Inverell

Zac Marriage went straight to the top step as he started the 2025 season, winning the Australian men's U23 time trial title in emphatic style. After Perth, he was set to line up for the men's Australian national squad at the Santos Tour Down Under but that didn't keep him completely away from the opening SA Kick It round of the ProVelo series as well.

Determined to make the most of every chance 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 national team. Sunday evening it was a fifth at ProVelo Super League's Victoria Park criterium and then Monday he skipped the road race finale of SA Kick It to get ready to start racing the six stage WorldTour race on Tuesday. Even then when he started out there was no sitting back, he took part in a gutsy 126km break on the first stage with teammate Fergus Browning and then ultimately ended the WorldTour race in the top 20 overall and second in the youth classification.

That performance in South Australia was a reminder to rivals that Marriage was a clear threat in the new league, despite missing out on some points when he skipped a race in the opening round. An extremely consistent performance throughout, a Tour of Tasmania where he was on the podium in every stage as well as coming second overall then a hard-earned Grafton to Inverell runner-up position has helped put him within reach of the top spot. Still, it's not going to be easy to trump Ward in the four-stage Q Tour and pull back 43 points but his Butterfield Ziptrak team backing him all the way. 

"Our men's team remains firmly committed to our goal for the season, the series victory for Zac Marriage." said Butterfield Ziptrak in an Instagram post. "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."

Points on offer

Cyclingnews will be delivering result coverage of each stage of the Q Tour over the three days of racing and the final stage will also be broadcast live on SBS On Demand from 13:00-16:00 AEDT on Sunday. You can also catch up on all the news, features, results and standings from the 2025 series on our ProVelo Super League 2025 hub page.