The Melbourne to Warrnambool is as entrenched in the psyche of Australian cycling as you can get, having first run in 1895, however, there is a new spin on the Classic this year with the event opening the one-day racing in the ProVelo Super League.
The 267km Powercor Melbourne to Warrnambool on Saturday, February 8 and the 155.7km Lochard Energy Warrnambool Women’s Cycling Classic on Sunday, February 9 will deliver the second round of competition in the league, which is now delivering the top tier of domestic cycling in Australia. The series started with the three-stage SA Kick It in January, a new event running alongside the Tour Down Under but will continue at a race that has already touched and inspired so many generations.
"I grew up in Camperdown which used to be on the route of the famous Melbourne to Warrnambool one-day classic and I remember as a kid the race coming through town and it was always a bit of a breaking point for for the race going up through the hills through Camperdown," Olympic time trial gold medallist and world champion Grace Brown said at an event launch in December.
"It was a bit mythical then. I think it was my first introduction to what cycling and road racing was really about."
After the first round of the ProVelo Super League – which comprised of a time trial up Willunga Hill, a criterium and road race – Talia Appleton (Praties) and Brendon Davids (Team Brennan p/b TP 32) lead the GC standings of the league. The 19-year-old overall leader Appleton also, of course, leads the U23 women’s category while it is Jack Ward at the top of the men’s U23 leaderboard, an all-important ranking given a chance to race with Liv-AlUla-Jayco Continental and Jayco-AlUla is up for grabs for the U23 winners.
There will, however, be plenty of competition on board at the race, both from those with an eye to the overall series and those focussed on the prestigious individual event, with many previous winners going on to race in Europe.
The 2024 Warrnambool Women’s Cycling Classic winner and 2025 Australian road champion Lucinda Stewart is one such rider, signing with the Liv-AlUla-Jayco for this season and as such she’ll be racing in Europe rather than defending her title.
However, there will be no shortage of top challengers. Of course, there is current leader Appleton, who has shown her form not only with the ProVelo top spot but also a close run second overall at the Tour of Bright at the end of 2024. Then there is her teammate, and the winner of that event in Victoria’s high county, Alli Anderson plus they’ll also have the fourth-placed rider of the year on the Praties squad, Sophia Sammons. They’ll have to look out for Keely Bennett (Duda Cycling) who was sixth at the event last year, along with the Butterfields Ziptrak duo of Katelyn Nicholson, who is second on the overall rankings for the ProVelo Super League after round 1, and Odette Lynch.
In the men’s race, the experienced 2024 winner Mark O’Brien (Trappist) may not be duking it out in the ProVelo Super League but with an eye to defending his title and he is clearly coming in with good form – despite juggling work, family and training. He may not have racedSA Kick It but was third at the extremely competitive RADL GRVL in South Australia last month and now that he has finally cracked the winning formula, perhaps he can make it twice in 14 years.
Though to make that a reality O’Brien will be doing everything he can to make sure he is not in a group at the end, especially with the likes of 2022 winner Cameron Scott (CCACHE X Bodywrap) who has also added two years of experience in the WorldTour.
Having said that, even though Scott is normally a sprinter it was an uncharacteristic move, similar to O'Brien's, that clinched the top step.
"Winning with quite a late attack in the last two kilometre, its not my normal way as a sprinter but I just had that instinct and I went for it and it paid off," Scott said in an interview shared on ProVelo Super League social media. "It's always an interesting day on the bike."
Cyrus Monk will also be returning to the race for the first time since 2022, another rider among the ranks of those who have had their time in Europe ended by the contract shuffle. This also includes former Jayco-AlUla rider Rudy Porter who spent much of last season out with injury and is in the Trappist squad at Melbourne to Warrnambool alongside defending champion O'Brien. Porter returned to racing at Tour Down Under with the ARA Australia Cycling team, delivering a strong 11th place on the Willunga Hill stage, and then grasped the KOM jersey at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Team Brennan p/b TP32 as a collective, however, are going to be hard to beat with the squad including the men’s and men’s U23 league leaders Davids and Ward, along with the sprint speed of Blake Agnoletto and Olympic team pursuit gold medallist Oliver Bleddyn who finished eighth and ninth at a tough National Championships road race last month.
Both races will be broadcast live on SBS and SBS On Demand, with the men’s race on from 12:00pm – 3:00pm AEDT on Saturday and the women’s race from 12:00pm – 3:00pm AEDT on Sunday and Cyclingnews will be on the ground in Warrnambool to cover the races.
