The race that makes the next generation of stars

The best young male riders in Australia go head-to-head for the prestigious Under 23 men’s road race title, which has been a stepping stone for a professional deal for many riders.

Under 23 men's road race

Watch the Under 23 men’s livestream broadcast on SBS On Demand from 2.30pm AEDT, or catch up with the post-race highlights and replay on SBS On Demand.

The Under 23 men's road race is the jewel in the crown of many young riders' careers, many going on to bigger and better things later on, but with that win being a cornerstone of that success. Looking through the past years of the race, more winners than not have gone on to race the WorldTour, with last year’s winner Blake Quick being picked up for the pro ranks by Jayco-AlUla.

The title is hotly contested, with different sizes of teams creating an unbalanced, but compelling dynamic to the racing.

The Course

The 139.2km course takes in 12 Laps of the Mt Buninyong circuit, a course that has mostly produced wins for solo riders and small groups of two and three that form over the top of Mt Buninyong.

You have to be able to climb really well, and often the winners are already some of the best riders on the domestic scene, or have already attracted overseas attention and are riding with international teams.

The Mt Buninyong course is well-known within the Australian cycling community, a three-kilometre climb that has ramps of up to 10 per cent, but is mostly difficult due to the repeated efforts round and round the course over the race.

The wind up Mt Buninyong is normally a decisive factor. A tailwind on the steep, second section of the climb puts the race in favour of the climbers and breakaway artists. A headwind plays into the hands of sprinters and heavier riders who gain that extra benefit from hiding in the group behind the slowed-down climbers.

The wind is set to be a northerly for much of the race, which will be a cross-wind for the early section of the climb and cross-headwind for the second. Where it may have the greatest effect is over the top of the climb on Yankee Flat Rd, when attackers are trying to consolidate their lead into a block headwind.

It will also be hot at 29 degrees, but not so bad that it will preclude some from being able to compete.

Mt Buninyong Road Race Course

The Contenders

ARA Skip Capital go into the race with seven riders, the equal most of any team at the race, and they also have one of the outstanding favourites in Brady Gilmore. The 2022 Under-23 Oceanias champion is a former motocross rider, packs a punch in the sprint and is strong enough to get himself over Mt Buninyong, especially if the race favourites wait for the final few laps.

People out of WA are raving about his form at present, and with a strong team that the likes of fellow contenders in Blake Agnoletto and Declan Tresize, ARA Skip Capital have a lot of options for how to attack the race.

It’s a tricky event to win as a solo rider, but Alastair Mackellar (Israel Cycling Academy) will go into the race as one of the favourites. Again, a rider who can do a bit of everything, and can’t be counted out in a sprint, he’s reportedly been training the house down in preparation for the event. We haven’t seen a great deal of Mackellar in Australia to see how he stacks up with the locals as he’s over in Europe with Israel Cycling Academy, but that development should hold him in good stead.

Team Bridgelane bring a young squad into the race with the ultra-impressive Zac Marriage, who won a National Road Series event at Cycle Sunshine Coast and also performed well at the Tour of Tasmania. Marriage, James Panizza and Dalton Stretton are all 19 and are giving up a few years to most of their rivals for the title, but each could contend for the win.

Liam Walsh, 21, completes the Bridgelane team, and he was superb last year in riding in support of Quick’s win. He’s a rider that could definitely rise as a contender should the race come down to a series of fast laps to finish the race or a reduced bunch sprint.

World Championships silver medallist Hamish McKenzie (ARA Skip Capital) will be one rider that many will be keeping an eye on as he steps up from juniors. He was only beaten in the time trial by Joshua Tarling, who is turning professional this year, and with McKenzie only a short distance behind in that race, he will no doubt be thinking that he might only be spending a short period of time in the proving ranks. This race will be a very good test of that.

Can Graeme Frislie (CCACHE x Par Kup) get over the climbs will be a question that a lot of riders will be asking themselves with dread. The track star and road sprinter will be very hard to best in a dash to the line, presumably (writing this ahead of the criteriums) he has just won the Under 23 criterium and is heading in with red-hot form. He has climbing form, he won the dramatically shortened Poatina stage in the recent Tour of Tasmania, not the normal moutainous slog, but still a climbing test.

The CCACHE x Par Kup squad isn’t packed with contenders, but they have seven riders and a lot of stars with big engines from a history of track racing in the Eather brothers and Frislie’s high performance track squad fellow teammate James Moriarty. It will be interesting to see how they play things in this race, the tactics between themselves and ARA Skip Capital will likely determine the course of the race.

Trinity Racing duo Liam Johnston and Fergus Browning have been very good riders in past national championships without really threatening to win themselves. Both were picked up as trainees for Trinity last year, with Johnstone in particular impressing during the Arctic Race of Norway. Johnstone is a tall rider, but he can really climb with the best, and it would not be a surprise to see him stand on top of the podium, the main thing may be whether their main goals are in the European season.

There are a number of other riders that fall in the same bucket, Dylan Hopkins (Ljubljana Gusto Santic) is a last under Under 23 who knows he needs to get results this year if he wants to get picked up by a pro team. His Slovenian team is set to support that after his years of riding for their other team leaders, so his goals will likely be overseas later in the year.

Patrick Eddy (Team DSM Development), Alex Bogna (Alpecin-Deceuninck Devlopment) and Cameron Rogers (Lotto Dstny U23) are similarly quality riders who would be up with the favourites on their best form, but I’ve heard little about them in the lead-up to the race, and they’ve got other, if not bigger, fish to fry later in the year.

Watch the Under 23 men’s livestream broadcast on SBS On Demand from 2.30pm AEDT, or catch up with the post-race highlights and replay on SBS On Demand.