The Bright Brewery Tour of Bright may have a 30-year history, but after one day of racing it is clear that this is an edition of the race that will not be easily forgotten. The WorldTour professionals of Luke Plapp and Sarah Gigante made an attention grabbing mark on the Victorian Road Series race on the first day of two, but the domestically based riders also claimed time in the spotlight.
The Australian race nestled among the mountains of Victoria's high country drew a packed field this year, with a sprinkling of returning WorldTour professionals, joining a powerful domestic field. They are all reaching toward top form as the Australian Road National Championships approach at the start of January, playing out just before the WorldTour and Women's WorldTour season opener, the Tour Down Under.
The racing started in the Alpine tourism centre of Bright on Saturday morning with a 93km road stage sweeping over the Happy Valley Road climb and finishing at the top of the popular Tawonga Gap ascent, which delivers an eight kilometre climb with an average gradient of 6.3%. Both Plapp and Gigante were fastest up the finishing ascent, and in the process changed the very top spots on the Strava leaderboard for the segment for the first time since 2019 and 2016.
Gigante claimed a time on the Tawonga Gap East segment of 22:44, as she raced toward the opening stage win, taking victory in the damp weather and delivering a promising sign of a return to powerful form on home soil for a rider, who has had to grapple with two seasons plagued by injury and illness.
The Movistar rider won with a margin of 1:16 to her nearest rival, mountain biker Kathryn McInerny. After that it was the ARA-Skip Capital duo of 18-year-old Sophie Marr and 19-year-old Lucinda Stewart at 1:54 back with Justine Barrow (Roxsolt Liv SRAM) – who came second on the same stage last year but had the fastest time up the climb – a further three seconds back in fifth.
Barrow, is coming back from injury so isn't 100 per cent but did tell Cyclingnews after the stage that: "I looked at my power up Tawonga and it was the same as last year and last year I had the fastest time – this year I was fifth. That shows you the strength of the up and coming women."
Australian road champion Plapp, in his last race in wearing his Ineos Grenadiers kit, clocked a time of 18:05 on Tawonga Gap, upping the Strava ante by 16 seconds. Still, there was no stage win for him on the opening outing at the race as an early break had carved out an unbridgeable gap.
The beneficiary of the efforts of that lead group was none other than 17-year-old mountain biker Eddie Willis.
The initial break had included 11 riders but by the time it was approaching Tawonga Gap was down to eight, including soon to be WorldTour professional Patrick Eddy (dsm-firmenich development team), Oliver Stenning (Blackshaw Racing), Jack Aitken (St George), Joshua Ludman (Rauland Development), Jamie Coles (Criterion BEx Racing) Thomas Ludlam (Southern Cross) and Tynan Shannon.
“Then we came to the climb and we just slowly dropped them one by one," said Willis in a post stage interview with the race media team. "Come down to the last four of us and I was just sitting in not knowing because it was my second race with them all so I just saw the finish at the end and gave it everything.”
The rider from Tamworth who has only just started to venture out of the junior ranks flew under the radar right until he jumped out of the group of four as the top of the climb approached. He took a victory on the crowd lined finish line that evoked a joyous celebration, with the elation still clearly written on his face even during the wet post stage descent back to Bright.
Aitken came second, Ludman third and Stenning fourth and then the first rider from the main bunch was Plapp in eighth who, even though he tore up the climb at breakneck speed and left all his rivals scrambling behind, had far too big a gap at the bottom of the climb to close down.
Time trial
The second stage of the day was a 15.8km individual time trial, heading out from Bright to the peaceful countryside around Wandiligong. The weather wasn't sure if it wanted to turn on the rain or the sun – so it just alternated between both, not choosing, much like the race which opted to be both a grassroots Victorian Road Series event as well as a venue for a hit out for the top level professionals that garnished the field.
Rain drops fell at times as the women's A Grade time trial set out from Pioneer Park, with Katelyn Nicholson (Butterfields Racing) laying down a winning run of 22:28, as Marr this time moved up to second while Haylee Fuller claimed third. Gigante, clad in a time trial helmet but riding her road bike, finished in seventh but the deficit of nearly a minute-and-a-half to the winning rider wasn't enough to knock her off the top of the overall classification. The rider from Melbourne holds a 43-second gap on the GC to Marr.
When the A grade men set off black clouds were gathering and thunder rumbling as lightning was flashing on the distant hills, but the torrential burst held off, giving Plapp the opportunity to strike on stage 2. He quickly leap-frogged riders ahead, laying down a scorching pace in his last time trial on the Pinarello, before swapping over to the Giant of his new 2024 team Jayco-AlUla.
Plapp delivered a time of 19:05, with only one other rider breaking the 20 minute mark, Jordan Villani with 19:58, and then in third it was Fergus Browning (Trinity Racing). Stenning's tenth place in the time trial was enough to move him up to the top spot overall, with Aiken 53 seconds back in second. The final order, however, could get another shake up in the 63.7km stage up Mt Buffalo on Sunday morning which will conclude the 2023 event.
