Team Garmin-Australia squads announced for 2022 Santos Festival of Cycling

20 Jan 2022 | 02:10 PMBy: Josh Davies

AusCycling and Team Garmin-Australia will continue their partnership at the 2022 Santos Festival of Cycling, linking WorldTour stars with Australia’s next generation of cyclists in South Australia from January 23–29.

The squads are led by three of Australia’s premier cyclists: UCI WorldTour stars Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Richie Porte and newly crowned Elite Men National Road Race Champion Lucas Plapp (both INEOS Grenadiers).

Joining them are the 2021 Under-19 Australian National Teams, which were unable to compete at the 2021 UCI Road World Championships in Belgium due to travel restrictions brought about by COVID-19.

This includes Lachlan Miller, the 2021 Junior Men Time Trial National Champion, 2021 Junior Men Road Race bronze medallist Aiden Sinclair and talented Queenslander Tyler Tomkinson.

One of two first-year U23s in the men's squad is Dylan George, the victor of the Junior Men National Road Race Championship in 2021, who also impressed at last week's 2022 Federation University Road National Championships in Ballarat by placing eighth in the U23 National Road Race Championship.

George's fellow first-year U23 teammate Zac Marriage exceeded expectations in Ballarat a week ago, winning a bronze medal in the U23 Men Time Trial, and will don Team Garmin-Australia colours on roads he has grown up racing and training on.

The women’s Team Garmin-Australia squad includes one of the revelations from the 2022 Federation University Road National Championships in Alyssa Polites, who won the U23 Women National Road Race Championship in tandem with a bronze medal in the combined Elite and U23 women’s field.

Polites is joined by back-to-back Junior Women National Criterium Champion Lucinda Stewart, 2022 Junior Women National Time Trial Champion Isabelle Carnes and 2020 Junior Women National Road Race Champion Haylee Fuller, who has signed with Belgian-based, Irish-registered Team Rupelcleaning–Champion Lubricants for the 2022 season.

“To have Richie and Lucas in the men’s team and Grace Brown in the women’s team along with two of our Australian Cycling Team Podium track academy members Sophie Edwards and Lauren Perry is a wonderful opportunity for these U19 and now some first-year U23 riders to experience working with seasoned professionals to absorb the way they operate,” Team Garmin-Australia Team Manager/Directeur Sportif Donna Rae-Szalinski said.

“What the Santos Festival of Cycling is about for them is to absorb the skills of being involved in a team and to maximise opportunities around that.”

Team Garmin-Australia will join 19 men’s teams and 14 women’s teams lining up for the 2022 Santos Festival of Cycling with a field comprised of National Road Series, UCI Continental and UCI WorldTour riders.

Australian-based WorldTour outfit Team BikeExchange-Jayco will take to the start line with the addition of Australian Cycling Team Podium Potential Academy member Amber Pate (contracted to InForm TMX MAKE), as well as 2022 Junior Men National Road Race Champion Cameron Rogers and 2022 Junior Men National Time Trial and Criterium National Champion Hamish Mckenzie (both contracted to ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast).

“They (Rogers and Mckenzie) are also obviously very promising, developing juniors, but when we selected this cohort last year, they were not at that stage included (in the 2021 U19 Australian National Team),” Rae-Szalinski said.

“We have kept the 2021 cohort together because they earned their selection for Junior Worlds last year and it is awesome where we have a situation where these two juniors can ride with BikeExchange-Jayco, with whom we (AusCycling) have a long and harmonious relationship with.

“It is terrific they will be getting that exposure and we look forward to watching them develop and what they will bring to the table this year as U19s.”

Team Garmin-Australia: 2022 Santos Festival of Cycling

Women