Preview: Grafton to Inverell and Sapphire Tour 2024

Fresh off the Tour de Brisbane, the AusCycling National Road Series heads to northern NSW this weekend for one of its stalwart events, the Squadron Energy Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic.

While the NRS men will tackle the traditional 228km course as a standalone race – followed by a criterium on Sunday – the women’s NRS combines the events for a two-day Sapphire Tour. Here’s what to know about the weekend.

Men’s route

The Grafton to Inverell is the second-longest race of the NRS, behind only the Melbourne to Warrnambool. Here, it’s the climbing that gets you: 3,380 vertical metres, including the ascent of Gibraltar Range.

Starting bright and early in Grafton, the race follows the Gwydir Highway westwards on its long journey to Inverell.

There’s one categorised climb after 25km, Cattle Creek (2.1km, 5.5%), but it’s just a teaser before the peloton hits Gibraltar after 72km.

At 16.3km (5.7% average), this is a sustained effort of over 40 minutes. It peaks with 140km remaining, so it’s not decisive, but the contenders will be near the front: you can’t win the race here, but you can sure lose it, as the cliché goes.

Over the top, the roads keep rolling up and down, but there are only two more categorised climbs: Waterloo Range (1.9km, 5%) and Wire Gully (1.3km, 5%), the latter peaking with 20km to go. These are often the catalyst for a race-winning selection.

The last kilometres are a fast downhill into Inverell to the finish line on Vivian Street.

Women’s route

The two-day Sapphire Tour features a road race on Saturday and a circuit race – or criterium – on Sunday.

Stage 1 (109km) takes the peloton from Mount Mitchell to Inverell, following the latter half of the men’s route. It’s the same concept as the former Gibraltar to Inverell, which was raced when the women’s NRS was first added to this weekend in 2021 (won that year by Ruby Roseman-Gannon).

This route obviously cuts out the Gibraltar Range, but keeps the two climbs of Waterloo Range and Wire Gully, plus a late uphill pinch when the race returns to the highway with 5km remaining. Anyone wanting to make the race hard will need to use these climbs well.

Stage 2 (42km) is the Lake Inverell Circuit Race on the town’s purpose-built, off-road criterium course. The 1.4-kilometre circuit is fast and flowy with sweeping bends and a little bit of up and down all around.

Men’s key riders

The men’s NRS field includes many in-form riders who have tasted success recently, both here and overseas.

NRS leader Graeme Frislie (CCACHE x Par Küp) will be on the start line, backing up from his recent Tour de Brisbane victory. Alongside him on the CCACHE team will be last year’s runner-up Max Campbell, the only rider who arrived at the line with Zac Marriage.

The team also has Alastair Christie-Johnston, who sprinted to fourth in Brisbane, not to mention Bentley Niquet-Olden, winner of a hilly stage at the UCI-level Tour de Taiwan last month. It’s a very solid line-up.

Speaking of stage winners in Taiwan, Carter Bettles (Cobra9 Leigh Surveying Racing) did the same. He will race alongside Irish national Jesse Ewart (Cobra9 Leigh Surveying Racing), who won a stage at the Tour of Thailand with a similarly selective profile as the Grafton to Inverell.

Kiwi Boris Clark (St George Continental) finished in the top-10 overall in both Taiwan and Thailand, so his shape looks good for a tough parcours like this one.

Also in the race will be Luke Burns (Team BridgeLane), who won the mountains jersey at the Santos Tour Down Under while racing for the ARA Australian Cycling Team.

Along with Burns, Team BridgeLane brings multiple options such as Ben Metcalfe (fourth at the Oceania Championships), Bailey McDonald (third at last year’s Warrny) and former under-23 national champion Sam Jenner.

We also have former WorldTour pro Alex Evans (St George Continental) and perennial strongmen such as Brendon Green (Cycling Development Foundation), Ben Carman (St George Continental) and Torben Partridge-Madsen (Blackshaw Racing).

Women’s key riders

As you would expect, Team BridgeLane has a stacked women’s team for the Sapphire Tour: there’s elite and under-23 Oceania champions Katelyn Nicholson and Keely Bennett; Warrny medallist Amanda Poulsen; Tour de Brisbane runner-up Gina Ricardo; Australian junior representatives Nicole Duncan and Talia Appleton; and mountain biker Lillee Pollock.

Among these riders, BridgeLane brings a combination of powerful engines and fast finishers that can win from almost any scenario, making them the team to beat.

The Tour will see the return of Alexandra Martin-Wallace (Butterfields Racing), a former winner of the Gibraltar to Inverell. The Queenslander hasn’t recently hit the form that saw her win the 2022 event, but we can’t count out a former winner.

Martin-Wallace will be riding alongside Summer Nordmeyer (Butterfields Racing), who placed fifth at the Tour de Brisbane.

Also in action are Sophia Sammons (Cycling Development Foundation), who is the under-23 Oceania time trial champion; alongside Nicole Wilson and Savannah Coupland, who both pack a strong sprint.

Also throw young Belinda Bailey (Team Hydraplay Femme) into the mix – sixth in Brisbane last week, thanks to her fast-finishing track background.

How to follow

Saturday’s race is broadcast live on radio station STA FM 91.9 and has commentators assigned to the Men’s NRS, Women’s NRS and Grafton to Inverell Open. Follow the race throughout the day at https://stafm.com.au.

AusCycling will have all the wrap-up afterwards, with highlights on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow the event’s Facebook page.

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Feature photo: Aaron Liang