Tour de l’Avenir preview: Australian team announced for 'Race of the Future'

AusCycling has named the six Australians who’ll compete in the men’s edition of the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir, the premier road cycling stage race for under-23 riders.

This year’s team includes five debutants who will traverse France in nine stages from August 20-27.

And for the first time, a women’s edition of the tour will also be raced from August 28 - September 1.

Referred to as the ‘Race of the Future’, the tour is seen as a mini-Tour de France for up-and-coming riders with grand tour champion Tadej Pogačar among the recent winners.

Australia will be one of 28 national teams in action.

Here’s what you need to know about the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir.

The route

Eight days, nine stages, 900km and 14,239m of elevation. That’s what is in store for this year’s Tour de l’Avenir.

The race departs Carnac in western France on August 20 with a day for the sprinters.

There will be several more flat or hilly stages as the race makes its way east across the country before the peloton hits the high mountains on day 6.

From there, riders will climb more than 8,000 metres in four days, including a mountain time trial.

The peloton will reach Sainte Foy Tarentaise on August 27, where the overall winner of the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir will be crowned.

The stages:

• 2x flat stages
• 1x team time trial
• 2x hilly stages
• 3x mountain stages
• 1x individual time trial

The Australian team

The Australian team bring plenty of firepower to this year’s race with three of the team - Dylan Hopkins, Brady Gilmore and Alastair MacKellar - recently competing in the U23 road race at the UCI World Championships.

Hopkins returns this year following his debut in 2022 and has continued to gain plenty of European racing experience this season with his continental team Ljubljana Gusto Santic. He will be hoping to play a key support role for his Australian team mates.

“Going in the second time around I sort of know what to expect this time so hopefully I can be a bit of help for some of the boys and we can have a bit more luck than we did last year and run a bit better,” Hopkins said.

“There’s a few opportunities that I might look at, but I think a lot of the other boys are going quite well so if it comes down to it I reckon I can support them, bank on them to get a result and do whatever’s best for the team.”

MacKellar, this year’s U23 road and time trial national champion, is hoping his form will peak at Tour de l’Avenir and will be looking toward the mountain stages.

“I had an altitude block with my team (Israel-Premier Tech Academy) in July then came out of that pretty rough, so coming into here I was a bit unsure with how I would go but I think I’m on the up now, gained a little bit of confidence out of the worlds and can build from here, and can hopefully have a good performance at l’Avenir,” he said.

“The first few days are looking to be more bunch sprints with some pretty hard mountain stages in the last few days. There is a team trial in there too which will suit us. We’ve got a few real good time trialists going and we will give that one a real good nudge.”

Gilmore, has gained plenty of experience this season in Europe also with his Australian continental team ARA Skip Capital having lined up for the Giro Next Gen, or ‘Baby Giro’, and finished third on Stage 4 of Tour de Bretagne earlier in the year.

He recently signed on as a stagiaire with UCI ProTeam Israel-Premier Tech for the rest of the year.

James Panizza, Zac Marriage and Liam Walsh will all be used to racing together and should work well together on the road.

The trio are teammates of their Australian continental cycling team, Team BridgeLane, which has been dominant in this year’s National Racing Series.

Marriage continues you make his mark adding his name to the winner’s list of Australia’s toughest one-day race at the 62nd Squadron Energy Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic.

Likewise, Walsh had a breakthrough victory at the Oceania Road Race Championships winning both the elite and under-23 titles.

At 19, climbing talent Panizza is one of the youngest members of the team and will soak in the experience of taking on a race of this level, having enjoyed some racing in Europe already this year.

Australian team for 2023 Tour de l’Avenir

• Alastair MacKellar (Israel-Premier Tech Academy and Sunshine Coast Cycling Club)
• Brady Gilmore (ARA Skip Capital and Eastern Goldfields Cycle Club)
• Dylan Hopkins (Ljubljana Gusto Santic and Canberra Cycling Club)
• Zachary Marriage (Team BridgeLane and Kilkenny Cycling Club)
• Liam Walsh (Team BridgeLane and Balmoral Cycling Club)
• James Panizza (Team BridgeLane and Balmoral Cycling Club)

Main photo: Alex Whitehead /SWpix.com