Lauren Bates is in no-woman's-land. Ahead of her, one rider leads stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under solo around the tough Stirling circuit. Behind her is a peloton of almost 70 riders, most of them from WorldTour teams.
Bates is trying desperately to make it to the solo leader out front but it’s not proving easy. A crash a day earlier has left Bates a little off her best, with scrapes and bruising on her arm and knee. Not to mention the fact the 18-year-old from Canberra has never raced at this level before.
While her main mission in this moment is to reach her compatriot Ella Simpson at the front of the race, Bates has a couple of overarching goals in mind. For one, she’s trying to play a role for her Australian national team. Right now that means racing aggressively, trying to get up the road, in what is her second move of the day. Later her role will be delivering bottles to her teammates.
More broadly though, Bates is hoping to get herself noticed.
At 18, Bates is in her first-year in the U23 ranks. She’s a rider who’s enjoyed great success at the junior level and is now on the hunt for a professional contract. Racing for the national team at Tour Down Under is a great opportunity to get her name out there.
But Bates isn’t alone – in Australia and beyond, young riders are doing everything they can to get noticed; to show prospective employers that they deserve a chance to race at the highest levels of the sport.
It’s not an easy road. In the men's peloton there's a dedicated U23 calendar, helping young male riders bridge the gap from juniors to elites. With the exception of a select few races, such a calendar doesn't exist on the women's side. For young women like Bates, the transition is tougher than it is for her male counterparts.
Ultimately, there’s no guarantee Bates will make it to the pro ranks, even though it seems like she’s been headed in the right direction for a while now.
Getting into cycling
Like many people, Bates first started racing bikes because others in her family were doing so. In her case it was her dad Rod, and her older brother Josh. She first pinned on a number in 2013, at just seven years old, initially doing dirt crits in Canberra before starting to race on the track. In the years that followed she’d develop into one of Australia’s most exciting young riders, both on the road and the track.
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By 2022 Bates was U17 Australian champion in multiple disciplines: in the individual time trial on the road, and in the individual pursuit on the track. Her time of 2:28.775 in the 2 km IP still stands as an U17 Australian record.
Her first year in the U19 ranks – in 2023 – was even more impressive. A national title in the omnium, an Oceania title in the points race, then three gold medals at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad. By then she was already racing with the ARA-Skip Capital Continental team on the road and getting her first taste of kermesse racing in Europe.
But if her early years in the junior ranks were impressive, then her final season in the U19s took things to another level entirely. Between January and April 2024 she managed no fewer than eight gold medals at championship events: gold in both the U19 women’s road race and time trial at the Australian Road Nationals, five U19 national titles on the track, and gold in the Oceania road race to boot.
She raced in Europe with ARA-Skip Capital again, managing a bunch of race days in Europe in April and May, before representing Australia at the Road World Championships in Zurich in September. Despite having RSV a few weeks before arriving, Bates took sixth in the U19 women’s ITT, and 11th in the road race. Promising results on the world stage.
Bates had raced through much of 2024 under the assumption that she’d get to race with ARA-Skip Capital again in 2025 – the team had told her they’d kept a spot open for her. Another season with the team would mean more chances to race in Europe, and more chances to get the attention of European teams.
But then that plan fell apart.
The let-down and a new pathway
In July 2024, Bates found out that ARA-Skip Capital would only be running an U19 team in 2025. She wouldn’t have a ride with the Queensland-based team after all.
“The way they handled it was a bit crap,” Bates told Escape in Adelaide after the Tour Down Under. “I didn't exactly know that the team was shutting down. I found out through my partner, who had spoken to another one of the riders from my team who was like ‘ARA is shutting down’ and he was like ‘What?!’ And I was like, ‘I did not know that.’
“So then I texted my DS/manager, and I was like, ‘Hey, just heard some rumours, is this true?’ And it was. And about 40 minutes later, they announced it [ARA-Skip Capital’s change to an U19-only team] on social media. It was a bit of a slap in the face.”
Bates wasn’t the only one on her team affected, but the timing of the ARA-Skip Capital announcement meant that Bates’ chances of finding a contract for 2025 were limited.
“The contract period kind of ends in August before Worlds,” Bates said. “So everyone's already signed contracts before then, and they announced it, like, end of July. So most of the people had already got their contracts. And I didn't have the results at the time to be like, 'Hey, I need a ride. Do you think you can help me out?'
“And then after Worlds, I did, and all the teams were like, 'Oh, you've got great power numbers, really good results, but our team's full.' So they were like, 'We're definitely keeping an eye on you for 2026.’”
Which means Bates needs to give those teams something to see in 2025. And that means getting back to Europe, even if she won’t have a team to do that with.
Plans for 2025
The current plan is for Bates to get over to Belgium sometime in the European spring, to race on the local kermesse scene for as much as a 90-day visa will allow – perhaps as many as 40 or 50 race days if she can, according to her dad Rod.
“Try and put myself out there, put my name out there, try and do well in the racing,” Bates said of her plan. “Lots of teams always watch those races. So try and get picked up there for a 2026 contract, or maybe even a stagiaire contract for the July, August, September months would be amazing.”
Heading over to Europe for three months won’t be cheap. It’ll be Bates’ parents, Rod and Kerry, that foot much of the bill. Bates’ gratitude for their support is clear.
“I couldn't do it without them,” she said. “The amount of support that they have given me, both just being there for me when I needed to rant, or just financial stuff as well. It's a sport where you have to have a lot of support, money-wise. Bikes aren't not expensive, you know, and all the equipment – I think I've been through three pairs of bike shoes last year, because my Boas kept breaking.”
Bates hopes to get over to Andorra at some point as well, to do “a little training camp in the Pyrenees. I did that last year, and it was amazing,” she said. “There's nothing like it.”
While a stint in Europe will be the focal point of Bates’ season, she’s got some more local racing to concentrate on first.
After racing for the national team at TDU, the Surf Coast Classic, and finally Cadel’s Race – all offering valuable experience against quality riders – Bates is currently focused on the inaugural ProVelo Super League – Australia’s highest level of domestic racing which this year replaces the National Road Series (NRS).
Her plan is to race three rounds of the six-round series: the Tour of Tasmania, the Harbour City GP in Sydney, and the Q Tour in Brisbane. At the TDU, Bates explained that the Tour of Tasmania was of particular interest – it’s a race she “absolutely loved” last time it was held (when it was part of the NRS in late 2023) and one that she wanted to make the effort to be at, even though doing so would come at a significant cost.
“I don't have a team, so it's expensive,” she said. “The ProVelo League is more for teams. So if I want to be a wild-card entry, which I do have for Tasmania, it's $350 just to race. That's the race fee, and I've got to get there and then get around, get a hire car, something like that, fly back. It's a lot of money. It'd be like $1,000 per round.”
Fast forward to this past weekend, in late February, and the effort and expense have all been worth it. Bates started the Tour of Tasmania in promising fashion, finishing 11th on the opening stage, before going fourth on the following two stages. And then, on the fourth and final stage – the queen stage with a 17 km uphill finish into the drizzle and mist of the Highland Lakes – Bates won the sprint from a small elite group to take out the stage win. A first-year U23, riding as an individual, winning against teams of elite riders? It's the best result of her young career so far.
That result also saw Bates finish the tour third on GC and win the QOM jersey for her troubles. "First champagne experience," her dad Rod told Escape via WhatsApp that afternoon. "Victory never tasted this good."
The winner of the U23 women’s competition in this year's ProVelo Super League will get a contract with the Liv AlUla Jayco development team for 2026. While her stage win at the Tour of Tasmania is the perfect way to get attention and prove her potential, Bates is realistic about her chances of getting the Liv AlUla Jayco contract this year, especially given she's only doing three PSL races, and all as an individual rider.
“It's hard because there's teams of six girls, 12 times six, and they're all trying to win,” she said in January. “And you're one person. All six girls in that team are working for one rider, so they've got five extra sets of legs to help them get across the line. So it's tricky when you're not in a team.
“The end goal of doing the ProVelo would be to get the contract. And I don't think I would be in the position to be able to get the contract, realistically, as a first-year U23. I would absolutely love to, but I think Belgium is a more important pathway.”
While Bates has combined road and track to this point in her young career, road will be her main focus in the year ahead.
“I'm going to do Track Nationals [in March] and just do the individual pursuits, and then maybe a bunch race or two,” she explained. “But other than that, I will probably push track to the side a little bit. I'm gonna try and focus on road for the next year, just try and get a contract, and then after that, after a year or two, I'll come back and see what I can do back on the track.
“I always want to do track. It's always going to be a part of cycling for me, but at this point, focusing on road is a more realistic pathway for me.”
And Bates is very clear about where she’d like that pathway to lead.
“It's a dream to become professional in the sport and be able to race races like the Tour Down Under in a professional team like [Lidl-]Trek or UAE [Team ADQ],” she said. “I'm not thinking about what role I would be in. Eventually it would be really nice to win some of these races, but that's way further down the track. Of course, there's another step to that – development team and then a professional team – but becoming professional is my ultimate goal.”
What it takes
Donna Rae-Szalinski understands the path to a pro contract better than most. She competed at the highest level herself, racing the women’s Tour de France in the late 1980s and in multiple Road World Championships. In more recent times she’s been a key player in helping young Australian female riders progress to the professional ranks, as AusCycling’s director of pathways since 2022.
At Tour Down Under, she was also Bates’ sports director.
“I've had the pleasure of working with Lauren since she was first-year U19,” Szalinski told Escape on the morning of stage 3 of the Tour Down Under – the day Bates would get away. “She's an athlete with good potential, she's fit, and she's a racer – she has that killer instinct. So I very much look forward to watching where her journey goes.”
Rae-Szalinski explained that Bates was at TDU without too much responsibility. She and teammate Emily Dixon – the youngest rider in the race, also 18 years old – were there for the experience.
“We brought the two first-year U23s in to give them their first WorldTour experience,” she said. “So we haven't loaded them with heavy responsibility. We've given them the opportunity to be an opportunist, but we're more trying to give them a safe environment to get a sense of what WorldTour level is like.”
When asked what Bates needs to do to earn herself a pro contract, Rae-Szalinski said there are two main ingredients.
“Number one is getting results at the right place and the right environment,” she said, roughly a month before Bates' breakout win in Tasmania. “So that's what she needs to do. And just continue to build relationships like she is, and for us to help her in that process, for us to provide – us as in a system – to help facilitate some connections as well.”
When it comes to connections, Bates is already making her own strides in that direction – she has a manager this year for the first time in her young career.
Rae-Szalinski sees Bates as a promising all-rounder with the potential to specialise in any number of ways – a useful attribute in a would-be professional.
“I think she could be a good Classics rider,” Rae-Szalinski said. “She can do everything competently – she's got a good kick, she can climb, she can time-trial. So that's why the future is open.”
Bates herself has a similar impression.
“I'd say I’m a puncheur,” she explained in January. “I love punchy hills. I would say I'm good at hills, but not like, long, 30-minute climbs. I would definitely say just like little punchy climbs – 10-minute climbs, that kind of thing."
Winning a stage of the Tour of Tasmania, after a 17 km stage-ending climb, would suggest that Bates maybe underestimates her own climbing ability.
“A lot of people have been like, 'You could be this rider, you could be this rider.' I don't know," she added. "I think I can do a little bit of everything.”
There’s another attribute that should serve Bates well as she tries to make a name for herself. When I speak to her parents, Rod and Kerry, during the Tour Down Under, they highlight her doggedness and determination.
Lauren has a slightly different view of that.
“Everyone says I'm a pretty gutsy rider, but I just like riding my bike,” she said. “I don't know if you've ever ridden a bike uphill, or whatever, and you get that, burning pain – I love that. I live off of that. That makes me ride harder.
“My coach calls me crazy, because apparently no one likes that burning pain. But I do. I think it makes me feel stronger, and it pushes me to work harder. I love it.”
The road ahead
Bates never quite got across to Ella Simpson on that final stage of the Tour Down Under. She was caught by the bunch and ended up on bottle duty before getting dropped in the final kilometres. She was the last rider to finish the stage inside the time cut. Still, her effort earned her some valuable TV time – a brief chance to show herself on the WorldTour stage.
She said she would have liked to achieve more at Tour Down Under, but that she learned a lot along the way.
“After the racing this week I think I feel mentally stronger,” Bates said. “I've learned so much. And I'm ready to do more of that. I'm ready to do more of that kind of racing. I loved the experience. Even though I didn't do as well as I may have wanted to, or I wasn't in the role that I wanted to be in, I loved the experience.”
So far, 2025 has been another good year for Bates. She's done a handful of races for the national team – including two WorldTour races – and now she's had a stage win at one of Australia's premier domestic stage races. And while that Tour of Tasmania win might ultimately open some doors, she's currently got no contract on the table and finds herself in a kind of limbo. She’s at the mercy of whatever happens over the remainder of the year. And that doesn’t sit particularly well.
“I love being in control, and it's really hard, because at the moment, I'm not in control of what's gonna happen,” she said. “I've come to terms with it, and I think I'm ready to just let it play out, and I want to just go over there [to Europe] and see what I can do. I am really excited. I'm nervous, very nervous. But I think I'm ready for the challenges.”
Not only is she ready, but Bates is determined to do whatever she needs to, to make it into the pro ranks.
“It was kind of drilled into me all of last year that it's so important that I have a contract this year and everyone's getting contracts straight out of U19s, and it's so important,” she said. “And I've kind of realised that it is important, but it's not that important, and there's other pathways, and I want to do whatever it takes.
“I don't care what pathway I have to go down, I just want to do it.”
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