Australia's inaugural ProVelo Super League (PSL) continued this past weekend with the Harbour City GP – the first elite road cycling event held in Sydney since 2013.
The three-stage race was round 4 of the six-round PSL which has been billed as the "road to the WorldTour". The top U23 riders in this year's series – male and female – will earn a development contract with the GreenEdge organisation.
Here's a summary of how the 2025 Harbour City GP played out.
Women's race
Stage 1 took the riders to Sydney Motorsport Park for a Friday evening criterium where Sophie Marr (Praties) took a narrow sprint victory ahead of Odette Lynch (Butterfields Ziptrack). Nicole Duncan (Central Coast Cycling Club) was third. A few minutes earlier Keely Bennett (Meridian Blue-99 Bikes) had posted up thinking she'd won the stage, before being informed there was still one lap to go.
Marr's stage win comes after winning a stage and the overall at the recent Tour of Tasmania, plus a stage at SA Kick It in Adelaide.
Stage 2 was another criterium, this one held on Saturday evening on a beachfront circuit in Cronulla. Racing in the blue jersey of tour leader, Sophie Marr again won the bunch sprint, this time ahead of Bennett with Lynch in third.
Sunday's final stage comprised laps of the 1.6 km Pheasant Wood motorsport circuit, 90 minutes south west of Sydney. The race came down to a group of five riders with Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrack) winning the sprint ahead of SA Kick It winner Talia Appleton (Praties) and U19 rider Hannah Gianatti (ARA-Skip Capital).
With Marr finishing in the main bunch 31 seconds behind the leaders, Anderson took out the Harbour City GP overall on a countback, having finished on the same time as Talia Appleton. Gianatti finished third overall.
Here's the top 10 on GC, with one asterisk denoting U23 riders and two asterisks denoting U19 riders:
And here's how the overall individual rankings look after four of the six rounds of the 2025 PSL. The top U23 riders at the end of the series will receive a one-year contract with the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental team for 2026. You'll note that Praties has the top two riders on the leaderboard, both vying for the pro contract, so it will be interesting to see how the team (led by Andrew Christie-Johnston) approaches the final two rounds of the series.
Men's race
Stage 1 of the men's race was a Ccache-Bodywrap 1-2 with Kurt Eather winning the bunch kick ahead of teammate (and former WorldTour rider) Cameron Scott, with Craig Wiggins (Cycling Development Foundation) rounding out the podium. Eather had been on lead-out duties for Scott but proved to be stronger in the finish. His stage win comes a few weeks after he won the opening stage at the Tour of Tasmania as well.
On stage 2 it was Scott's turn, with the former Bahrain Victorious rider beating Tour of Tasmania winner Jack Ward (Brennan) to victory in Cronulla, with Eather in third. That result saw Scott take the overall lead going into the final stage.
Scott was again victorious on stage 3 at Pheasant Wood, winning the sprint from a reduced bunch ahead of Tristan Saunders (Brennan) and Connor Doyle (Butterfields Ziptrack). In doing so, Scott locked up the overall victory ahead of Saunders and Oliver Penney (Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club), with Ccache-Bodywrap taking out all three stage wins and the overall.
Here's the top 10 on GC:
And here's how the overall rankings are looking with two rounds remaining. Based on his series so far, U23 rider Jack Ward is looking a great chance of picking up the Jayco AlUla stagiaire ride for later this year.
The inaugural ProVelo Super League continues this coming weekend – on Saturday March 15 – with the Squadron Energy Grafton to Inverell. Raced over 228 km for the men and 110 km for the women, the Grafton to Inverell is the second and final one-day race of this year's series (following the Melbourne to Warrnambool back in early February). The 2025 PSL will conclude at the Q Tour in Brisbane, held from March 21-23.
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