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The second round of the 2026 Hertz ProVelo Super League began on Thursday with Cameron Ivory (Launceston Mountain Bike Club) and Ruby Taylor (Team Redcat) claiming the opening short and sharp time trial at the Tour of Tasmania.
The 18-year-old Taylor, the daughter of Liz Taylor (née Tadich) who claimed silver in the road race at the World Championships in 1997, had in fact delayed her arrival in Tasmania having been suffering from a cold earlier in the week.
"I knew the effort, I was prepared for it and I think I did what I was capable of and I'm really proud of that," Taylor said in an interview with broadcaster SBS. "I flew in this morning and unpacked my bike and got straight out. So I did a few laps of the climb and my second time up I got fourth on the Strava leaderboard and that filled me with a lot of confidence."
Keely Bennett (Butterfields Ziptrak) took second while third in the women's category was Georgia Waghorn (Black Magic Women's Cycling).
In the men's event it was Connor Wright (Falcons Pedal Mafia) who took second while Graeme Frislie (CCACHE x Bodywrap) was third.
The opener of the second event of the six round series was just 0.6km long, zig zagging its way up Brisbane Street West in Launceston.
The four-stage tour continues on Friday with riders facing Gunns Plain as the men take on a 133.3k road race while the women take on 107.3km across the circuit from Penguin. Saturday's stage 3 from Longford to Poatina delivers a 73.6km road race while the stage 4 finale is a criterium in Launceston.
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After the Tour of Tasmania the next round of the ProVelo Super League will be the Melbourne to Warrnambool and Warrnambool Women's Cycling Classic, which was delayed by two weeks after fires in the vicinity of the course in late January. The long-range men's event will now run on February 28 and the women's on March 1.
Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
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