The next Australians on the path to the WorldTour? Taking a closer look at the riders who shot to the top at the 2026 ProVelo Super League

So many of the riders that were at the top of the leaderboard in the 2025 ProVelo Super League have secured contracts to race overseas, taking the next step on the path to the WorldTour, and the question now that the series is done for another year is – who will follow that trajectory in 2026?

The top three in the women's overall in 2025, Sophie Marr, Talia Appleton and Alli Anderson all landed at Liv Alula Jayco in the women's development squad attached to the WorldTeam. In the men's category, Jack Ward had multiple offers to choose from and the multi-discipline rider was racing with Lidl-Trek Future by mid-season, while second-placed Zachary Marriage carved out a spot at the NSN Devo' team.

Now that the 2026 scores are settled, with the final race in Australia's top domestic series taking place last month, we take a closer look at the riders who will be hoping that their eye-catching performances this season are just what is needed to help them become the next cycling talents from the nation to level up.

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Of course results in Europe or other signs of progress along the way will help their causes. Right now, however, the riders who have climbed to the top of the leaderboard and snared the spotlight in the domestic event which is streamed internationally, have garnered a potentially crucial advantage that should instil plenty of reason to hope.

Right from the Paris Olympic gold medalist on the track to the 18-year-old junior Australian road race champion, let's take a closer look at some of the riders who made their mark in the 2026 six-series event.

Oliver Bleddyn (Team Brennan) – Men's overall series winner

Oliver Bleddyn has proven he can excel at the highest level on the track, winning an Olympic gold medal in Paris alongside Sam Welsford, Kelland O'Brien and Conor Leahy with the Australian Team Pursuit squad. 2026 quickly became a year where he was showing just how strong he also was on the road, starting right from his very first event, the Australian National Championships individual time trial where the Team Brennan rider came second to Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

He then missed the opening round of the ProVelo series in Adelaide as there was another big opportunity to chase, that was a spot in the Australian national team for the Santos Tour Down Under and Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. His strong showing in the WorldTour racing – with a top ten in the prologue in South Australia and a result inside the top 20 overall – however, was a sign of what was to come.

Once into the ProVelo Super League at the Tour of Tasmania the 24-year-old quickly made up for lost time, winning one stage, coming second in another as the track rider showed impressive resilience on the climbs. He then delivered strong results through the rest of the events which included an overall win at Harbour City GP and a second on GC in the final event. That sealed a clear-cut overall series win with 481 points and teammate Levi Hone in second place on 363 points.

The plan now is to make a mark at the Oceania Championships, carry that team momentum as the squad heads to Europe and hopefully ultimately join his Olympic gold medal-winning companions, Welsford and O'Brien, in the WorldTour.

Sophia Sammons (Team Redcat) – Women's overall and U23 series winner

Sophia Sammons was a strong performer in the ProVelo Super League in 2025, finishing fifth overall, but with another year of experience the 20 year old has stepped up to another level. That started in 2026 with claiming the Australian U23 women's time trial title in Perth and continued into the ProVelo Super League.

The rider who has made her intent of turning professional clear started with a fourth overall at the opening round, SA Kick It, but really got on the front foot at the Tour of Tasmania when she took off on stage 2 to Penguin and won solo with a gap not far off two minutes to her nearest rival. That effort also helped her clinch the Tour overall and launch into top spot in the series, despite a crash on stage 3 which left her lining up for the final day of racing bandaged up.

Her determination to hold on to that top spot was clear, with strong results that included the podium once again at the Harbour City GP. The Western Australian then finished the series in style, winning the last stage solo and also claiming the Q Tour overall while securing the series victory in both the overall women's and U23 women's category.

After the stellar domestic season for Sammons her attention will once again this year turn to Europe. Spain, like last year, is the planned destination, and last year after delivering strong results on a national level she lined up in multiple UCI races, sweeping up 11th in the 1.1 ranked Chrono Féminin de Gatineau. The aim this year is to take on as many UCI races as possible, then hopefully line up as part of the Australian team for the Road World Championships in September.

Levi Hone (Team Brennan) – U23 men's series winner

Levi Hone had definitely marked himself as a rider to watch even before 2026 had begun, winning the race to the top of Mt Buffalo on the final stage of the Tour of Bright with an effort that displayed the savvy and strength that belied his years. The 19-year-old Team Brennan rider then had a strong start to the ProVelo Super League series with eighth overall at SA Kick It in January. Still it was at Tour of Tasmania where he really came into his own, taking the overall tour win.

After top fives at both the Harbour City GP and Squadron Energy Grafton to Inverell, Hone then clinched the U23 series title and second overall in the series with his second place on the final Mount Mee stage and third overall at the Q Tour.

When we spoke to Hone at the end of last year about what was ahead in 2026, and if the year ahead could be a launching point for him he said "I'd like to think so, I'll just take it one day at a time and see how I go". After just three months of racing he has already made plenty of those days count and there should be plenty more opportunities through the remainder of the year, which soon will include a solid block of racing in Europe with Team Brennan.

Neve Parslow (ARA Skip Capital) – U19 women's series winner

Neve Parslow is another of those riders who stood out at the Tour of Bright and then followed through in the top tier domestic series, though she was definitely on the radar before that, with the powerful track performer having also secured eighth in the women's junior road race at the Rwanda World Championships in September.

It's perhaps not surprising then that in December the, at the time, 17-year-old rider looked right at home riding alongside WorldTour professional Brodie Chapman on the opening stage of the Tour of Bright to the top of Tawonga Gap, coming second. The ARA - Skip Capital rider then continued the momentum into the new year, dominating the women's junior national title races by taking both the individual time trial and road titles plus coming second at the criterium.

On stepping into the competition at the ProVelo Super League in South Australia, where the U19 categories raced alongside the other categories, Parslow was quick to step forward as one of the strongest contenders in her age group but also showed that she was capable of moving in the front sections of the overall field as well. Parslow, who turned 18 in March, even managed three top ten GC finishes across the series, with ninth overall at the Tour of Tasmania and sixth at the Harbour City GP before a third place on the final stage of the final race of the season, the Q Tour, saw her land on the stage podium and also shift up to fourth overall at that event.

Parslow's performance left her as the undisputed winner of the U19 women's category for the series, sweeping up 177 points – more than four times as many as her nearest rival. Next up for Parslow is this week's Oceania Road Race Championships where the she could well add a continental title to her collection.

Connor Wright (Falcons Pedal Mafia) – U23 men's series winner

Connor Wright (Falcons Pedal Mafia) is one one of those riders who has been making his mark on the mountain bike but is also proving to be a dab hand on the road, just like last year's series winner Ward. The 17 year old was already proving his skills on the paved surfaces in January when he won the junior time trial at the Australian Road National Championships and also stood on the podium in the criterium and road race.

When he stepped into the ProVelo series at SA Kick It it was never going to be for the full series, with mountain bike ambitions calling after the second round. Still, even though he raced just SA Kick It and Tour of Tasmania after the performances he managed to deliver at those events there was no questioning that he had walked away from the series having made a profound impact. There were two stages in South Australia where he came eighth, which was impressive enough, but then he leapt up to a whole new level in Tasmania.

Wright started with a second place in the short but sharp uphill time trial in Launceston, took fifth on stage 2 and then he sprinted to victory on stage 3 after holding with the lead group of nine on the final climb and winning the battle at the top. After a 12th in the final stage criterium he managed to finish on the Tour of Tasmania GC podium too. Hiis accumulated results after two rounds of racing were enough to keep him at the top of the U19 men's series leaderboard through till the end, even though he didn't pin on a number again in the ProVelo racing.

That, however, doesn't mean he wasn't still proving his ability to accumulate results. Wright, who last year finished sixth in the junior cross-country Olympic race at the World Championships, defended both his junior men's Oceania XCO mountain bike title in March and also his Australian XCO and short-track titles, making him a multi-discipline prospect that may be hard for teams not to take notice of.

Honorable mentions

There were also a number of other riders that may not have walked away with classification wins, but were hard to look past nevertheless. Among those riders who lit up stages and stepped up to the podiums were another mountain biker, Ruby Taylor (Team Redcat) who dipped in for the Tour of Tasmania and Mt Mitchell to Inverell. The 18-year-old snared not one, but two stages in Tasmania and then also finished in the top ten of the one-day race in New South Wales before turning her attention back to the mountain bike. Then there was second-placed overall Sophie Edwards (Butterfields Ziptrak) who swept up another Melbourne to Warrnambool title, plus the Harbour City GP overall and second overall on the Q Tour. The 20-year-old Keira Will (Team Redcat), who was also juggling track commitments, was impressively consistent when lining up, not walking away from any of the three events she raced in without at least one trip to the podium and two of those were stage top steps. The 18-year-old Amelie Sanders (Meridian BikeBug) was also never far away from the front across the four events she took on, not once delivering a result out of the top 6.

The 17-year-old Alistair Forsyth of the (VIS p/b K.O.M.P) impressed by claiming the Q Tour criterium, somewhat unexpectedly however after Tom Cornish (Team Brennan) who crossed the line first, was relegated to fourth. Individual rider William Heffernan, who usually races with CCACHE x Bodywrap, showed plenty of strength in Tasmania but turned that into a win at the Harbour City GP. The 20-year-old Oliver Sims (Cobra9 x Leigh Surveyors) delivered for his team, clinching the last stage of racing in both the first round of the series and the last. That also helped him to third in the overall series classification and second in the U23 men's category.