The National Road Series will be shown on SBS On Demand, with the Tour of Gippsland and Melbourne to Warrnambool races via livestream and post-event highlights.
Richie Porte has ridden for the last time up Willunga Hill in competition, wrapping up his final participation in the Tour Down Under, rebranded to the Santos Festival of Cycling for the past two years. In that time, it has been a National Road Series (NRS) event, with the domestically-based riders impressing the Tour de France podium finisher, .
“Some of the Aussie kids racing here are absolutely brilliant … this is the breeding ground for Aussie cycling,” said Porte in the interview with AusCycling. “There are some really good kids coming out.
“There’s probably the next Cadel Evans in that peloton ... there is going to be another Australian win the Tour de France and it’d be great to say that I rode in the peloton with them here in this race, my final race in Australia.”
Porte began his own journey to become one of Australia’s most successful professional cyclists in history within the NRS, transitioning over from triathlon to focus his attention full-time on the bike.
“I started racing in the NRS (National Road Series) with Team Praties,” said Porte, “which is now Team BridgeLane, so it is kind of nice to be able to finish up and race alongside these young Aussie kids.
“To be quite honest it’s been quite emotional for me. I’ve loved coming back here and it’s where it all started for me, and there were memories there (on the climb) that came flooding back from when I first started here 14 years ago.”
The National Road Series will continue with the Tour of Gippsland, which this year will focus on the Bass Coast, with the iconic Phillip Island the scene of the final day’s racing.
What shapes as three days of hard, attacking racing amidst the picturesque terrain will see the top men’s and women’s team of the domestic scene looking to hold their form from the recent National Road Championships and the Festival of Cycling. The final day’s competition, a criterium on Phillip Island, will be streamed live on SBS On Demand and the SBS Cycling Central Facebook page from 11.40 am on February 15.
Then the oldest and longest one-day race in Australia, the Melbourne to Warrnambool, will be coming to SBS On Demand and the SBS Cycling Central Facebook page from February 19-20.
The men’s race has been run since 1895 with this year marking the 106th edition of the legendary event. 2022 will be a landmark year, with the women’s NRS seeing its inaugural event run the day after the 267-kilometre men's race, with the 160-kilometre route that encompasses the Great Ocean Road immediately positioning itself as the hardest day of racing on the calendar.
