A number of Isle of Man professional cyclists will get their 2025 season underway in Australia in the next couple of weeks.
Lizzie Holden and Becky Storrie kickstart the new year in the ninth edition of the annual Santos Women's Tour Down Under, which fires into life a week on Friday (January 17).
Holden begins her third season with WorldTour outfit UAE Team ADQ, while Storrie continues her journey with Dutch outfit Team Picnic PostNL, formerly known as Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.
The race takes place over three stages, including Adelaide which – as VeloUK reports – was home to Australian classic car company Holden. Apparently, the last Holden car to be made in the country was produced at the Elizabeth Holden plant in Adelaide in 2017.
Once the women’s race concludes, then the men’s Santos Tour Down Under gets underway on Tuesday, January 21 and features another two Isle of Man-based riders.
Onchan resident Ben Swift – who won the Hamper Race in the island recently – and Manx rider Max Walker will both compete when representing INEOS Grenadiers and EF Education – EasyPost respectively.
It will be Walker’s debut for the latter outfit, having made the move to the America team from Astana Qazaqstan in the off-season, while Swift will line up alongside his cousin Connor in the British-based INEOS team.
The tour gets underway in Adelaide and continues for five days before concluding back in the South Australia capital city on January 26.