Tasmania's four dynamic junior track stars have been named among Australia's best emerging talents.
A couple of months after standout performances at the national track championships in Brisbane, Launceston's Hamish McKenzie and North-West Coast trio Dalton Stretton, Jack Menzies and Will Eaves have been categorised as emerging track athletes by AusCycling.
In the under-19 races at the Anna Meares Velodrome in march, the quartet claimed a silver medal in the team pursuit.
McKenzie and Stretton added another silver in the madison while McKenzie claimed gold in the individual pursuit.
This week they were named among 66 emerging and developing Australian athletes in the disciplines of track endurance and sprint for 2021-22.
Such identification under the national high performance network seeks to prepare athletes for a successful progression into the Australian Cycling Team.
The process is based on an Australian Institute of Sport athlete categorisation framework which provides sports with a method of assessing an athlete's performance trajectory to the elite podium.
Athletes will receive access to state high-performance facilities, dedicated camps and race support.
Romandie podium
Richie Porte has shared a WorldTour podium with INEOS Grenadiers teammate Geraint Thomas for the second time in five weeks.
Fifth-place in the 16-kilometre individual time trial around Fribourg saw the Tasmanian finish 28 seconds behind the Tour de France-winning Welshman at the 74th Tour de Romandie in Switzerland.
It was Porte's first race since the week-long Volta a Catalunya in March when he and Thomas finished second and third respectively behind Adam Yates in a rare team podium clean sweep.
"Another great week in the bag, happy with the form and great to finish on the podium," Porte said on social media.
The results augur well for Launceston's Monaco-based 36-year-old who has bounced back to form having crashed out of Paris-Nice earlier in the year.
Porte had been sitting fifth after four stages of Romandie before his time trial prowess secured the podium place.
His schedule is building up to the Tour de France where he is hoping to back up a third place finish last year.
Thomas said: "I knew I was going well and myself and Richie wanted to come here and make sure one of us won the race. First and second - we can't complain."
Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
