Talia Appleton, Sophie Marr, Alli Anderson - U23 ARA Australian Cycling Team
Talia Appleton 3rd in Tour de l'Avenir Femmes
By Janine Appleton
The Tour de L'avenir Femmes, the most prestigious stage race for Under 23 road cyclists, is a week-long French event, with a history of ushering in major future talent. It is essentially a youth version of the Tour de France. This year’s race for women covered 478km with 8,815m of climbing in the eastern pocket of the mountainous French Alps. Seven stages - an uphill time trial at Tignes, followed by two flat stages, two lumpy stages, a mountain stage, and culminating with a challenging ten kilometer mountain time trial starting at 1200m elevation.
Talia Appleton, from the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club, finished third in the general classification (GC - accumulated time over 7 stages). This is an outstanding result for a rider without a World Tour contract or development or pro continental contract for 2025. Both 1st and 2nd GC riders already race for WorldTour teams: Canada’s Isabella Holmgren and France’s Marion Bunel.
After narrowly missing the overall win in the ProVelo Super League (Australia's National Series) and podiums at National Gravel racing events earlier this year, Talia has focused her training for this event, completing 250 rides over 17,000km with 230,000 metres of elevation on the roads to Tolmie and Mt Buller. She ventured to Girona, Spain, a month ago to conclude her training, negotiating 5-6 hour training sessions in 30-35 degrees, but said that was preferable to 5-6 hours on the home trainer when it was too wet and cold in Mansfield. She was confident that her training showed significant progress, but nervous that she had not raced at all in Europe this season due to having no contract. The challenges non-European athletes face are nearly insurmountable.
She started her campaign with a third in the uphill prologue and, with the support of the other 5 members of the ARA Australian cycling team, made no mistakes over the subsequent rolling stages. That set her up to soar in the mountains: on the double-stage final day, Talia finished third in the road race and second on the uphill time trial. Both stages finished at nearly 2,000 metres above sea level at La Rosière
Talia Appleton (left) finished 3rd on the overall podium.
"Heading into the final double day of racing in the Alps, I was ready to do everything I could to defend my position on GC,” Talia said.
“To come third on a really tough queen stage after being solo for most of the day was incredible, and then to back up only a few hours later with second in the final uphill 10 km TT felt even better!”
Talia Appleton maintained her GC position from start to finish.
At just 19 years of age, Talia also secured second in the young riders’ classification for riders under 21 years.
“It’s still sinking in and definitely a bit of a pinch-me moment!” Talia said. “To finish on the GC podium and have two Aussie women in the top 10 is super special.
“I was really targeting the opening prologue as I knew it suited my characteristics, but I was still a bit shocked to come third and find myself on the GC podium. I was really happy with that result and decided anything else throughout the rest of the week would just be a bonus, especially against so many riders with WorldTour and grand tour experience.”
The ARA Australian Cycling Team finished second overall in the team classification.
“Super lucky to have really great, experienced teammates around me throughout the four lumpy road stages. A result like this definitely wouldn’t have been possible without all of their support both on and off the bike,” Talia said.
Talia heads back to Mansfield in mid to late September, before preparing for National Championships in Perth in January 2026. She is confident that these results will allow her to secure a contract with a team for racing in Europe in 2026 to continue her bright cycling career.
Ride for the Kids
By Paul Bird
I head up a Melbourne-based charity - Brainwave - that supports over 1,000 children with brain illnesses and injuries and their families across Victoria
With the doubling of registrations of children with brain illnesses and injuries over the last four years, we have launched a new exciting national challenge – Ride for the Kids. Here’s a short video…
Headed up by ‘Voice of Cycling’ Matt Keenan and fellow commentator and cycling champion, Gracie Elvin, along with exclusive Pedla cycling gear, we are inviting all Australians to set and ride their distance from 1-31 October 2025.
I would really appreciate your club’s support in establishing a team.
With thanks and best wishes, Paul Bird.