BikeChain J19 National Road Series: Ava Schmidtke, Alistair Forsyth race to Balmoral Junior Tour wins

The final leg of the 2025 BikeChain J19 National Road Series has seen Ava Schmidtke (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/South Coast CC) and Alistair Forsyth (Team Brennan/Ballarat Sebastopol CC) win the Balmoral Junior Tour, hosted by Balmoral Cycling Club in Brisbane and Ipswich.

Schmidtke took the general classification win by 17 seconds after four stages, adding to her Junior Tour of the Riverland win from May.

The South Australian won the Stage 1 prologue and Stage 4 kermesse, finished third in the Stage 2 road race and dug deep to climb Mt Gravatt as the fifth fastest woman in the Stage 3 hill climb.

Schmidtke led a Butterfields Ziptrack Racing podium sweep, assisted by Maddie Wasserbaech (Port Adelaide CC) in second and Charlotte Lovett (Bathurst CC) in third, who won Stage 3.

Forsyth laid the foundations for his overall tour win in the Stage 2 road race, a stage he won as part of a four-man breakaway that opened a mammoth gap of more than eight minutes to a reduced peloton.

Earlier that morning, Forsyth had finished second to Team Brennan teammate and series leader Oliver Ward (Norwood CC) in the prologue.

In the Stage 3 hill climb, Forsyth lost six of his seven-second overall lead to Stage 2 breakaway companion Liam Cuthbertson (COBRA9 x Leigh Surveyors/Sunshine Coast CC), setting up a blockbuster final stage kermesse around Balmoral's new Brisbane International Cycle Park at Murarrie Recreation Reserve.

A smart performance in that final stage from the race leader sealed the overall win, with Forsyth collecting four bonus seconds for good measure.

Butterfields Ziptrak Racing's Fraser Oertel (Adelaide Mountain Bike Club) rounded out the overall podium.

Among the other stage winners were Zara Heath (The Women's Cycling Development Initiative p/b Balmoral CC/Balmoral CC) in women's Stage 2, Will Banner (Hamilton Wheelers CC) in men's Stage 3 and Ryan Death (CycleTorq CC) in men's Stage 4.

Ward had one hand on the 2025 BikeChain J19 Men National Road Series title before the Balmoral Junior Tour and locked it away comfortably with a fourth stage win of the series in the prologue.

The Junior Tour of Riverland and Canberra Junior Tour winner eventually finished sixth in the Balmoral Junior Tour but made an impact of a different kind by aiding his teammate's GC triumph.

By bookending the 2025 BikeChain J19 Women National Road Series with tour wins, Schmidtke made it a wire to wire overall title.

Schmidtke was the highest points scorer at all three stops of the series, despite finishing second to Megan Russell at the Canberra Junior Tour.

Men Under-19 – General Classification

1. Alistair Forsyth (Team Brennan/Ballarat Sebastopol CC) 3:09:27
2. Liam Cuthbertson (COBRA9 x Leigh Surveyors/Sunshine Coast CC) +5
3. Fraser Oertel (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/Adelaide Mountain Bike Club) +30
4. Liam Roberts Thompson (Eden Mountain Bike Club) +51
5. Maxx Nuspan (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/Bendigo and District CC) +9:09

Women Under-19 – General Classification

1. Ava Schmidtke (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/South Coast CC) 3:11:12
2. Maddie Wasserbaech (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/Port Adelaide CC) +17
3. Charlotte Lovett (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/Bathurst CC) +21
4. Megan Russell (The Women's Cycling Development Initiative p/b Balmoral CC/Darling Downs CC) +35
5. Zara Heath (The Women's Cycling Development Initiative p/b Balmoral CC/Balmoral CC) +53

BikeChain J19 Men National Road Series - Final Ranking

1. Oliver Ward (Team Brennan/Norwood CC) 920 points
2. Alistair Forsyth (Team Brennan/Ballarat Sebastopol CC) 560 points
3. Will Brown (Port Adelaide CC) and Henry Jones (Tas Junior Cycling Foundation) 450 points

BikeChain J19 Women National Road Series - Final Ranking

1. Ava Schmidtke (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/South Coast CC) 1125 points
2. Megan Russell (The Women's Cycling Development Initiative p/b Balmoral CC/Darling Downs CC) 700 points
3. Charlotte Lovett (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing/Bathurst CC) 475 points

Feature picture: Alistair Forsyth (behind) with Team Brennan teammate Oliver Ward. (Gabe Nuspan)