NRS guide: What to know about the 2024 Tour de Brisbane

The 2024 AusCycling National Road Series (NRS) returns for its second stop of the year at Tour de Brisbane this Sunday — here's what you need to know ahead of the super early morning start in the heart of Brisbane.

The routes

Men’s race

The men’s race traverses Tour de Brisbane’s trademark route of tunnels, motorways and inner-city streets for another year over a 102.2-kilometre course.

Mt Coot-tha is once again the jewel in the crown of the route, with the men’s race heading over Brisbane’s famous inner-city climb twice via the back side.

Beginning at the start/finish line on O’Connell Terrace in Bowen Hills, the race immediately heads west through the Legacy Way tunnel onto the Centenary Motorway out and back loop.

After 29 kilometres, the men’s race makes a left turn onto the steep 800-metre Mt Coot-tha Road ramp that preludes the main Mt Coot-tha climb. The two back side ascents of Mt Coot-tha that follow are sure to be decisive and spark attacks, but only once (2021) has a move made on Mt Coot-tha led to a race-winning breakaway.

From there, it’s one final loop of the Centenary Motorway section before heading back into the Legacy Way tunnel towards the Brisbane Airport via the picturesque Kingsford Smith Drive in Hamilton.

The final 52 kilometres of the men’s race are flat and fast until they reach the technical run-in to the finish back on O’Connell Terrace.

In its entirety, the final kilometre contains a hairpin left turn onto a sweeping left bend ramp, then sharp right then left corners to exit the motorway, followed by a final tight right turn at 100 metres to go. To summarise — hectic.

Women’s race

The women’s race follows the same route as the men’s race minus Mt Coot-tha.

The 81.3-kilometre course tackles the Centenary Motorway section of the route back-to-back, with the motorway undulations providing the only real test of elevation on the course.

The 2023 edition finished with a bunch sprint and the course favours that occurring again in 2024. The technical run-in to the finish on O’Connell Terrace means the field will be fighting to be at the front of the race into the final corner at 100 metres to go.

Key riders

It’s been two months since the opening round of the NRS season at Melbourne to Warrnambool where we saw Lucinda Stewart (ARA Skip Capital) and Mark O’Brien emerge victorious.

Both Stewart and O’Brien won’t take to the start line in Brisbane on Sunday, leaving the door wide open for new series leaders before Grafton to Inverell in two weeks.

Men’s race

Team BridgeLane enter any NRS race as marked men. Tour Down Under KOM jersey winner Luke Burns called Brisbane home briefly a few years ago and will know every section of Mt Coot-tha that is ripe for an attack. New phenom Jackson Medway had a debut summer of cycling to remember with BridgeLane and the ARA Australian Cycling Team and finished 10th at Melbourne to Warrnambool. Teammate Zac Marriage was his Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race breakaway companion and can never be discounted as a potential race winner in the NRS. Cyclo-crosser Max Hobson will make his BridgeLane NRS debut in his hometown race after spending the Australian summer in Europe racing CX. Hobson rocketed to a surprise prologue win at the 2023 Tour of Tasmania and could be in his element in the technical finale with his punchy power.

CCACHE x Par Küp has a strong line-up in Brisbane and possess the fastest sprinter on paper in Graeme Frislie. Bentley Niquet-Olden cracked his first UCI win from a breakaway sprint finish at the recent Tour de Taiwan and loves to be active early. The same can be said for teammates Max Campbell and Tali Lane Welsh. The addition of the experienced Alastair Christie-Johnston has been invaluable so far this year. He finished fourth at Melbourne to Warrnambool and sits in a prime position to jump into the NRS leader’s jersey.

Alastair Christie-Johnston (right) will be the virtual leader of the men's NRS on the start line in Brisbane due to the absence of the podium finishers from Melbourne to Warrnambool. Picture: Jean-Pierre Ronco (Image Writer Photography)

Criterion BEx Racing and Cycling Development Foundation are both loading up on numbers and will race with a full squad of nine, the only other team to do so is BridgeLane. Of those lists, Mitchell McGovern (Criterion BEx Racing) performed well last year to finish sixth and Brisbane-based Malaysian teammate Ren Bao Tsen won the Young Rider Jersey at the Tour of Thailand just last week. Brendon Green will most likely be Cycling Development Foundation’s best option.

Tandem Co Pro Cycling always brings the heat at their hometown race and snagged a top-10 finish last year via Brent Rees in eighth. The likes of Cameron Wright or Josh Beikoff could be their best on Sunday.

Oli Stenning (Blackshaw Racing) could be a man to watch on Mt Coot-tha, as could the always aggressive legs of Ben Carman (St George Continental), Jack Aitken (Team Royal Bikes) and Angus Miller (Van D'am Racing p/b Butterfields).

Jack Aitken loves a breakaway, could he go again on Sunday? Picture: Jean-Pierre Ronco (Image Writer Photography)

Finally, three Saudi Arabian National Team riders visiting Australia on a development trip help form the more than 115-strong NRS men’s start list.

Women’s race

Defending Tour de Brisbane winner Haylee Fuller forms part of an insanely deep Team BridgeLane squad in the women’s race. It will be seriously tough for the rest of the NRS women’s peloton to stave off the fast-finishing threats of Keely Bennett, Matilda Raynolds and Gina Ricardo on this course.

The strength of Team BridgeLane means they will be expected to control the race. Picture: Jean-Pierre Ronco (Image Writer Photography)

Sophie Edwards looms as the closest rival to BridgeLane, but she will have to do it on her own as the sole ARA Skip Capital rider — not exactly the easiest task. Edwards could also have bigger sights set on defending her Oceania Road Race Championship on Friday in Mount Crosby.

Josie Pepper (Butterfields Racing) scored an impressive second-place finish at the Warrnambool Women’s Cycling Classic and has a big opportunity to jump into the NRS leader’s jersey with a good outing on Sunday.

Josie Pepper finished second at the Warrnambool Women’s Cycling Classic two months ago. Picture: Jean-Pierre Ronco (Image Writer Photography)

Young Victorian Belinda Bailey (Team Hydraplay Femme - Empowered by the Mental Wheels Foundation) was in the mix last year, finishing ninth in the bunch sprint.

Hayley Jones (Womens Cycling Development Initiative P/B Balmoral CC) is back racing in the NRS with her new team, one which she co-founded late last year alongside fellow Brisbanite Maddison Taylor. The new venture has motivated Jones to return to racing and she hasn’t taken long to find form locally. Don’t be surprised to see her towards the front as the race reaches its crescendo.

Cycling Development Foundation’s Sophia Sammons found herself in the break during her NRS debut at Warrny, a move that would help her finish fourth. It’s hard to compare Tour de Brisbane’s short 81.3-kilometre race to the 155.7-kilometre women’s Warrny but it’s clear 18-year-old Sammons has some talent.

We’ll also be keeping an eye on several individual riders, including multi-time NRS stage winner Georgia Whitehouse, Western Australian Isla Carr, and Hannah Gianatti, who is one of 12 juniors set to race in Europe this year as part of an AusCycling development opportunity through the ARA Australian Cycling Team.

Weather

Sunday is predicted to be a partly cloudy day in Brisbane, with a chance of rain in the morning.

Humidity will be high for the early morning start and temperatures are forecast to range from 18 to 24 degrees Celsius over the race duration.

Only light winds are forecast which means they won’t be a factor on the exposed out and back stretches of the Centenary Motorway.

Tour de Brisbane is always the earliest NRS start of the season, a normality for some, a shock to the system for others. Picture: Tour de Brisbane

How to watch

Tour de Brisbane will be live streamed on SBS on Demand.

The men’s race starts at 5:45am, followed by the women’s race at 5:50am.

Start lists

For provisional start lists, visit EntryBoss for the men’s and women’s events.

What else is on?

The 2024 Oceania Road Championships take place on Friday and Saturday as part of the jam-packed Brisbane Cycling Festival program.

The road races take place in Mount Crosby in Brisbane’s west, while the time trials will be held further west in Mount Walker, 30 minutes outside of Ipswich.

Oceania Road Race Championships
Friday, April 12

• Elite and U23 Men from 8:45am
• Elite and U23 Women from 12:45pm

Oceania Time Trial Championships
Saturday, April 13

• From 7:15am

Rewatch the 2023 Tour de Brisbane

Feature picture: Cassidy Cloupet