Australian Olympic medallist Rohan Dennis has been hailed as "half-man, half-motor" by admiring teammate Primoz Roglic.
The plaudits came on Thursday after the Adelaide time trial specialist helped power his superstar Slovenian colleague into the lead of the celebrated Paris-Nice race.
Meanwhile, another Australian cycling luminary, veteran Richie Porte was in attack mode in the week's other big week-long European stage race in Italy at the Tirreno Adriatico on a day dominated by Tour de France champ Tadej Pogacar.
Roglic unsurprisingly took over the lead from his Jumbo Visma teammate Wout van Aert on the 188.8km stage five of Paris-Nice, but it wasn't as convincing as expected as he found himself isolated from teammates and having to fend off attacks over the last 20km to Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut.
It was largely Dennis' hugely impressive and lengthy stint of pacing him up the Col de la Mure in the Ardeche mountains that ensured Roglic ended up finishing the stage safely in the pack behind US breakaway winner Brandon McNulty.
It ensured he took a 39-second overall lead over second-placed Simon Yates, the English leader of the Australian Team BikeExchange-Jayco outfit.
Jack Haig, of Bahrain-Victorious, is the leading Australian in eighth overall, 1:35 down.
Roglic was left grateful for the efforts of the 31-year-old Dennis, who had finished third in the previous day's time trial and demonstrated why he could be a big signing for Jumbo Visma after moving from Ineos Grenadiers this season.
"Not ideal, eh, for sure," Roglic admitted to reporters afterwards as he reflected on his late isolation.
"But Rohan, wow, he's half-human, half-motor also.
"It's super nice to see how strong he is, how much work he can do."
In Italy, Roglic's Slovenian rival and friend Pogacar looked peerless yet again as he powered to a fifth victory of the season with a searing uphill finish on stage four of Tirreno Adriatico, a 202km slog from Cascata delle Marmore to Bellante.
Pogacar won Strade Bianche with an astonishing 50km solo attack at the weekend and again looked unassailable in taking the leader's jersey from Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
Earlier on the stage, Porte, the 37-year-old Tasmanian showed he still has plenty to offer in his farewell season as he launched three quickfire attacks which ended up being repelled.
He's the top Australian in the race, in ninth place overall, 62 seconds behind Pogacar, who has a nine-second advantage in the absorbing tussle with his exceptional young Belgian rival Remco Evenepoel.
