Once again the Tour of Bright delivered a heady mix of young talent with the carrot of some big names to chase, and it was a pair of 19-year-olds that charged across the rain-soaked line of stage 1 to claim the opening victory of the Australian tour at the top of Tawonga Gap.
Talia Appleton (BridgeLane) went on the charge to claim the women’s A grade victory on the summit. Clearly not too fatigued by her long solo effort in the pre-race criterium, she leapt out of the lead group at around 1.5km to go and never looked back. In the men's A it was then the duo of Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) and Jack Ward (BridgeLane) who raced through the bends and rain toward the peak of the popular high country climb.
