Media Releases

It’s six months before the Giro ‘d Italia arrives on Irish shores and amongst the numerous tasks needing completion before the biggest event in the history of the Island sits the most fearsome task of all, someone has to travel around to all of the Churches and inform them that they will not be able to conduct their normal services when the race comes through their respective villages. Who do you send? They have to be strong, but not abrasive, they have to be firm but not pushy and they will have to drink twenty-nine cups of tea in a day and consume cakes and biscuits beyond measure.

Since his retirement from the pro peloton, Stephen Gallagher has quietly earned himself the reputation as one of the best race organisers in Europe. It is with great enthusiasm and anticipation that we welcome him to our TOMR team as our Race Director for 2017.

First up on Stephen’s agenda is to secure longer sections of closed roads to move us all closer to the Pro Tour experience.

Tea anyone?

On August 7th, 2016 Annemiek Van Vleuten was charging towards an Olympic gold medal before a dreadful crash just 12km from the finish line left her motionless on the side of the road, and everyone watching the live coverage concerned for her welfare. While her Dutch team mate Anna van der Breggen went on to win the Gold Medal,  Annemiek was taken to hospital, later to be diagnosed with severe concussion and three lumbar spinal fractures.  Fast forward to Cadel Evan’s Great Ocean Road Race just six months later and Annemiek crossed the line first to to take the overall victory. A few months after CEGORR she had climbed to the top of the UCI rankings, completing the most remarkable of comebacks. Annemiek joins a growing list of female stars who will be participating in the 2017 Tour of Margaret River as the Tour seeks to shine a spotlight on women’s racing and participation in 2017. “The way it’s shaping up this will be the best field of women cyclists ever assembled for a bike race in WA, and perhaps the best in Australia since the World Championships in 2010,” stated ToMR Event Director Rebecca Cotton.

Very few Australians have had more experience on the World Tour than Scott Sunderland. As a Pro Rider, Director Sportif and Race Director, Scott has seen it all, including masterminding victories in The Tour de France, Pari-Roubaix and helping to establish Team Sky. In 2015 Scott came to ToMR in the capacity of an observer and could quite often be seen riding his bike leisurely around stages in the company of Matt Keenan. In 2016 Scott will return to Margaret River as Race Director.This is a huge step forward for the Tour and for everyone on our crew it represents an opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business.

Generally regarded as one of the best Strategists in the state we are proud to announce the signing of Rebecca Cotton to our team to help implement and develop the Tour. With the addition of Rebecca’s experience and expertise we are now actively looking at the challenges and logistics around creating an event that embraces more of Regional WA and potentially has a position on the Women’s World Tour calendar. To all of the teams who have traditionally participated in the Tour we would like to again express our sincere thanks for your support and we would like to invite you to come with us on the journey we are undertaking…..even if we are not quite sure of the final destination!

We are very pleased to announce that the 2015 Tour has been granted Iconic Event Status from the Shire of Augusta Margaret River. The associated grant will help us to build a better tour in 2015 and in the years beyond. This year we have deliberately created some space around the racing so that participants will get more time to enjoy all of the good things that the region has to offer. Bring your bathers, it looks like Summer is coming early this year.

Pat Shaw will head a star studded line up from the Avanti Racing Team to tackle the 2015 tour. The New Zealand registered team is currently leading the Australian National Road Series and Shaw himself sits fifth overall on the individual standings, not bad for a rider who so often puts aside his own ambitions to support team mates. Shaw has promised that Avanti will go “all out” in Margaret River and that could spell bad news for the other contenders at the front of the race. If you are heading down early for the tour you can join Pat and the rest of the team to watch the Melbourne Cup at Olio Bello on November 3rd.

If you are on our crew for the 2015 race you could find yourself driving around in the new Hilux SR5’s come November! Busselton Toyota have joined the Tour as our Official Supplier of Vehicles and as well as supplying Hiluxes to support the race, our team will also have a couple of new Prado 2.8L Turbo Diesels to use through out the year. It’s enough to have the staff in our office doing crazy little jumps, which is all good and fine until someone strains a thigh muscle….

She was one of the hottest properties on our 2015 Pro Register but Tiffany Cromwell has settled on a ride with Team ELA at this year’s tour. We don’t know a lot about the rest of the team but they will have their work cut out for them if Tiffany sets a quick time in the Stage One Time Trial… they may even find themselves in the position of having to defend a Pink Jersey heading into the rest of the tour. Photo Courtesy: BreakThrough Media

He thrilled us at the Giro d’Italia and he is currently stomping up the mountains of the Tour de France, but will Luke Durbridge be able to set the fastest time up Hill View Road in Stage 1 of ToMR?  It will be no easy task to win this stage though as several of the professional riders in the tour will view the 7.4km Time Trial as their chance to secure a ToMR Medal, (and a cow.) Luke will also be up against a host of local talent who will be looking to impress and put themselves into GC contention for the rest of the tour. A big thank you to Nicole, Andrew and Roger from Total Travel WA for bringing Luke to Margaret River and for stepping up to become major sponsors of the event.

Andrew Christie-Johnston is one of the most respected people in Australian Cycling and he is bringing the Avanti Racing Team across to WA to compete in this year’s Satalyst Tour of Maargaret River. Originally based in Tasmania the team is now officially registered as a UCI Continental Team from New Zealand. With names like Patrick Bevan, Neil Van der Ploeg, Joseph Cooper, Brenton Jones and current World Under 23 Time Trial Champion Campbell Falckmore in the squad we can expect them to have a very strong team at ToMR. After returning to some good form at the recent Tour of Korea, many locals will be hoping that West Australian sprinter AJ Giacoppo will also be in the final team and adding to his stage wins from the 2013 tour. Image: Battle on the Border