Breakout rides at the Tour de l’Avenir and the Rwanda Worlds have put the 20-year-old on the map. So what’s next?
Image: Tour de l’Avenir
Followers of Australian cycling have known about Talia Appleton’s potential for several years now. The 20-year-old has been an impressive performer at the domestic level, and in recent years she’s represented Australia at world championships and the Tour de l’Avenir. But in 2025, the Victorian has started to make a name for herself beyond Australian shores.
After a great start to the year in Australia’s ProVelo Super League (where she finished second overall, won one tour and two stages), Appleton rode to a stellar third overall at the 2025 Tour de l’Avenir against established WorldTour professionals. A ninth at the first-ever standalone Worlds road race for U23 women solidified her as a true star of the future.
Appleton now has a contract with the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental team, where she’ll get the chance to establish herself in Europe and start building a career over the next two seasons. Speaking to Escape on Wednesday from her home in Mansfield, Victoria, Appleton reflected on her breakout season, what she’s hoping for as she heads over to Europe, and what she’d love from the sport longer-term.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and fluency. The full interview will be available on the Wheel Talk Podcast soon.
Matt de Neef: For those who aren’t familiar with your story, can you talk a bit about how you first got into cycling, and about your progression from there through to the start of this season?
Talia Appleton: I guess I’ve always ridden bikes. My parents both ride, and my dad’s super into it so he always had me on a bike. And then I actually started through mountain bike racing when I was eight. Just local stuff – good fun messing around with your mates, and then I got my first road bike for my 10th birthday. My older brother also got his first road bike when it was his 10th birthday so I was expecting a road bike for my 10th birthday.
And then I just started doing local club stuff. We’ve got a club handicap race on a Thursday night in Mansfield with the Mansfield-Mt. Buller Cycling Club. I started doing that and I was a limit rider – I would start minutes before everyone else, and they’re only short races; only like 20 km races anyway. And then I guess I got into doing actual proper junior racing when I was about 12.
I would do the junior tours, the Victorian series, which was run through winter actually. So it’s not really great when you’re in Victoria. I just remember a lot of freezing cold mornings racing. But no, it was really good. And then, from there, I’ve just started doing national-level racing, and then NRS (National Road Series) racing through to now.
MdN: Was there a point along the way where you thought, ‘Hey, I’m actually pretty good at this, and I could have a good go at becoming professional’?
TA: I did a lot of other sports when I was growing up – I did swimming pretty seriously. I stopped swimming when I was about 14, and just started focusing on cycling when I was 14 or 15, so I think maybe then I really knew that I loved riding and wanted to really focus on cycling and keep progressing.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in
Did we do a good job with this story?
👍Yep
👎Nope