Richie Porte ended his reign as champion of Willunga Hill at Saturday's Santos Festival of Cycling, which has kept his Tour de France hopes alive since Cadel Evans' retirement.

The Santos Festival of Cycling lined up was not the usual field of World Tour teams racing in South Australia, as the international event, the Tour Down Under, was cancelled. Instead, top national and national teams competed in the National Road Series, along with World Tour pros, including former Tour Down Under winners Porte and Rohan Dennis.

In other words, the country's top talents, 19 and 23 years old and younger, had the rare opportunity to compete directly against the world's best in a race where the organizers did everything in their power to provide the infrastructure, courses, and coverage to offer a similar experience, although without the World Tour rankings and obligations. The race gave them a rare opportunity to go head-to-head with the world's best.

As the race came to a close on the summit of the iconic Willunga Hill on stage 3 and Porte, who is retiring at the end of this season, bid farewell to the climb where he had won seven races, he was flanked by riders under 23 years old. Luke Plapp (Team Garmin Australia), discovered in last year's Tour, was just ahead, with this year's Best Young Rider contest winner, Matt Dinham (Team Bridge Lane), close behind.

"The race was obviously uphill, so there wasn't as much pressure to attack as there usually is. [Luke Plapp is my teammate this year, and he's a very talented guy. Luke Plapp is my teammate from this year and is a huge talent. Some of the Aussies racing this week are really great.

"There's no guarantee that we won't see another Tour de France winner in today's race. This place is a hotbed of Aussie cycling."

Ineos Grenadiers' Porte is proof of that. He was surrounded by fresh talent from the National Team and Team Bridge Lane, because they were on very similar paths to the one he was on.

This time, he and his new Ineos Grenadiers teammate, Plapp, may have been mentoring riders who missed out on the junior category of the 2021 World Road Championships due to a COVID-19 disability, but 14 years ago, he was on the national team entered and competed in his first Tour Down Under.

2008 was also the year he joined Platies, the predecessor to Team Bridge Lane, which has played a key role in the development of many top Australian cyclists, from Porte to Jack Haig and Ben O'Connor.

Team Bridge Lane's Dinam secured second place in the youth class and GC while supporting James Whelan. His team leader believes that his 21-year-old teammate helped him to the finish, steering Porte and Jumbo Visma's Chris Harper (of Villawood, just six seconds behind Dinham overall) to the finish line, which he credits for his run today.

"I think he [Dinham] was the strongest on that climb. 'He's an absolute talent. He's a young rider and he's the reason I was able to run at the front like that when he's at the top of the GC. 0]

Nineteen-year-old Declan Tregis also played a key role in shaping the outcome of the race. It was his relentless efforts at the front of the break that allowed ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast teammate and stage winner Angus Lyons to start the Willunga climb more than three minutes ahead of the peloton.

They were not the only standout performances by young riders during the Tour.

The efforts of 21-year-old Blake Quick (Inform TMX MAKE) in preparing for the early season races were evident early in the year. Even before the Santos Festival of Cycling, he had already been touted as one of the leading young riders of the Australian summer, winning the Lexus of Blackburn Bay Crit and the Australian U23 National Championship road race.

Then, in a two-day sprint race in South Australia, Quick won the criterium and the second stage, dominating half of the victories earned in the men's race at the event. [In addition, Dinham, who also specializes in mountain biking, finished in the top GC with three U23 riders, with Rudy Porter (InForm TMX MAKE) in fourth, Alastair McKellar (Team Westpac) in sixth, and Carter Turnbull (InForm TMX MAKE) in ninth top 10.

While one king of Wilunga may be ending his reign, it is clear that there is much hope that the next generation can fill the void.

"I look forward to racing here in the future," Dinamu said.

"And hopefully the Aussie will continue his tradition of being the first to run up Willunga."