Last year

under-19s.

But were you thinking at that point? I mean, I had a good month before in Italy, which I was like – probably made me a bit naive coming into these Nations Cup and then stepping into the Nations Cup was like, whoa.

It felt like, you know, going from an Aussie race to a world tour race, that step going to Nations Cup level.

But then at the same...

It didn't kill my hope for it because I was enjoying it still.

And, okay, the theoretical level was so far away.

Like, did that kick in instantly? Like, did you start to see the benefits of, okay, I'm a full-time bike rider now?

Can you tell us, uh, what you a-and, and your family went through and, yeah, when you got back?

Yeah.

Um, my, my sister, my sister had a short stature condition, actually.

So she was, she was only two years younger than me, but she was only 105 centimeters tall.

So, um, she was, she was an absolutely unique human being.

Uh, she had the mind of a, of a 45-year-old human rights lawyer, um, in the body of, of, of a, of a child, basically.

So, um, she, she became chronically, chronically ill in, in 2023, actually only a few weeks after I, I went to Europe for my first year with Trinity.

But have you reflected on, on those, uh, advices and quotes you got from your teammates, uh, one year ago regarding Uva and Ronel?

He was really posed as the next Pogacar when he won there with Borat when he was only 18. and obviously he's suffered quite a bit since then um but really to beat uh jorgensen as well and to climb as well as he did um with quite a limited team you know obviously maxim um van gills did a fantastic job for luke but we actually have a audio diary from tuckwell and you can hear from him now

what a week like i i words i still don't have the words and what it means for my career.

Yeah, to have already the start, like finishing top 10 on the first day, getting in an opportunistic move was already a tick against my name in terms of how the team were looking and how they saw me evolving through the week.

I did a good enough job in the TTT as well.

And then I basically just spent the other days trying to conserve as much energy as I could before the massive final three days.

And yeah, for stage six, we originally...

All week, we've been going for Maxine to try and win that stage.

But, I mean, he's already got some nice results.

But is there anyone in the team either who you're learning from or is really sort of binding the team together and is particularly inspiring, you know, in the team bus before the stages, who really gets everyone to rally around each other? I mean, yeah,

yeah.

Patchy, who's been the DS, Patchy Vila, who is the DS that I've actually done Catalonia, Basque, Romandie, Dauphiné with.

So we've raced basically together all year.

He does a really good job of everyone understanding what they have to do.

But...

I also think having I think Zach Dempster has brought a lot to the team.

What's your thoughts back on that? Because he wasn't race leader or anything.