Luke Deasey continues his ascent through the cycling ranks with the Tamworth teenager being signed by a National Road Series (NRS) team.
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Following a string of impressive performances during 2019 including winning silver in the under-19 time trial at the state championships, winning the Bathurst Cycling Classic men's short course race, placing 16th in the under-19s mens division at the Yunca Junior Tour in New Zealand and helping the NSW under-19s finish seventh in the Tour de DMZ in Korea, Deasey was invited to join the Rauland development cycling team.
Formally the Subaru/Albion NRS Development Team, the team features a lot of the top under-19 riders in the state and will give Deasey not only more exposure to top level racing in Australia, but also overseas.
"I think it's a brilliant team for Luke to be able to get into," his coach Sam Spokes said.
"It will give him more international experience and will be a good stepping stone to going full-time into the NRS series."
The opportunity to race in the NRS was one of the big appeals for Deasey, who before joining Raulands was with Dhuez Racing. He is grateful for the opportunity they gave him but the chance to be part of an NRS team was too good to pass up.
Deasey raced with Raulands at the recent Tour of Bright, where he finished a credible 25th in the general classification in the elite men's B grade after picking up third in the time trial.
"It's a pretty mountainous tour," Spokes said.
"Mountains aren't his forte."
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Still, he did almost pull off a surprise victory in Stage 2 after getting on a breakaway.
Initially with a couple of other riders he dropped them on the last climb, but was pegged back with about 4km to go.
Finishing on Mount Buffalo, he was pretty "cooked" crossing the finishing line of the last stage, the race really testing his mental and physical capacity.
"We ended up racing in snow one day, which was different," he said.
The day had started out beautifully but then mid-race a snow storm rolled through. Deasey was totally unprepared for it and by the end could hardly change gears his fingers were that frozen.
But it was a learning experience, as the whole year has pretty much been for the 17-year old as a first year 19 and competing in some reasonably big races.
As well as having the guidance of Spokes, Deasey has also been fortunate to train, and race, with NRS rider Sam Hill for the last six weeks while he has been doing his teaching prac in Tamworth.
"It has been good. Sam's got a lot of experience and likes to hurt himself too," he said.
"He makes you push yourself and I've learnt a lot from him."
Deasey will now look to fine-tune and build on what he did at Bright ahead of the Road National Championships in the new year, where he will be targetting the time trial.
Stepping up to the under-19s, he finished 23rd this year and is hoping to improve on that.
Spokes believes he is on track and spoke about nice it has been to see his charge, who he describes as one of the easiest guys to train, progress through the ranks.
"It's been nice to be able to see his growth the last three or four years. From just starting cycling to being one of the top riders in the country for his age group," he said.
