Cycling teammates Zac Marriage and Fergus Browning were the Cinderella story in stage one of the Tour Down Under.
Their two-man breakaway lasted well over 100km in the 150.7km stage and was the perfect start for the composite ARA Australian team at the race.
The two emerging talents were never going to win the stage and they were caught well before the finish, but that is beside the point.
"We're not the 'belle of the ball' here, right? We know our role, but at the same time it's really important to keep the kids ambitious and have things they can actually achieve," said team director Martin Barras.
"On that front, I couldn't be happier with the race today."
The national team has been a feature of the Santos Tour throughout its 25-year history, giving riders without top-level contracts the chance to showcase their talents.
The team's first boss, veteran Australian coach Dave Sanders, demanded that whenever a break went at the Tour it would feature one of their riders.
Two riders at the front of the race for so long is even better.
Barras, another long-time national coach on the road and track, is running the team this year and was rapt with how stage one panned out for them.
Browning leads the king of the mountain category, while he and Marriage were jointly awarded the most competitive rider prize.
French rider Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R) initially joined the two Australians in the break, but he dropped back to the peloton with more than 100km left and left them to dominate the stage.
"The guys were smart about how they did it, they understood the race, the way it was going to happen behind them," Barras said.
He added their break was a lot more than just getting as much exposure as possible on the race coverage.
"We don't want to do it for TV time, we want to do it because there's a performance outcome," Barras said.
"We nailed that today. Then yes, obviously, out there for a couple of hours today - it's a really nice bonus, don't get me wrong."
While teammate Damien Howson finished ninth overall last year and is an experienced rider, they are mainly emerging talents trying to score WorldTour contracts.
"I'd like to come out of the Tour and every single one of these guys has had an opportunity to do a performance, get the result of some sort," Barras said.
This year's Tour also marks a cycling return for Barras, whose most recent full-time job in the sport was performance director for the New Zealand national program until late 2021.
"I'm an idiot for it. I just love racing - this just happens to be racing at the best level," he said.
