Geelong business Partington partners with Rudy Porter, as cyclist takes out Cadel Evans’ 2025 King of the Mountain honours

A Geelong business has debuted its product on the UCI WorldTour this year with the help of Aussie Rudy Porter, with a major win for both company and cyclist coming in Sunday’s Cadel Evans Road Race.

Rudy Porter (right) of ARA Australian Cycling Team competes in the breakaway during Sunday’s Cadel Evans Road Race. Picture: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

Geelong engineer Jon Partington says his company has aspirations to become more prevalent on the UCI WorldTour, after Rudy Porter claimed King of the Mountain honours in Sunday’s Cadel Evans Road Race aboard their carbon road wheelset.

Mountain jersey winner Rudy Porter of ARA Australian Cycling Team celebrates on the podium. Picture: Chris Putnam/AFP

Porter, riding for ARA Australian Cycling Team, claimed a leader’s jersey in his third attempt in the 184km road race, the Australian’s performance on the climbs, including the four ascents of Challambra, earning him the mountain classification while a breakaway late in the race didn’t pay off, Porter finishing 26th overall, 56 seconds behind race winner Mauro Schmid of Switzerland.

“Challambra is always a highlight and is becoming very iconic in Australian cycling,” Porter said.

“For myself I rolled the dice going in a four man move with 50km to go, seeing how fatigued everyone was becoming.

“It didn’t pay off in the end and we were brought back with one lap to go but that’s how bike racing goes a lot of the time.”

Rudy Porter riding with the Partington R-Series 39/44 wheelset. Picture: supplied

Starting in a small garage in Torquay, Partington’s wheelset – described as fast, light and stiff – went to commercial market in late 2019, with the company now based at Carbon Nexus at Deakin University and employing 20 people.

For Partington, founder and chief technology officer, there was a special affinity seeing the Mark II (second generation) wheels in action in his own backyard on Sunday, as well as in a race named after Cadel Evans, the only Australian Tour de France winner and a strong supporter of the business since its early days.

“We’re trying to take on the world and be the best at what we do, and that’s exactly what he (Evans) was trying to do, and did,” Partington said.

Japanese distribution partner Shin Isoyama and Partington founder and CTO Jon Partington. Picture: supplied

With plans to move to a bigger location in North Geelong this year, and with the next generation of wheels already in development alongside several other ideas for the business, the first step onto the WorldTour appears just the start line for Partington and his team.

“We’ve got aspirations to be more prevalent on the world tour than we have been,” Partington said.

The Cadel Evans Road Race was the second event Porter had used Partington’s R-Series 39/44 wheelset, debuting them on the WorldTour during last month’s Tour Down Under in Adelaide.

Partington CC founder Jon Partington (middle) with his team. Picture: supplied

The alignment came after the company, which manufactures all components of their products from the hubs to the spokes and rims in Geelong, reached out to Porter after learning he wasn’t signed to a component manufacturer or wheel sponsor.

Though currently uncontracted after two seasons with Team Jayco-AlUla, the belief in the company was Porter was too good not to have a contract, with his recent performances indicating as such.

Coming off an injury-interrupted 2024, Porter would finish 16th in last month’s Tour Down Under – one minute and seven seconds behind winner Jhonatan Narváez – riding with ARA and just outside the top 10 on the Willunga Hill stage.

Porter said the versatile wheels were put to the test on the Adelaide region’s notorious rough country roads, adding the standout feature was “how light and stiff they are”.

“A lot of potholes, tree roots, cheese grater like surfaces … yet the wheels held their own for such a light and stiff compound,” he said.

“It made climbing at the speeds we race very responsive to sudden accelerations and somewhat of a floating feeling when on extremely steep gradients.”

Partington, who always held aspirations to get the wheels on the WorldTour, believed they gave Porter an opportunity to have an edge on his competition, particularly when scaling Challambra on Sunday.

“I think as a rider he’s really well suited to climbing, it’s his forte and I guess that’s where our wheels excel at the moment,” he said.

“It’s obviously nothing without the athlete but hopefully we played our small part in giving him a better chance at success.”

Originally published as Geelong business Partington partners with Rudy Porter, as cyclist takes out Cadel Evans’ 2025 King of the Mountain honours