The eyes of the world will return to Tasmania when the Stan Siejka Launceston Cycling Classic gets underway next month.
The Classic is one of Australia's great criterion races and the marquee event of the Launceston Cycling Festival, which runs from December 5 to 7.
The Liberal Government will provide $75,000 over three years to help the staging of this popular event.
Tasmanians will have a chance to watch two of the biggest names in world cycling at this year's classic, with Tour De France winner Chris Froome and Tasmania's own Richie Porte to compete.
Securing Chris Froome is an enormous coup. On Twitter, Chris has 393,000 followers and combined with Richie and Team Sky they engage with 814,000 fans.
Following negotiations between Classic organisers, Tourism Tasmania, Events Tasmania, Tourism Northern Tasmania, and national broadcaster SBS, I am pleased to announce the Stan Siejka Launceston Cycling Classic will be broadcast live to around 100,000 viewers on SBS Australia and later in the UK on Sky B, which has more than 10 million subscribers.
Northern Tasmania already has a strong focus on cycling tourism and this coverage will expose the region to many people who will start thinking about coming here to experience our magnificent scenery for themselves.
The broadcast production team will also make a documentary about Chris and Richie's grueling training regime while in Tasmania and this will be aired on SBS during their 2015 Tour De France coverage.
The publicity this race will attract nationally and internationally will contribute to Tasmania achieving its goal of attracting 1.5 million visitors to the state by 2020.