Forward of the 2024 UCI Highway World Championships, Cyclingnews is taking a deep dive into the important thing groups for the elite highway races, beginning with Australia.
Historical past
It’s been a while since Australia has walked away from a UCI Highway World Championships with an elite gold medal, because the nation hasn’t taken to the highest step within the senior ranks at Highway Worlds because the now-retired Rohan Dennis claimed the lads’s time trial title in 2018 and 2019. Earlier than that, it was Cadel Evans who in 2009 turned the primary Australian ever to win a person elite highway world title when he claimed the highway race.
Nonetheless, there may be loads of motive for hope that one other might step up quickly with the rostrum placings nonetheless flowing lately. Olympic gold medallist Grace Brown has led the way in which along with her runner-up spots within the particular person time trial in 2023 and 2022.
Michael Matthews, who claimed the U23 males’s world title again in 2010, has additionally been on the highway race podium as just lately as 2022 the place he took third and it was additionally bronze in 2017 and silver in 2015, plus he was a part of the third-place combined time trial crew in 2022. Within the ladies’s elite highway race, it has been Amanda Spratt who has ventured into the medals for the nation most just lately, taking third in 2019 and second in 2018.
The junior ranks have been the strongest space for Australia in current editions, with Oscar Chamberlain and Felicity Wilson-Haffenden sweeping up the U19 time trial rainbow stripes for the nation final yr.
Line up
Elite ladies, highway race – Neve Bradbury (eligible for U23), Grace Brown, Brodie Chapman, Sarah Gigante, Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Amanda Spratt
Elite ladies, time trial – Grace Brown, Brodie Chapman and Isabelle Carnes (eligible for U23)
Elite males, highway race – Jack Haig, Jai Hindley, Michael Matthews, Ben O’Connor, Nick Schultz, Chris Hamilton, Michael Storer and Jay Vine
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Elite males, time trial – Jay Vine
U23 males, highway race – Alastair Mackellar, Luke Tuckwell and Fergus Browning
U23 males, time trial – Hamish McKenzie and Patrick Eddy
Junior ladies – Lauren Bates and Emily Dixon
Junior males – Alex Eaves, Max Goold, Will Heath, Wil Holmes
Key Riders
The Australian males’s crew on the Paris Olympic Video games, which additionally included Michael Matthews and Ben O’Connor (Picture credit score: Ed Sykes/SWpix.com)
After successful gold on the Paris Olympic Video games it’s arduous to look past Grace Brown as the focus for the Australian crew’s elite title hopes. It doesn’t matter what occurs in Zürich the Victorian has already delivered a spectacular farewell season however including a rainbow jersey to the the 2 silver medals she has claimed within the time trial over the previous two editions of the World Championships would make it the last word send-off.
Then there may be additionally Michael Matthews, who did not have the Olympics he might have been hoping for however a 3rd win on the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in opposition to a strong area is an effective indication that the rider who has risen to the rostrum on a number of events on the Highway World Championships is heading towards Zürich with some highly effective type. Ought to the 4,470m of elevation achieve throughout the 273.9km be an excessive amount of for Matthews, Australia has that base properly lined between Ben O’Connor, Jai Hindley, Jack Haig and Jay Vine.
The choices for Australia additionally lengthen past the elite ranks, with one other robust time trial card in Hamish Mackenzie within the U23 males, the rider having taken bronze within the class in 2023. Then there may be Neve Bradbury – who was on the Giro d’Italia Ladies’s podium and gained the brutal Blockhaus stage – as whereas she’s clearly earned her place on the elite ladies’s crew she can also be nonetheless under-23 so qualifies for that title as properly, which is awarded to the highest participant from that class within the mixed elite and U23 ladies’s highway race.
Strengths
Between a golden effort on the Olympic Video games and looming retirement, motivation and confidence could not be a lot larger for Brown within the time trial. A closing world title tilt might ratchet up the stress, notably given the 32-year-old has simply been one step away from that coveted rainbow jersey the final two years, however after gold in Paris Brown is already strolling away with nothing left to show. Throw in Brodie Chapman, who has stepped onto 4 particular person time trial podiums this season, as one other challenger within the race in opposition to the clock plus Isabelle Carnes as a U23 choice and the ladies’s time trial is an occasion to not miss for the Australian followers.
The punchy highway race additionally affords one other likelihood for Brown to ship an attacking effort, very like the one which netted her Liège-Bastogne-Liège this yr and she or he’ll have the expertise of two former commerce squad teammates, Amanda Spratt and Chapman, to name on for help. Plus the ladies’s crew has its bases lined on the unpredictable course, with Ruby Roseman-Gannon a stable card if a decreased bunch dash ought to eventuate whereas Neve Bradbury and Sarah Gigante will probably be at dwelling on the climbs.
The elite males’s highway race crew can also be huge on choices, with Matthews having confirmed simply how robust he might be on the finish of a testing day of racing as soon as once more in Canada and in addition having a formidable historical past of performing within the rainbow race. Nonetheless, if the amped-up stage of climbing in Zürich proves a step too far, the alternate options are laid on thick given the squad has three riders who’ve stepped onto a Grand Tour general podium in Hindley, O’Connor and Haig. In addition they have Vuelta a España mountains classification winner Jay Vine. The unfold of choices will maintain the rivals guessing and with the likes of Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel as such robust favourites, the stress is more likely to go on different groups to regulate the race.
The U23 and junior males’s classes of the time trial are additionally areas the place there are clear alternatives for Australia, with Hamish Mackenzie – who got here second within the junior time trial in 2022 – stepping straight onto the rostrum when he made the transfer into the U23 ranks final yr. With one other yr of expertise and growth with Hagens Berman Jayco and the shift to Jayco-AlUla slated for subsequent yr, he’ll possible be trying to shift up a step or two this time round. The junior class, the place Australia swept up each time trial titles final yr, additionally affords up one other severe contender in Wil Holmes, who final month on the monitor set a brand new junior males’s 3,000m particular person pursuit world document.
Weaknesses
The time trial might general be a energy for the nation however within the males’s elite race in opposition to the clock, it hasn’t been in any respect easy crusing. Luke Plapp, who had been laser focussed on the self-discipline via the season with Paris and Zürich in thoughts had a horrible crash within the Olympic Video games race in opposition to the clock so finally needed to bow out of the highway race in Paris and was additionally later changed on the World Championships squad. Jay Vine was subsequent in line and whereas the 2023 Australian champion is clearly a worthy substitute, he actually hasn’t had the chance to focus and construct towards the time trial like his predecessor, as he suffered spinal accidents in a brutal crash in April. A Vuelta a España efficiency that left him with the polka-dot jersey is obvious proof of a robust bounce again however a query stays over how a lot of a toll the less-than-ideal season run-in will take through the 46.1km race in opposition to the clock.
Within the elite highway races, Australia have what isn’t a lot a weak spot to take care of, however a transparent energy from their opposition to attempt to counter. Within the ladies’s race yr after yr, it doesn’t matter what the terrain, the Dutch are capable of line up with a crew stuffed with potential winners such is the energy of that nation in ladies’s biking. They’ve gained six of the final eight world highway race titles and with Demi Vollering main the way in which look as robust as ever. Within the males’s highway race, the overwhelming subject is the best way to counter the energy of some stand-out people resembling Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) – who has already gained each the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France this season and is now steaming towards a possible triple crown – and twin Paris gold medallist Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). Australia has a robust group of riders however, simply as is the case for the overwhelming majority of the peloton, the chances would not be of their favour in relation to going toe to toe with Pogačar or Evenepoel.
The view from Australia
Australia – with its awkward nighttime time zone for watching European-based biking occasions – might have had its tolerance for late evening biking viewing stretched just a little of late between the Olympic Video games, the place Brown in all probability prompted a number of family waking shouts when she claimed gold, and Ben O’Connor’s tenacious effort to carry crimson on the Vuelta. Nonetheless, the highly effective exhibiting may have fanned hopes of extra so many will probably be braving the in a single day viewing as soon as once more.
Biking is probably not the largest of attracts in Australia however the nation which is ready to ship public holidays in honour of an Australian Guidelines Soccer closing and a horse race is fast to get on board it doesn’t matter what the game if the nation is on high. Given current outcomes, one other work out for the espresso machine might assist gas some unforgettable biking viewing. A rainbow jersey might even be sufficient to get biking to interrupt via onto the sports activities pages of the mainstream media within the midst of soccer finals fever.
