Ahead of the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, Cyclingnews is taking a deep dive into the key teams for the elite road races, starting with Australia.
History
When Australia hosted its first UCI Road World Championships in Geelong in 2010 it was riding the wave of a successful outing in Mendrisio the year before, where Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win an elite world title in the road race.
That year it was Michael Matthews who gave the home Worlds crowd reason to celebrate, winning the U23 men’s title while Luke Durbridge came second in the U23 time trial and Allan Davis was third in the men’s elite road race.
This time, Australia will be coming into its second home Road Worlds without any titles to try and defend, but reason to hope as the nation has rarely walked away from a World Championships without at least one medal since.
Still, it has been a couple of years since Australia has taken to the top step at a Road World Championships with the last title coming from Rohan Dennis, who took out the elite men’s time trial in 2018 and 2019. They were also the years where Amanda Spratt came second and third in the women’s elite road race. Since then the medal tally has been rather lean, with the nation leaving empty handed in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic meant only elite categories ran. Last year, it was Luke Plapp who was the sole medal winner for the nation, taking silver in the U23 time trial.
Line up
Women Elite
- Georgia Baker
- Grace Brown
- Brodie Chapman
- Alexandra Manly
- Sarah Roy
- Amanda Spratt
- Josie Talbot
Men Elite
- Simon Clarke
- Luke Durbridge
- Heinrich Haussler
- Jai Hindley
- Michael Matthews
- Ben O’Connor
- Luke Plapp
- Nick Schultz
Key Riders
Women Elite
Amanda Spratt has spent many years shouldering Australia’s World Championships hopes and while there is no writing off the 2019 bronze and 2018 silver medallist, it’s Grace Brown and Alex Manly that she pointed to as the leaders when the team was announced in late August. Spratt, who will be riding roads just a stone’s throw from her Australian base, has had a challenging couple of seasons between iliac artery endofibrosis and the recovery from surgery for it, but the climber looks to be building form and if all goes to plan could yet prove a threat. However, there are others in the Australian team that look set to be bigger ones.
Last year’s Road World Championships in Flanders…
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