After scooping up medals in their home Worlds in Wollongong in 2022, Australia will once again look to Grace Brown and Michael Matthews to deliver on the road at the combined discipline Glasgow World Championships this August.
The duo are the headliners for the ARA Australian team in the elite road races and Brown will also line up at the time trial. She will be among the favourites at the race against the clock on August 10, after taking silver in 2022 and the 31-year-old will be joined on the 36.2km circuit by a debuting Georgina Howe.
It will be a final World Championships tilt for Rohan Dennis, with the the 2018 and 2019 title holder taking on the 47.8km time trial on Friday August 11. The retiring rider – who has last year took Commonwealth Games gold and the year before secured bronze at the Olympic Games – will be joined by first timer jay Vine, who stunned with his powerful winning performance at the Australian Road National Championships in January.
Matthews took bronze in the road race in Wollongong, stepping onto the men’s elite road race podium for a third time, and he will be chasing another medal in Glasgow on August 6 with seven strong riders alongside him, as the nation qualified for the maximum quota.
Sprinters Caleb Ewan and Kaden Groves are bound to have the bases covered in the scenario of a bunch sprint on the 271.1km course which has 3,570 metres of climbing, with the biggest ascents early in the race and the finish on laps of a punchy, technical city circuit. Then there is also Luke Durbridge, Robert Stannard, Harry Sweeny and the breakaway potential of Simon Clarke plus Australian champion Luke Plapp.
The women’s U23 and elite road race, which in a switch of the usual order closes out the road racing, takes place on August 14 on a 154.1km course with 2,230m of elevation gain. The road team alongside Brown will include the experienced and hard working Lauretta Hanson and Sarah Roy, the climbing prowess of 2018 silver medallist Amanda Spratt and the fast finish of Alexandra Manly – who is part of the track team too – as well as a debuting Ruby Roseman-Gannon.
National champion Brodie Chapman will also be a valuable and versatile asset on the team of seven for the road race and the rider, who started out on the dirt, is also lining up for the mountain bike marathon event the week before as well. There are no U23 riders among the selection for the combined elite/U23 women’s race.
Dual national title holder Alastair…
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