Europe may be the home of the WorldTour but once a year the spotlight shifts to the completely different time zone and weather, heading to Australia for a southern hemisphere start to the season.
In 2026 the position of the block of racing down under as the entrenched season starter for the year of WorldTour racing has only been strengthened by new rules that mean a WorldTeam can only miss one top-tier event a season. That means more teams than ever will be out to take on the Australian block, combining the WorldTour events of the Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race for men and women, with some other ProSeries races added in too.
Australian Road National Championships – The locals get to play
- Time trials – Wednesday, January 7 and Thursday, January 8
- Criteriums – Friday, January 9
- Road races – Saturday, January 10 and Sunday, January 11
The opening act of the Australian season will play out in Perth for a second year, with the Westbridge Funds Road National Championships a rare opportunity for the domestic riders to put their prowess on display against the returning WorldTour professionals. As such many of the hopefuls put it all on the line to be in top form for January, chasing performances to open doors to the WorldTour but there will be no gifts from those who have already passed through them, not given the pride of a national title is at stake.
The race against the clock opens up competition, playing out on a 9.8km route in Bold Park with a relatively flat start and a hairpin turn. The elite women take on three laps and the elite men four.
Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ) and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) will be on the start line to defend their time trial titles but neither have the luxury of taking another year in green and gold for granted. Plapp’s biggest rival on paper is 2023 national champion Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) while Chapman has a wary eye on a number of players,…
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