[ad_1]
In a primary of its form multi-discipline UCI Cycling World Championships, there are many rainbow jerseys on supply in 2023 and Australia has a robust contingent of riders to chase them. They vary from BMX Freestyle Olympic gold medalist Logan Martin, to Rebecca Henderson within the Mountain Bike XCO, the defending males’s Staff Dash champion’s on the observe plus Michael Matthews, Grace Brown and Rohan Dennis to tackle the road races and time trials.
Australia will compete in ten of the 13 World Championships being held from August 3 to 13 with 121 athletes, 9 of whom are lining up in a couple of self-discipline. There are 84 elite riders, 11 beneath 23 representatives and 26 juniors, with six defending world champions amongst them.
All, after all, can be wanting to place their greatest foot ahead, as at all times when the rainbow bands are on supply, however the stakes are notably excessive this yr given for a lot of it is usually essential to stake a declare for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
We take a better have a look at simply among the riders from Australia who’ve potential to finish up on the Worlds podium, or even perhaps with a rainbow jersey on their again.
Logan Martin – BMX Freestyle Park
- Prime World Championships outcomes – 1st in 2021, 2nd in 2019, 1st in 2017
- Occasion dates – Saturday August 5 to Monday August 7
Logan Martin has some expertise in excelling on the subject of occasion firsts, profitable the preliminary BMX Freestyle world title in 2017 and in addition in Tokyo with the very first Olympic gold medal was awarded within the occasion – maybe he might additionally add a rainbow jersey on the first mixed biking championships in Glasgow to that listing. The Gold Coast based mostly rider is already probably the most profitable males’s elite rider within the self-discipline throughout the 5 years that the occasion has had a World Championships, having taken two world titles and a silver medal.
The 29 yr previous’s constant outcomes this yr have been encouraging, as he’s sitting on prime of the leaderboard within the UCI World Cup standings. Nonetheless it’s going to be a tough fought battle for the rainbows, with the Australian putting third within the newest spherical of the World Cup in Belgium final month behind France’s Anthony Jeanjean and 2022 world champion, Japan’s Rim Nakamura.
Emily Petricola – Para-Biking Observe
- Prime World Championships outcomes – 1st in C4 Omnium, Scratch Race and Particular person Pursuit 2022, 1st in C4 Omnium, Scratch Race and Particular person Pursuit in 2020 1st C4 Particular person Pursuit and street time trial in 2019
- Occasion dates – Wednesday August 3 to Tuesday August 8
Emily Petricola has been stepping as much as the rostrum at World Championships since 2018, with the rider who has a number of sclerosis taking a silver and bronze that yr earlier than claiming her first world title within the C4 Particular person Pursuit in 2019 and since then the titles have simply stored coming. Petricola swept up the triple of the C4 Omnium, Scratch Race and Particular person Pursuit in each 2020 and 2022.
No surprises then that she is taken into account a key rainbow prospect once more this yr when she takes to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. Petricola, who was in 2007 recognized with a number of sclerosis can also be lining up as a part of the Para-cycling street squad.
Elite Males’s Dash Staff – Observe
- Prime World Championships consequence – 1st in elite males’s Staff Dash in 2022
- Occasion date – Thursday August 3 to Friday August 4
In 2022 when the trio of Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer crossed the road at Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yveline to beat the highly effective Dutch crew to the world males’s crew dash title they broke a ten-year drought. 2012 was when Australia had final claimed the rainbow bands within the occasion with a crew that Glaetzer was additionally part of alongside Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland..
They’re going to be hoping that the crew of Hoffman, Richardson, Glaetzer and Thomas Cornish will now proceed that roll. They’ve victory on the newest spherical of the Nation’s Cup in Canada an encouraging signal though the Netherlands, amongst others, had been absent from the beginning listing.
Troy Brosnan – Mountain Bike Downhill
- Prime World Championship outcomes – third males’s elite in 2021, 2nd males’s elite in 2019, third males’s elite in 2014, 1st junior males in 2011, 1st junior males in 2010
- Occasion dates – Thursday August 3 to Saturday August 5
Troy Brosnan has a robust report on the World Championships, having taken an elite medal 3 times and twice worn the rainbow bands when he was a junior. The skilled Australian has additionally been on an upswing not too long ago, taking fourth at the latest spherical of the World Cup in Val di Sole.
Fort William, a daily venue on the World Cup circuit, gives the course for the title race the place riders will take only a matter of minutes to energy down the two.8km rock strewn course with a drop of 550m. It’s a location the place Brosnan has tasted success earlier than, profitable the World Cup spherical there in 2014 and in addition putting second and third in Scotland in 2019 and 2018.
Michael Matthews – Elite Males’s Highway Race
- Prime World Championships outcomes – third males’s elite street race and blended relay in 2022, 2nd in TTT (Sunweb) in 2018, third in males’s elite street race and 1st in TTT (Sunweb) in 2017, third TTT (Orica-BikeExchange) in 2016, 2nd males’s elite street race in 2015, 1st males’s U23 street race in 2010
- Occasion date – Sunday August 6
Michael Matthews is aware of what it looks like to drag on the rainbow jersey, he did it on dwelling soil when he received the boys’s U23 street race in 2010. Since then he is been decided to seize it once more within the elite class: “It is a dream that I fall asleep and get up each morning excited about, that rainbow jersey,” stated Matthews in a video about his pursuit of the World Championships title. However yearly since then he is additionally had individuals reminding them that no U23 males’s winner has additionally captured the elite street race title. Matthews is decided to be the primary.
Might this be the yr that he can fulfil that profession aim? After a flying end to 2022, which included two journeys to the rostrum at his dwelling World Championships in Wollongong, he did not have the begin to 2023 that he had been hoping for however then a win on stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia appeared to breathe new life into the 32 yr previous. Not driving the Tour de France this yr, Matthews turned his focus to a stable block of altitude coaching in Livigno for the run as much as the World Championships, which is being held on a course that ought to play to his strengths. The rider who has visited each step of the elite males’s street race podium on the Highway World Championships besides the highest one may even be surrounded by a robust crew for the 271.1km occasion with 3,570 metres of climbing, the longer ascents coming early earlier than the race heads right into a punchy, technical circuit. Nonetheless he is not going to be the one possibility for the crew, which additionally consists of sprinters Caleb Ewan and Kaden Groves plus the confirmed breakaway prowess of Simon Clarke and Australian champion Luke Plapp.
Rebecca Henderson – Mountain Bike XCO
- Prime World Championships outcomes – third in elite girls’s MTB XCO in 2020 and in addition third in 2019
- Occasion date – Girls’s elite MTB XCO Saturday August 12
Rebecca Henderson has already been on a World Championship podium twice, taking third within the cross-country mountain bike race in each 2019 and 2020, although since then she’s additionally stepped up a degree within the World Cups, ending second total in 2022. The 31 yr previous, who in February took her tenth Australian cross-country title in a row, hasn’t thus far in 2023 had a repeat of her stellar 2022 World Cup season however the yr appears to be turning round on the excellent time.
At Val di Sole final month Henderson discovered her method again to the World Cup podium, coming third. It is a welcome return to the highest of the outcomes board, and a reminder that the rider who received 4 XCO World Cup rounds in a row final yr should not be discounted on the subject of the medal prospects on the World Championships.
Grace Brown – Elite Girls’s Time Trial
- Prime World Championships outcomes – 2nd elite girls’s time trial 2022
- Occasion date – time trial Thursday August 10, street race Sunday August 13
Grace Brown made certain she’d be on the favourites listing for 2023 when she got here fourth within the time trial on the Olympic Video games in 2021 after which delivered second on the Wollongong Highway World Championships in 2022. Add in a fourth on the last Tour de France Femmes time trial at Pau and Brown has made clear she is a rider to look at intently within the race in opposition to the clock. No Australian has ever received the elite girls’s time trial world title, although a quantity have been on the rostrum, together with Kathy Watt in 1995, Anna Wilson in 1999, Katrin Garfoot in 2016 and 2017 and at last Brown in 2022. The silver medallist has set her focus squarely on doing every thing she will be able to to take make it one step up this yr, taking a race break earlier than the Tour de France Femmes to verify she hasn’t gone to deep by the point the World Championships arrive and in addition spending loads of hours on the time trial bike in coaching over latest months.
Nonetheless, whereas there isn’t a doubt the time trial is the highest prospect, Brown should not be counted out for the street race both. In spite of everything it was Katrin Garfoot who took silver for the nation on the Highway World Championships in 2017 4 days after securing bronze within the time trial. The street race is a much more unpredictable beast and consists of some formidable rivals, together with after all the at all times stacked Dutch crew, however the punchy climbs of the technical ending circuit swimsuit Brown. Plus she has a robust crew round her for help and in addition to cut back the strain, because it presents numerous playing cards, together with former silver medallist Amanda Spratt who confirmed she is nicely and really again on observe after a prime ten total on the Tour de France Femmes.
Rohan Dennis – Elite Males’s Time Trial
- Prime World Championships outcomes, 1st males’s elite TT in 2019, 1st males’s elite TT and third TTT (BMC) in 2018, 2nd TTT (BMC) in 2017, 2nd TTT (BMC) in 2016, 1st TTT (BMC) in 2015, 1st TTT (BMC) in 2014, 2nd males’s U23 TT in 2012
- Occasion date – Friday August 11
That is the ultimate Highway World Championships for Rohan Dennis, with the 2018 and 2019 winner of the rainbow jersey set to retire on the finish of the season. The final time Dennis lined up within the time trial at a Highway World Championships was in 2020, when he got here fifth, however whereas it might have been some years because the rider from Adelaide has chased the rainbow bands in that point he has introduced dwelling prime outcomes for Australia at different key occasions. Dennis took Commonwealth Video games gold in 2022 and bronze on the Olympic Video games in 2021.
So far as the time trial outcomes go this season the Jumbo Visma rider was on music at O Gran Camiño in February, when he got here second to teammate Jonas Vingegaard. His Giro d’Italia leads to the race in opposition to the clock, nevertheless, had been nothing to put in writing dwelling about however he was there as a late name as much as help Primož Roglič so his precedence wouldn’t have been his personal outcomes given his activity was to go away all of it on the street in help of his teammate. The time trial on the Highway World Championships, nevertheless, is an occasion that Dennis has outlined as a key goal for his last yr as an expert bike owner proper from the start of the season. If his outcomes on the Commonwealth and Olympic Video games are something to go by, it may very well be one heck of a farewell.
[ad_2]