Olympic champion Grace Brown carries Australia's hopes for Zurich World Championships
Cycling
With Olympic title in their pocket, Australian national team will try to carry the good spirits through to the Zurich World Championships, scheduled to take off in just a little bit over two weeks from now. While all eyes will be set on the women's time trial, the highly intimidating profiles of both road races should prove no less exciting for the Australian fans.
Jesse Korf, convenor of the National Selection Panel, said in a press release: "We are very excited about the group of elite athletes who will represent the ARA Australian Cycling Team this September. The courses in Zurich are challenging with a considerable amount of climbing. The riders we’ve selected have the characteristics to perform well on this kind of parcours."
Lead by the fresh Olympic time trial champion Grace Brown, Australian ladies will be followed by all the big teams in Zurich. And even though their main ambitions are for the race against the clock, it's not with ambitions that they'll enter the road race. Third from Giro d'Italia Women Neve Bradbury will be hot favourite for the U23 title, but she's not without chances in the elite category either. With Brodie Chapman, Sarah Gigante and Amanda Spratt, Australia will have many strong cards to play with.
"Australian road cycling has had a lot to celebrate this year. We look forward to seeing Grace Brown contest her first, and likely last, world championships since winning the Olympic gold medal. At the other end of the scale, it’s fantastic to have young debutants on board such as Isabelle Carnes and Neve Bradbury, whom we hope will make a big impact at their first elite world championships."
Australian Women lineup for 2024 World Championships:
Neve Bradbury (also eligible for U23 title)
Grace Brown (also individual time trial)
Brodie Chapman (also ITT)
Sarah Gigante
Ruby Roseman-Gannon
Amanda Spratt
Isabelle Carnes (U23, only ITT)
Unlike their female counterparts, Australian men can't realistically set their sights for big success. However it would be disrespectful to write off the three-time medalist Michael Matthews already. The 33-year-old has surprised us more than once with his ability to survive very hard races... He'll be accompanied by top-tier climbers such as Ben O’Connor and Jai Hindley. However neither of them have got much of palmares to speak of, regarding one-day races. Meanwhile national ITT champion Lucas Plapp will focus solely on the time trial.
The selector of the national team is not afraid of all the big names lining for start in Zurich: "Our team is filled with climbing talent including multiple grand tour podiums, plus the experience of a rider like Michael Matthews, who has proven time and time again his ability to deliver results at this level."
Australian Men lineup for 2024 World Championships:
Jack Haig
Chris Harper
Jai Hindley
Michael Matthews
Ben O’Connor
Nick Schultz
Callum Scotson
Michael Storer
Lucas Plapp (only ITT)
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