After a delay for two appeals the selections for the Australian team at a home UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong have been released, with Jai Hindley and Michael Matthews headlining the men's elite team for the road race and Grace Brown and Alex Manly taking lead roles for the women's elite team.
Rohan Dennis is a notable absence, with the two-time world title winner in the time trial unavailable for family reasons. Luke Plapp, 21, will be stepping up to the elite category to take on the race against the clock instead.
Ahead of the official announcement a disappointed Caleb Ewan had already confirmed that he had missed out on selection for the home nation Road World Championships, running from September 18-25.
Also absent from the team was Sarah Gigante, who would have been eligible for the under 23 women category which was introduced for the first time at the Road World Championships this year, but as part of the elite races and under the same selection quota. There were no U23 riders named in the Australian women's squad.
The team riding in support of Brown and Manly in the 164.3km women’s elite and under 23 race is made up of Georgia Baker, Brodie Chapman, Sarah Roy, Amanda Spratt and Josie Talbot, who was selected by virtue of the additional position earned with her Oceania Champion title. Brown and Baker will both be riding the individual time trial, with a decision on mixed time trial riders to be made later.
“This was a very difficult selection as we have such a big and talented pool of athletes to select from,” said Australian Cycling Team Elite Road Coordinator Rory Sutherland. “Athletes are always proud to race in the green and gold, doing so on home soil is a dream that probably comes once in a lifetime."
It is Spratt who has in recent years most often led the women's team at World Championships and the 34-year-old has the record to go with the position, with third in 2019 and second in 2018. However, she hasn’t stepped onto the podium at any UCI event since early 2020, discovering that iliac artery endofibrosis was interfering with her form, and has had an injury marred road back since having surgery late last year.
Brown, on the other hand, has delivered two wins this month alone, taking out the Commonwealth Games time trial and La Périgord Ladies in France, along with a stage victory at the Women’s Tour earlier this year and the Australian time trial title in January. Manly too won a stage at the Tour of Scandinavia this month and took four stages of the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour along with overall victory.
“I’m really excited when I look at the team we have and think it’s one of the overall strongest teams we have had in years,” said Spratt in a statement. “Alex and Grace, in particular, have had really strong results recently and put their hand up as our leaders, but I think our biggest strength will be having numbers in the final.”
Alongside Giro d'Italia winner Hindley and 2015 silver medallist Matthews, the team to take on the 266.9km men’s elite race - with 3,945m of elevation - includes Simon Clarke, Luke Durbridge, Heinrich Haussler, Ben O’Connor, Nick Schultz and Plapp.
Matthews, who won the U23 world title in 2010 in Geelong and came second at the elite World Championships road race in Richmond, has long been earmarked as a potential leader for Australia in the race, particularly after taking to the top step on the steep ascent to the Mende Aerodrome on stage 14 of this year's Tour de France.
“I really want to make the most of it – and have a great time – and hopefully stand on that top step," said Matthews. "We’re going there 100 per cent for that goal: to win the medal for Australia."
“We have a great team for a course like this," he added. “We have a lot of guys for different sort of areas of the race, and hopefully we can play the race into our favour and then do our thing in the final.”
Tough course, lots of choice
Sutherland said in a media conference that with the course being neither flat nor having particularly long climbs the field of riders putting their hand up to be considered was extensive, particularly with it being a home Road World Championships.
“It's not that pure course of let's go to Qatar and do a flat sprint, or in Innsbruck, where it's an incredibly long climb for the pure climbers, so the good thing is that opens it up to all kinds of athletes coming in. But at the end of the day, you need to make a decision based on the course itself.”
When asked to talk specifically about Ewan failing to make the list Sutherland spoke of the demanding nature of the course and a selection period where the rider, who has faced bad luck, illness and injury, hasn’t performed up to his usual level.
"Caleb has had a pretty rough year,” said Sutherland. “You have to look at the performances of the athletes and you have to look at the course specifically and look at how many metres of climbing are involved in that.”
“I think a fairy tale for a lot of people would be that Caleb Ewan would be able to race but we all have to agree that you have to be on a certain level to be able to get to that point so that you can be in the pointy end of the race and be effective there as well."
The U23 men’s team is Matthew Dinham, Dylan George, Dylan Hopkins, Jensen Plowright and Rudy Porter, who have been racing in Europe together in the run up and are currently at the Tour de l'Avenir. The team for the Junior categories, which were announced in late June, are Isabelle Carnes, Lucinda Stewart, Bronte Stewart, Talia Appleton and Belinda Bailey for the women’s squad while Oscar Chamberlain, Cameron Rogers, Hamish McKenzie and William Eaves make up the men’s squad.
No further information was given on the appeals, with the privacy of the process referred to.
The World Championships in Wollongong marks only the second time the event has been held in Australia, the last time being Geelong in 2010. The races mostly start and finish in the coastal city of Wollongong, in New South Wales but the small hamlet of Helensburgh hosts the beginning of the elite men's and elite/U23 women's road races, which makes its way down the coast toward Wollongong before taking on circuits that start and finish in the coastal city.
Australian team
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
Men U23
- Matthew Dinham
- Dylan George
- Dylan Hopkins
- Jensen Plowright
- Rudy Porter
Junior Men
- Oscar Chamberlain
- William Eaves
- Hamish McKenzie
- Cameron Rogers
Junior Women
- Talia Appleton
- Belinda Bailey
- Isabelle Carnes
- Bronte Stewart
- Lucinda Stewart
