Ruby Roseman-Gannon second, Neve Bradbury third as Coupland also claims U23 title in combined race at Westbridge Funds Road National Championships in Perth
Coupland crossed the line in Perth in disbelief(Image credit: Chris Auld / AusCycling)
First-year professional Mackenzie Coupland claimed the Australian elite women's road race title on Sunday in Perth, going solo in the final 10km to win the green and gold jersey just days into her tenure with Liv AlUla Jayco.
In what had been an attacking, dynamic race, teammate Ruby Roseman Gannon finished second, 32 seconds down, whilst Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) rounded out the podium after a two-up sprint for second and third.
The Perth native only stepped up to the Women's WorldTour this year after two years with the Liv Alula Jayco Continental team, but immediately proved why she's one of Australia's newest prospects, and finished off the job for the team that started the race as the dominant favourites.
"It feels honestly amazing," Coupland said at the finish. "I made a few mistakes in the race, so I hope I did my teammates proud. Yeah, very happy!"
The 109km combined U23 and elite women's road race took place on a 13.6km circuit, with 193m of elevation gain through each of the eight laps. The course twists through Kings Park, passes the Swan River and then heads to the CBD and a punchy climb that tops out just 400m before the finish line.
Jackson Medway (Tudor Pro Cycling U23) claimed the U23 men's road race on Saturday, while Benjamin Coates (Manly Warringah) took the U19 men's title, and Neve Parslow (ARA Skip Capital) added the U19 women's road race to her time trial title.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
The elite women's podium (Image credit: Zac Williams / AusCycling)
How it unfolded
The field of 74 set off into already-warm late morning weather, with temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius at the start and set to climb to 35 later in the day. Belinda Bailey (NSTRMO x ATTAQUER x CCACHE) quickly took off out the front, heading off just before a small crash early, after a touch of wheels. Among those caught in the early race tumble were Brodie Chapman (UAE Team Emirates), who could be seen on the side of the road putting her chain back on, while U23 time trial winner Sophia Sammons (Team Redcat) was straightening the handlebars, but it wasn't long before both were back in the peloton.
Bailey was caught fairly quickly, but it wasn't long before the digs kicked in, with Chapman among the early aggressors and then into the second lap, the heavily represented Liv AlUla Jayco – with nine on the start list across the WorldTour and Continental squads – ramped up the moves, layering on the counter-attacks.
Alli Anderson, who is a new signing for the Liv AlUla Jayco development squad, was one who got away with just over 90km to go, but it didn't last long. The digs continued, and at 87km to go, Ruby Roseman-Gannon decided it was time to launch, but Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) was quick to jump on the wheel, Odette Lynch put in a number of efforts and at 78km to go, it was Josie Talbot's (Liv AlUla Jayco) turn, and she made the move that stuck.
Katelyn Nicholson (Butterfields Ziptrack) set out to cross the gap, now at over 40 seconds, and she was joined by first-year under-23 rider, Ruby Taylor (Team Redcat) – daughter of 1995 Australian Champion and 1997 World Championship silver medallist Liz Taylor (nee Tadich). Taylor, the current Australian U23 women's cyclocross champion, then utilised her mountain bike-driven form to make the junction with Talbot, and Nicholson soon followed.
By 67km to go, the gap was over a minute for the trio out the front, and given the dominant Liv AlUla Jayco had a rider on the front, the pressure went on others to burn matches to keep it in check. That included individual contenders like Chapman and those from teams with just two riders, like AG Insurance-Soudal – Anya Louw and Alexandra Manly – and Lidl-Trek, who had just Spratt and Lauretta Hanson on the start line, given new time trial champion Felicity Wilson-Haffenden was out after a training crash.
At 52km to go, Roseman-Gannon went out hard from the peloton with another first-year U23 rider Amelie Sanders (Meridian Bikebug) joining, though with three-time winner Spratt and 2022 champion Nicole Frain (Ridley) also among those reacting, the move was shut down, but not without doing some damage to the gap which was pulled back to around 30 seconds after that flurry of attacks. It shifted up and down again until hitting 15 seconds at 22km to go. Taylor saw the writing on the wall, sitting up and waiting for the peloton, which then lost momentum and let the gap stretch once again to the now leading group of two.
Near the end of the penultimate lap Talbot dropped Nicholson and U23 rider Mackenzie Coupland, who had initially jumped with Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon SRAM zondacrypto) came across to Nicholson with around ten kilometres to go and then went on to bridge to Talbot. The fresher under-23 rider – who has just moved up to the WorldTour squad from the development team – then went on alone.
Despite a WorldTour chase behind, Coupland held on for the win, crossing the line in disbelief, over thirty seconds ahead of Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Neve Bradbury, who would complete the podium.
The top three may have been a WorldTour lockout, but none of the rest of the top 10 were, with Nicholson and Sophie Edwards taking fourth and fifth for Butterfields Ziptrack Racing, and places six through 10 all going to Continental or club-level riders.
Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
