Australia successfully defended their Mixed Relay TTT world title at the UCI Road World Championships, beating France in a tense finish on the hilly 41.8km course in Kigali.
The Australian squad, who beat Germany by less than a second last year in Zurich, closed out their ride with a more decisive margin against the French team, but only just. The six-rider squad of Michael Matthews, Luke Plapp, Jay Vine, Brodie Chapman, Amanda Spratt, and Felicity Wilson-Haffenden completed their ride with a time of 54:30.47, taking the rainbow jerseys by just five seconds.
France (Bruno Armirail, Paul Seixas, Pavel Sivakov, Cédrine Kerbaol, Juliette Labous, and Maëva Squiban), who had held the hot seat for fewer than 10 minutes since their ride ended, took silver with a time of 54:35.71, while Switzerland (Jan Christen, Stefan Küng, and Mauro Schmid, followed by Jasmin Liechti, Marlen Reusser, and Noemi Rüegg) rounded out the podium with a time of 54:58.89.
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“I knew from the cobbled climb on that it was just going to be like hell, just push through and push through,” Spratt said after the finish. “Brodie was so strong in that last part, so I knew I had to hold the wheel and that it was going to be close. Matt White, our director, was screaming at us to sprint, sprint, sprint.
“We knew it was close, but it’s just so special. It was my first time doing the nation’s team time trial and it’s just incredible to pull it off with the team.”
Matthews said he and his teammates relished racing together in an event that brings together male and female cyclists in a rare set of circumstances.
“It’s not often we get a chance to ride with other Aussies like this in a full Aussie event, so I think we had full focus for this after we won last year.
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“Just being back with the team and mixing it with the girls in the last few days, and putting it together today was just the cherry on top of the cake.
“It was as perfect as we could. We only arrived a couple of days ago and only saw the course yesterday. We didn’t do any pace lining on it to really test it but we know the guys went top 10 in the individual time trial, the girls also had an amazing time trial team. So I just had to hang on the best I could with the ability I had in my legs and today it worked out.”
The three podium teams were among the final grouping of five teams of 15 on the day, with Switzerland kicking off the action. They were the quickest of the 11 teams to that point, with the men’s trio leading out and the three women finishing it off before a fast-starting Italy topped the leaderboards early in their run.
France were ahead of the Italians at the midway switchover, though Switzerland still topped the standings by over 20 seconds at that point. The French women finished stronger, however, to take over the hot seat with a time of 47.004kph.
Italy, fading from a provisional second behind Australia in the early stages to fourth at the line, and Germany, passed through both slower than France, leaving it up to Australia to put in the final challenge for the gold medals.
At the changeover, Australia led by 33 seconds, but France’s women put in the quickest women’s time of the day – 12 seconds quicker than anyone else and 28 seconds up on Australia – to run it all the way to the line.
In the end, it was the Australian squad who held on, narrowly beating France to take the glory for the second year in a row. Away from the podium, Italy took fourth place with a time of 55:45.03, while Germany rounded out the top five with a time of 56:04.05.
How it unfolded
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France on their ride(Image credit: SWPix.com)
Australia set off(Image credit: SWPix.com)
The French men at the start(Image credit: SWPix.com)
Brodie Chapman and Amanda Spratt finish it off(Image credit: SWPix.com)
The race was run in three groupings of five teams, each separated by around 40 minutes. Of the first grouping, it was China that completed the 41.8km course the quickest. The team was fastest at each of the five intermediate checkpoints along the route, eventually going quickest at the line with a time of 1:01:08.72.
They’d have the beating of Ethiopia by over a minute, at 1:02:22.60, while home nation Rwanda were on the early provisional podium with a time of f 1:03:08.97. Fellow African nations Benin and Uganda also took part in the first grouping.
The second grouping of teams included the UCI World Cycling Centre, Kim Le Court-Pienaar’s Mauritius, and the European nations of Ukraine, Spain, and Belgium.
Neither the World Cycling Centre, with a time of 1:03:34.14, nor Mauritius, with their 1:03:28.23, would end the Chinese riders’ time in the hot seats, but it wouldn’t be long before the European nations came through at the top of the timing sheets.
Ukraine followed Mauritius four minutes later to go top at the finish with a time of 1:00:33.83, but Spain – boasting WorldTour and Women’s WorldTour riders including Iván Romeo and Mireia Benito – swiftly became the first team to break the hour barrier.
The Spanish squad was, to that point, easily the quickest, covering the course at a speed of 45.473kph to post a time of 56:25.99.
The Belgians, who started out with Victor Campenaerts, Florian Vermeersch, and Jonathan Vervenne, slotted into the silver medal position as Marieke Meert, Tess Moerman, and Julie Van de Velde finished off their effort, crossing the line with a time of 58:50.14.
By then, the final grouping of nations – Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, and Australia – were already out on course and posting times quicker than Spain, Belgium and the early runners.
The Swiss team were quicker through the first half of the course, raced by the men, setting a halfway time of 25:23.40, 27 seconds up on Spain.
Their pace would be beaten by Australia and France, however, with the three nations forming the provisional podium in the first half of the course. Australia led at the halfway point with a time of 24:49.33, 33 seconds up on the French squad, who led Switzerland by a single second. Italy lay fourth, 13 seconds off the Swiss time.
Switzerland duly passed through checkpoints four, five, and the finish at the top of the standings, posting a time of 54:48.89 at the finish. Their time would last three minutes until France came through, with a time of 54:35.71 to go quickest.
Italy were next on the road, but the combined might of Mattia Cattaneo, Marco Frigo, Matteo Sobrero, Soraya Paladin, Monica Trinca Colonel, and Federica Venturelli could only slot into the bronze-medal position, 1:10 down on the French.
The penultimate team of Germany couldn’t impact the medal positions, finishing four places off their silver medals of 2024, leaving Australia to finish the day and deliver a tense finish for another set of gold medals.
Subscribe to Cyclingnews to unlock unlimited access to our coverage of the first-ever UCI Road World Championships on African soil. Our team of journalists will bring you all the major storylines, in-depth analysis, and more directly from the action in Rwanda as the next rainbow jerseys are decided.Find out more.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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