The Australian Cycling Federation has announced the selection for the upcoming World Championships in Rwanda. The team features several changes: the women’s squad will be without outgoing world champion Grace Brown, and the men’s squad surprisingly won’t include Ben O’Connor, last year’s silver medalist. O’Connor has opted for a different race program. Michael Matthews, however, makes the cut, despite not having raced since suffering a pulmonary embolism in June.The Australian team is forced to shift gears. “Ben told us early in the season that fitting the Worlds into his schedule would be difficult,” said head coach Conor Taylor in a press release. “His goal was to ride both the Tour and the Vuelta, which requires a specific build-up and recovery.” As a result, Jai Hindley will lead the charge. “He’s hungry to represent Australia after his major setback earlier this year with his crash in the Giro.”With Hindley as team leader, Australia hopes to make a strong showing. “He was already a key rider for us last year. When he saw this year’s course, he was incredibly motivated to race in Rwanda. We believe we’ve built a solid team around him.” The other Australians at the start are Michael Storer (Tudor), Chris Hamilton (Picnic PostNL), Callum Scotson (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates – XRG), Chris Harper, Luke Plapp and Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla).
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Michael Matthews will start at the World Championships in Rwanda.
Matthews in, Gigante (injured) outMichael Matthews is a notable inclusion in Australia’s squad for the World Championships in Rwanda. The 34-year-old all-rounder suffered a pulmonary embolism in June, which forced him to skip both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. He hasn’t raced since May, but the team expects him to be ready for Rwanda. Matthews is also set to compete in the Mixed Relay, alongside Luke Plapp and Jay Vine, while Plapp and Vine will take on the individual time trial.
On the women’s side, Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ), Lauretta Hanson, and Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) will spearhead the campaign to defend the team’s world title from Zurich. Chapman is also scheduled to race the individual time trial. They’ll be joined in the road race by Neve Bradbury (CANYON//SRAM), Alexandra Manly (AG Insurance – Soudal), and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco), who finished sixth last year.
Originally, Sarah Gigante was expected to be one of the team’s leaders, but a broken femur sustained during training has ruled her out of the event. She’ll now have to support the team from the sidelines.