{"id":168658,"date":"2025-09-25T15:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168658\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:50:13","slug":"talia-appleton-secures-top-10-in-under-23-womens-road-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168658\/","title":{"rendered":"Talia Appleton secures top 10 in Under-23 Women\u2019s Road Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Talia Appleton has led home the ARA Australian Cycling Team at the UCI World Championships today, finishing ninth in the under-23 women\u2019s road race.<\/p>\n<p>The first standalone edition of the under-23 women\u2019s event was held over eight laps of a hilly Kigali circuit, totalling 119 kilometres.<\/p>\n<p>The course was defined by two steep climbs, principally the 1.3-kilometre Cote de Kimihurura, a cobbled ascent with gradients of up to 11% that nominally peaked with 1km to go, but continued to rise all the way to the finish line.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"2025 UCI Road World Championships - Kigali Convention Centre, Kigali, Rwanda - Women Under-23 Road Race - Felicity Wilson-Haffenden, Mackenzie Coupland, Alli Anderson and Talia Appleton (Australia) at the team presentation\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CA2_7281.jpg\" width=\"2400\"\/><\/p>\n<p>(L-R) Wilson-Haffenden, Coupland, Anderson and Appleton represented Australia in the historic race. (Chris Auld \/ SWpix.com)<\/p>\n<p>The attritional race saw just 10 of the 85 starters, including Appleton, reach the foot of the final climb together.<\/p>\n<p>Until that point, the Victorian, from Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club, had ridden without error, keeping herself near the front of the peloton at every moment. She had even driven the pace on the second-last ascent of the climb, helping to whittle the race down.<\/p>\n<p>On the final climb, however, French rider Marion Bunel attacked, dragging clear two other riders who would ultimately sprint for the win.<\/p>\n<p>Appleton could not match the acceleration, but held her tempo up the steep stopes to secure a top-10 result for Australia.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"2025 UCI Road World Championships - Kigali Convention Centre, Kigali, Rwanda - Women Under-23 Road Race - Talia Appleton (Australia) after the race\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CA1_0439.jpg\" width=\"2400\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Appleton emptied herself on the final climb to secure the top-10 result. (Chris Auld \/ SWpix.com)<\/p>\n<p>For the ARA Australian Cycling Team, it was a race of grit and tenacity.<\/p>\n<p>Mackenzie Coupland recovered from no fewer than three mechanical incidents \u2013 eventually finishing on a Shimano neutral spare bike \u2013 to finish just behind the next main group.<\/p>\n<p>Felicity Wilson-Haffenden, fresh from becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/australiancyclingteam.com\/news\/mixed-relay-ttt-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">world champion in the mixed relay time trial<\/a>, supported her Australian teammates in the first half of the race.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"2025 UCI Road World Championships - Kigali Convention Centre, Kigali, Rwanda - Women Under-23 Road Race - Mackenzie Coupland (Australia)\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AW7_9926.jpg\" width=\"2400\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Coupland chased back to the peloton on no less than three occasions after mechanical problems. (Alex Whitehead \/ SWpix.com)<\/p>\n<p>Alli Anderson was forced to withdraw after doggedly fighting her way back to the peloton numerous times between climbs.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 UCI Road World Championships continue tomorrow with road races for the junior men and under-23 men.<\/p>\n<p>Results \u2013 Under-23 Women Road Race<\/p>\n<p>\ud83e\udd47 Celia Gery (FRA) 3:24:26<br \/>\ud83e\udd48 Viktoria Chladonova (SVK) +2<br \/>\ud83e\udd49 Paula Blasi Cairol (ESP) +12<br \/>9. Talia Appleton (AUS) +31<br \/>22. Mackenzie Coupland (AUS) +2:40<br \/>33. Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (AUS) +12:01<br \/>DNF. Alli Anderson (AUS)<\/p>\n<p>Feature photo: Alex Whitehead \/ SWpix.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talia Appleton has led home the ARA Australian Cycling Team at the UCI World Championships today, finishing ninth&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-168658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}