AusCycling has named an ARA Australian Cycling Team squad of 18 to race in Perth, Western Australia from March 6\u20138 at the first UCI Track World Cup of 2026.<\/p>\n
Olympic team pursuit gold medallist Conor Leahy is one of four West Australian members in the squad set to race at the SpeedDome.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll compete alongside resurgent veteran Kristine Perkins, Perth product Sophie Watts, and newcomer Liliya Tatarinoff \u2212 recently moved from New South Wales \u2212 to make up a strong list of hometown heroes.<\/p>\n
Joining Leahy in the men\u2019s endurance squad are two of his fellow silver medallists from last year\u2019s UCI Track World Championships in the team pursuit: James Moriarty and Liam Walsh. Tasmanian Josh Duffy also returns to the line-up.<\/p>\n
Tom Cornish rounds out the quintet, one year after coming across from the sprint program. The Sydneysider\u2019s transition has been made in rapid time, as shown by an impressive Austral Wheelrace week in December and an Oceania scratch race title last week in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Claudia Marcks, Maeve Plouffe and Keira Will also collected Oceania titles a week ago, with all three involved in the winning team pursuit squad. They\u2019ll link up with Alyssa Polites and Felicity Wilson-Haffenden for Perth.<\/p>\n
Will was the standout bunch race performer for Australia at the Oceania Track Championships, winning titles in the scratch race and points race.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s sprint unit will be spearheaded by Leigh Hoffman, who took his individual racing to a new level at the most recent World Championships, winning three medals. The South Australian was in assertive form during Oceanias, winning the sprint and keirin.<\/p>\n
Starter Ryan Elliott will continue his duties out of the gate, as will Danny Barber at the rear of the team sprint train and young talent Tayte Ryan will race at his first Track World Cup.<\/p>\n
Alessia McCaig raced to a confidence-building win in the Oceania keirin title, beating two-time Olympic gold medallist Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand). The 22-year-old will be aiming for more success in Perth as the women\u2019s sprint lynchpin alongside Perkins, Tatarinoff and Watts.<\/p>\n
Endurance Men
\u2022 Tom Cornish (Southern Cross Cycling Club\/NSW)
\u2022 Josh Duffy (Launceston City CC\/TAS)
\u2022 Conor Leahy (Peel District Cycling Club\/WA)
\u2022 James Moriarty (Balmoral Cycling Club\/QLD)
\u2022 Liam Walsh (Balmoral Cycling Club\/QLD)<\/p>\n
Endurance Women
\u2022 Claudia Marcks (Canberra Cycling Club\/ACT)
\u2022 Maeve Plouffe (Port Adelaide Cycling Club\/SA)
\u2022 Alyssa Polites (Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club\/VIC)
\u2022 Keira Will (Lidcombe Auburn Cycling Club\/NSW)
\u2022 Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Hobart Wheelers Dirt Devils Cycling Club\/TAS)<\/p>\n
Sprint Men
\u2022 Danny Barber (Dubbo Cycling Club\/NSW)
\u2022 Ryan Elliott (Balmoral Cycling Club\/QLD)
\u2022 Leigh Hoffman (Whyalla Cycling Club\/SA)
\u2022 Tayte Ryan (Port Adelaide Cycling Club\/SA)<\/p>\n
Sprint Women
\u2022 Alessia McCaig (Bendigo and District Cycling Club\/VIC)
\u2022 Kristine Perkins (Track Cycling WA\/WA)
\u2022 Liliya Tatarinoff (Track Cycling WA\/WA)
\u2022 Sophie Watts (Balmoral Cycling Club\/QLD)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AusCycling has named an ARA Australian Cycling Team squad of 18 to race in Perth, Western Australia from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-499774","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\/499774","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=499774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}