{"id":768154,"date":"2026-06-29T04:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/768154\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:46:22","slug":"ara-australian-cycling-team-junior-xco-squad-selected-for-2026-uci-mtb-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/768154\/","title":{"rendered":"ARA Australian Cycling Team junior XCO squad selected for 2026 UCI MTB World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A\u00a0promising\u00a0squad of four junior cross-country Olympic (XCO) athletes will represent the ARA Australian Cycling Team at the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Italy. <\/p>\n<p>The team,\u00a0selected\u00a0by\u00a0the AusCycling National Selection Panel,\u00a0features\u00a0two\u00a0men and\u00a0two women who will don the green and gold\u00a0in Val\u00a0di Sole\u00a0from August 26\u221230.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Western Australia\u2019s Connor Wright returns to the team,\u00a0lining up for his second UCI MTB\u00a0\u00a0World Championships\u00a0off the back\u00a0of\u00a0excellent results in Europe\u00a0including\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/australiancyclingteam.com\/news\/connor-wrights-european-purple-patch-continues-with-fourth-straight-win\">four straight wins in the UCI XCO Junior Series<\/a>, capped off with\u00a0the XCC\u00a0and XCO wins at\u00a0Nov\u00e9\u00a0M\u011bsto\u00a0na\u00a0Morav\u011b\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Earlier in the year, Wright dominated\u00a0the\u00a0domestic\u00a0season\u00a0with\u00a0back-to-back\u00a0titles at\u00a0the GWM MTB National\u00a0Championships,\u00a0as well as the Oceania XCO title.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Joining him will be Oliver Grande and Alana Fletcher,\u00a0who\u00a0won the junior crowns in the\u00a02026 AusCycling XCO National Series.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Grande and Fletcher both represented Australia at the\u00a0UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships earlier this year, but August&#8217;s event will mark their debut at this level of mountain biking. <\/p>\n<p>Rounding out the squad is\u00a0fellow\u00a0debutant\u00a0Freya Buckmaster, who will head to Italy as the reigning\u00a0junior women\u2019s XCO\u00a0national\u00a0champion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>AusCycling\u2019s\u00a0National MTB XCO coach Rob Holmgren said:\u00a0&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t be more excited to announce this squad heading to Val di Sole. Connor has shown he belongs at the front of international fields:\u00a0back-to-back wins at\u00a0Nov\u00e9\u00a0M\u011bsto\u00a0and back-to-back national titles is no accident, and I expect him to be right in the mix come race day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what really excites me about this group is the depth. Oliver and Alana have both proven themselves as the best junior XCO athletes in the country this season, and the fact that\u00a0they&#8217;ve\u00a0already had World Championships experience on the cyclo-cross circuit means they\u00a0won&#8217;t\u00a0be arriving in Italy wide-eyed. They know what it takes to compete on the world stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFreya arrives as national champion, and she has all the tools to make a real impression on debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is exactly the kind of squad that builds a program. These four athletes are going to learn, compete hard, and come home better\u00a0\u2212\u00a0and that investment will pay dividends for Australian mountain biking for years to come. I can&#8217;t wait to watch them race.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The junior cross-country competition for the 2026 UCI MTB World Championships is scheduled\u00a0for August 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ARA Australian Cycling Team Junior XCO squad for the 2026 UCI MTB World Championships\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Men\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Oliver Grande (Canberra Off-Road Cyclists, ACT)\u00a0Connor Wright (Ferguson Valley MTB Club, WA)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Women\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Freya Buckmaster (Shredding Betties,\u00a0TAS)Alana Fletcher (Bendigo Mountain Bike Club,\u00a0VIC)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0promising\u00a0squad of four junior cross-country Olympic (XCO) athletes will represent the ARA Australian Cycling Team at the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-768154","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\/768154","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=768154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}