‘A bit unique’ – Australian elite men’s squad eyes golden opportunities on demanding World Championships course

Australia may be one of the less high-profile teams for the elite men’s events in the upcoming UCI Road World Championships – but as became very evident once again last year, their rivals rule them out at their peril, while the squad themselves are confident of an optimum performance.

Last year, Australia enjoyed an excellent Road World Championships, securing silver with Neve Bradbury in the women’s U23 road race category, gold in the mixed team time trial event, and again in the elite women’s time trial with Grace Brown. Ben O’Connor rounded out the week with a notably surprising silver medal in the elite men’s road race.

While the West Australian has a much more uneven track record in one-day racing than in multi-day events, he came through strongly in the raggedly fought late battle to stand next to winner Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) on the podium.

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O’Connor is not taking part in this year’s race “for various reasons”, as he told Cyclingnews during the Vuelta a España, but Australia are nonetheless fielding a well-rounded eight-man elite squad both for the time trial – where Luke Plapp and Jay Vine will be gunning for top results – as well as the road race.

“We’re an under-the-radar team, if I’m honest, but it’s just like in the Worlds last year, where we had a really strong team and we got a guy on the podium at the end,” Jai Hindley told reporters whilst en route to fourth overall in the recent Vuelta a España.

“So that was not too bad for little old Oz, eh?

“I think we have a really great team, with some guys who are really in form,” continued Hindley, who is slated as a likely co-leader for the elite men’s event where he took 18th last year.

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“Hopefully I can come out of the Vuelta in pretty good nick, and it’s always special to race for the Aussie team, when you get the opportunity. This year, the Worlds on paper is a super-hard course, and I think it’ll be a pretty interesting one.”

The Rwanda elite men’s course itself, with 5,475 metres of vertical climbing, will make for an exceptional event, Callum Scotson, also part of the Australian lineup, told Cyclingnews during the Vuelta.

“For me at least, it’s a bit unique, normally when there are so many climbing metres, you think more about a mountain stage,” added Scotson, making his debut in the elite men’s squad.

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“It’s certainly tougher than a usual World Championships, and that’s where it’s a little bit of an unknown, particularly coming so late in the season.

“It’s interesting, because no one really knows how it can pan out, with so many climbing metres, some cobbles… everyone will be interested in what the course is really like.”

The benefits of three weeks of hard racing in the Vuelta are something Scotson, for one, hoped he would feel.

“Sometimes coming off the Vuelta can be a great thing when you’ve got those tough legs,” as he put it, whilst the effect of the high altitude at Kigali will also play a part, Scotson said.

“I think everyone going for the Worlds will have done something at altitude, whether it’s immediately before that,” – with Plapp, who has done through August training specifically at the same altitude in the Pyrenees as the Rwanda course – “or even if you’re doing the Vuelta, directly before that, so they’ll have the benefits of that. But the altitude in itself will only make the racing harder.

“I don’t know who Australia is thinking of as their leader for the road race, but I imagine there are maybe three or so guys who can play their cards, and at least here on the Vuelta, we’ve seen that Jay Vine and Jai Hindley are in great form. There could be one or two others, too, who could turn up and are ready to fight for a result.”

Scotson himself is simply pleased to be there after missing out last year due to sickness, and with a fifth in the U23 Time Trial in the 2017 Elite World Championships as his best personal performance.

“It would have been my first time in the elite, so it’s nice to be selected again, and I’m really looking forward to it. We have quite a strong team, a lot of strong climbers, and you can see that already here,” he said, during the Vuelta.

“So I’m looking forward to going there and just supporting whoever my leaders are, do whatever I can in the early and middle part of the race.”

He agreed with Hindley, too, that Australia were fielding a powerful squad, and that while there were some top standout favourites, ‘under-the-radar’ squads can always impact in a race as unpredictable as the World Championships.

“With what Ben O’Connor did last year, it just shows – he also wasn’t a favourite to make the podium but anything can happen if you arrive with good form.

“This late in the season, you really never know. And I just want to try to assist those guys with whatever they need to get there.”

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