Nicola Rutzou
The World Championships wrapped up last week in Zurich, Switzerland with what many commentators are describing as Australia’s best performance at a road world champs ever.
It began with Grace Brown’s stunning performance in the Elite Individual Time Trial to take gold, adding to her Olympic Games gold from the Paris Games.
Grace then went on to win a second gold in the Team Time Trial Mixed Relay event alongside fellow Aussies Brodie Chapman, Ruby Roseman-Gannon, Michael Matthews, Ben O’Connor and Jay Vine. The event is a relay event where the three male riders complete the course and when the second of those riders crosses the line, the women’s team goes out.
These fantastic results no doubt inspired two silver medals. In the Under 23 Women’s road race (run in conjunction with the Elite Women’s Road Race), Neve Bradbury took silver, as well as 15th overall. This caps off Bradbury’s breakthrough season where she also took stage wins, GC podiums, and young rider’s jerseys from the Giro d’Italia and Tour de Suisse, and the under-23 Australian title.
Ben O’Connor capped off his great year with silver in the Elite Men’s Road Race, behind the unbeatable Tadej Pogačar. O’Connor was also the runner-up in this year’s Vuelta a España. He is in good company with his silver medal and joins fellow Aussies Michael Matthews, Simon Gerrans, Matthew Goss and Robbie McEwen as silver medallists of the road race.
In the Para-cycling World Championships that run concurrently, Australian Lauren Parker won silver in the Women’s H3 Individual Time Trial. This adds to her success at the Paralympics in Paris where she won gold in the road race and silver in the individual time trial. Fellow Aussie Alana Foster was awarded the bronze medal in the C5 Road Race.
