In a first of its kind multi-discipline UCI Cycling World Championships, there are plenty of rainbow jerseys on offer in 2023 and Australia has a strong contingent of riders to chase them. They range from BMX Freestyle Olympic gold medalist Logan Martin, to Rebecca Henderson in the Mountain Bike XCO, the defending men’s Team Sprint champion’s on the track plus Michael Matthews, Grace Brown and Rohan Dennis to take on the road races and time trials.
Australia will compete in ten of the 13 World Championships being held from August 3 to 13 with 121 athletes, nine of whom are lining up in more than one discipline. There are 84 elite riders, 11 under 23 representatives and 26 juniors, with six defending world champions among them.
All, of course, will be wanting to put their best foot forward, as always when the rainbow bands are on offer, but the stakes are particularly high this year given for many it is also important to stake a claim for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
We take a closer look at just some of the riders from Australia who have potential to end up on the Worlds podium, or perhaps even with a rainbow jersey on their back.
Logan Martin - BMX Freestyle Park
- Top World Championships results - 1st in 2021, 2nd in 2019, 1st in 2017
- Event dates - Saturday August 5 to Monday August 7
Logan Martin has some experience in excelling when it comes to event firsts, winning the initial BMX Freestyle world title in 2017 and also in Tokyo with the very first Olympic gold medal was awarded in the event – perhaps he could also add a rainbow jersey at the first combined cycling championships in Glasgow to that list. The Gold Coast based rider is already the most successful men’s elite rider in the discipline across the five years that the event has had a World Championships, having taken two world titles and a silver medal.
The 29 year old’s consistent results this year have been encouraging, as he is sitting on top of the leaderboard in the UCI World Cup standings. Still it’s going to be a hard fought battle for the rainbows, with the Australian placing third in the latest round of the World Cup in Belgium last month behind France’s Anthony Jeanjean and 2022 world champion, Japan's Rim Nakamura.
Emily Petricola - Para-Cycling Track
- Top World Championships results - 1st in C4 Omnium, Scratch Race and Individual Pursuit 2022, 1st in C4 Omnium, Scratch Race and Individual Pursuit in 2020 1st C4 Individual Pursuit and road time trial in 2019
- Event dates - Wednesday August 3 to Tuesday August 8
Emily Petricola has been stepping up to the podium at World Championships since 2018, with the rider who has multiple sclerosis taking a silver and bronze that year before claiming her first world title in the C4 Individual Pursuit in 2019 and since then the titles have just kept coming. Petricola swept up the triple of the C4 Omnium, Scratch Race and Individual Pursuit in both 2020 and 2022.
No surprises then that she is considered a key rainbow prospect again this year when she takes to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. Petricola, who was in 2007 diagnosed with multiple sclerosis is also lining up as part of the Para-cycling road squad.
Elite Men's Sprint Team - Track
- Top World Championships result - 1st in elite men's Team Sprint in 2022
- Event date - Thursday August 3 to Friday August 4
In 2022 when the trio of Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer crossed the line at Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yveline to beat the powerful Dutch team to the world men's team sprint title they broke a ten-year drought. 2012 was when Australia had last claimed the rainbow bands in the event with a team that Glaetzer was also a part of alongside Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland..
They'll be hoping that the team of Hoffman, Richardson, Glaetzer and Thomas Cornish will now continue that roll. They have victory at the latest round of the Nation's Cup in Canada an encouraging sign although the Netherlands, among others, were absent from the start list.
Troy Brosnan - Mountain Bike Downhill
- Top World Championship results - 3rd men's elite in 2021, 2nd men's elite in 2019, 3rd men's elite in 2014, 1st junior men in 2011, 1st junior men in 2010
- Event dates - Thursday August 3 to Saturday August 5
Troy Brosnan has a powerful record at the World Championships, having taken an elite medal three times and twice worn the rainbow bands when he was a junior. The experienced Australian has also been on an upswing recently, taking fourth at the most recent round of the World Cup in Val di Sole.
Fort William, a regular venue on the World Cup circuit, provides the course for the title race where riders will take just a matter of minutes to power down the 2.8km rock strewn course with a drop of 550m. It is a location where Brosnan has tasted success before, winning the World Cup round there in 2014 and also placing second and third in Scotland in 2019 and 2018.
Michael Matthews - Elite Men's Road Race
- Top World Championships results - 3rd men's elite road race and mixed relay in 2022, 2nd in TTT (Sunweb) in 2018, 3rd in men's elite road race and 1st in TTT (Sunweb) in 2017, 3rd TTT (Orica-BikeExchange) in 2016, 2nd men's elite road race in 2015, 1st men's U23 road race in 2010
- Event date - Sunday August 6
Michael Matthews knows what it feels like to pull on the rainbow jersey, he did it on home soil when he won the men's U23 road race in 2010. Since then he's been determined to capture it again in the elite category: "It's a dream that I go to sleep and wake up every morning thinking about, that rainbow jersey," said Matthews in a video about his pursuit of the World Championships title. But every year since then he's also had people reminding them that no U23 men's winner has also captured the elite road race title. Matthews is determined to be the first.
Could this be the year that he can fulfil that career goal? After a flying finish to 2022, which included two trips to the podium at his home World Championships in Wollongong, he didn't have the start to 2023 that he had been hoping for but then a win on stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia seemed to breathe new life into the 32 year old. Not riding the Tour de France this year, Matthews turned his focus to a solid block of altitude training in Livigno for the run up to the World Championships, which is being held on a course that should play to his strengths. The rider who has visited every step of the elite men's road race podium at the Road World Championships except the top one will also be surrounded by a strong team for the 271.1km event with 3,570 metres of climbing, the longer ascents coming early before the race heads into a punchy, technical circuit. Still he will not be the only option for the team, which also includes sprinters Caleb Ewan and Kaden Groves plus the proven breakaway prowess of Simon Clarke and Australian champion Luke Plapp.
Rebecca Henderson - Mountain Bike XCO
- Top World Championships results - 3rd in elite women's MTB XCO in 2020 and also 3rd in 2019
- Event date - Women's elite MTB XCO Saturday August 12
Rebecca Henderson has already been on a World Championship podium twice, taking third in the cross-country mountain bike race in both 2019 and 2020, though since then she's also stepped up a level in the World Cups, finishing second overall in 2022. The 31 year old, who in February took her tenth Australian cross-country title in a row, hasn't so far in 2023 had a repeat of her stellar 2022 World Cup season but the year looks to be turning around at the perfect time.
At Val di Sole last month Henderson found her way back to the World Cup podium, coming third. It's a welcome return to the top of the results board, and a reminder that the rider who won four XCO World Cup rounds in a row last year shouldn't be discounted when it comes to the medal prospects at the World Championships.
Grace Brown - Elite Women's Time Trial
- Top World Championships results - 2nd elite women's time trial 2022
- Event date - time trial Thursday August 10, road race Sunday August 13
Grace Brown made sure she'd be on the favourites list for 2023 when she came fourth in the time trial at the Olympic Games in 2021 and then delivered second at the Wollongong Road World Championships in 2022. Add in a fourth at the final Tour de France Femmes time trial at Pau and Brown has made clear she is a rider to watch closely in the race against the clock. No Australian has ever won the elite women's time trial world title, though a number have been on the podium, including Kathy Watt in 1995, Anna Wilson in 1999, Katrin Garfoot in 2016 and 2017 and finally Brown in 2022. The silver medallist has set her focus squarely on doing everything she can to take make it one step up this year, taking a race break before the Tour de France Femmes to make sure she hasn't gone to deep by the time the World Championships arrive and also spending plenty of hours on the time trial bike in training over recent months.
Still, while there is no doubt the time trial is the top prospect, Brown shouldn't be counted out for the road race either. After all it was Katrin Garfoot who took silver for the nation at the Road World Championships in 2017 four days after securing bronze in the time trial. The road race is a far more unpredictable beast and includes some formidable rivals, including of course the always stacked Dutch team, but the punchy climbs of the technical finishing circuit suit Brown. Plus she has a strong team around her for support and also to reduce the pressure, as it offers a number of cards, including former silver medallist Amanda Spratt who showed she is well and truly back on track after a top ten overall at the Tour de France Femmes.
Rohan Dennis - Elite Men's Time Trial
- Top World Championships results, 1st men's elite TT in 2019, 1st men's elite TT and 3rd TTT (BMC) in 2018, 2nd TTT (BMC) in 2017, 2nd TTT (BMC) in 2016, 1st TTT (BMC) in 2015, 1st TTT (BMC) in 2014, 2nd men's U23 TT in 2012
- Event date - Friday August 11
This is the final Road World Championships for Rohan Dennis, with the 2018 and 2019 winner of the rainbow jersey set to retire at the end of the season. The last time Dennis lined up in the time trial at a Road World Championships was in 2020, when he came fifth, but while it may have been some years since the rider from Adelaide has chased the rainbow bands in that time he has brought home top results for Australia at other key events. Dennis took Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and bronze at the Olympic Games in 2021.
As far as the time trial results go this season the Jumbo Visma rider was on song at O Gran Camiño in February, when he came second to teammate Jonas Vingegaard. His Giro d'Italia results in the race against the clock, however, were nothing to write home about but he was there as a late call up to support Primož Roglič so his priority would not have been his own results given his task was to leave it all on the road in support of his teammate. The time trial at the Road World Championships, however, is an event that Dennis has outlined as a key target for his final year as a professional cyclist right from the beginning of the season. If his results at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games are anything to go by, it could be one heck of a farewell.
