Australia announces top-13 for World Championships as Rory Sutherland will debut in National team
A list of 13 riders to represent Australia in the World Championships have been released and that includes, Simon Gerrans, Baden Cooke, Matt Goss, Heinrich Haussler, Adam Hansen, Mathew Hayman, Michael Matthews, Leigh Howard, Robbie McEwen, Mark Renshaw,
Stuart O’ Grady, CJ Sutton and Sutherland. The list will be further reduced to 9 cyclists who will be participating in the 266 kilometre road race.
Stalwart Michael who is suffering from viral infection and had a quite season failed to make his way to the top thirteen as Rory Sutherland has managed to impress the selectors and is ready to make his first appearance in the Australian Champion team since
2000.
Unavailability of the 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans is a huge disappointment for the team Australia and the 34-year-old could have played a vital role for the team as Director Kevin Tabotta mentioned, “Cadel has proven he is a real competitor even
on courses that might not appear to suit him so well.”
He further added that Cadel had a busy year as he is already planning for Grand Tours next year and team’s management fully understands and supports his decision as they have high hopes from the cyclist in the coming seasons.
Two cyclists from each country will participate in the 46.6 kilometre time trials. Three names have already been forwarded that includes Cameron Meyer, Jack Bobridge and Richie Porte and it is only the matter of time to see which two manages to impress the
selectors to race for Australia in the time trials event.
Australia will have plenty of options for under 23 category as well, the list includes Michael Matthews, Alexander Carver, Rohan Dennis, Nick Aitken, Luke Durbridge, Australian road champion Ben Dyball, Jay McCarthy, Thomas Palmer, Malcolm Rudolph, Michael
Freiberg, Patrick Lane, Richard Lang, Joseph Lewis.
The Oceana champion Lang has already been selected for the Under-23 category as five more from the list above will make their way to the team of 6.
Kevin Tabotta believes that the long line up for the UCI Road World Championships starting next month will give more options to the selectors as they will be in a better position to select the final cyclists for the race.
Kevin stated that, “A course like Copenhagen comes around every five years or so and is an opportunity for nations to select riders suited to a fast bunch finish.” He added that teams shall also be ready for other situations and a wider range for selector
s is only going to help the team as he believed that a lot of things can go unplanned during a race and achieving the desired results at any event is not as easy as it seems.
It will be interesting to see if other teams also came up with a long line up like team Australia for the UCI World Championships starting September 19.
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