Australia retain world mixed relay road title after tense finish

KIGALI, Rwanda – Australia retained their title in the mixed team relay at the UCI Road World Championships, as they stormed to victory over two circuits of a hilly 20.9 km course in Kigali on Sept 24.

After their male teammates Luke Plapp, Michael Matthews and Jay Vine went quickest on the first lap, the women Felicity Wilson-Haffenden, Amanda Spratt and Brodie Chapman finished it off, with the latter two riders hanging on up the final cobbled climb to claim victory.

They stopped the clock for a combined Australian time of 54:30.47 – 5.24 seconds quicker than France.

Switzerland, who had women’s individual time trial world champion Marlen Reusser in their ranks, were 10 seconds back in the bronze-medal position.

“It’s not often we get the chance to ride with a full Aussie team,” said top men’s rider Matthews.

“We only arrived a couple of days ago and we didn’t ride out there on the roads until yesterday,” he said, explaining they had arrived for the elite road races that will be contested at the weekend.

“Today it all came good,” beamed Matthews, known in the team as ‘Bling’ due to a penchant for diamond earrings.

The women were dragged gasping from their bikes after a ride at altitude and with high humidity.

“I knew it was going to be like hell, Brody was strong and I held her wheel. I could hear them (the men) screaming ‘sprint, sprint sprint’ coming to the close,” said Spratt.

Combining men and women the event was created in 2020 with three male riders completing a lap and the women going down the starters ramp when the men finish theirs.

There were 16 nations riding with five of them from Africa – Benin, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda and Uganda. REUTERS, AFP