Glasgow-bound: Five-man Australian U23 team selected for Road Worlds

07 Jul 2023 | 02:00 PMBy: Australian Cycling Team

A five-strong U23 road team has been selected by AusCycling to represent Australia in the U23 men’s road events at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow this August.

Dylan Hopkins and Alastair MacKellar return to the U23 men’s road world championships team for the second time, with Hopkins a member of the Wollongong 2022 squad and Mackellar a member of the Flanders 2021 squad.

MacKellar started the year in winning fashion, storming to the U23 road race and time trial national championship double in January. The 21-year-old has been busy gaining another year of experience with Israel-Premier Tech’s development team this season and has raced with the ProTour squad on nine occasions.

Hopkins is enjoying a consistent season of results in his fourth year with Ljubljana Gusto Santic, including two top-15 stage finishes during the Tour of Slovenia in June.

Development Team DSM-Firmenich rider Patrick Eddy adds further European bunch experience to the team and like MacKellar has raced alongside his senior WorldTour teammates in 2023. The 20-year-old finished third on Stage 3 of the UCI 2.2 Flèche du Sud in May and powered to an impressive ninth in the ZLM Tour Prologue in June.

Completing the team is ARA Skip Capital duo Brady Gilmore and Hamish McKenzie, who both recently took part in the Giro Next Gen.

Gilmore, the Oceania U23 men’s time trial champion, has been one of the standout riders in the National Road Series over the past 18 months and finished second behind MacKellar in the U23 road race at Road Nationals.

McKenzie was one of the leading performers from the Australian team at last year’s world championships, winning a silver medal in the junior men’s time trial. The Tasmanian finished second behind teammate Gilmore in the Oceania U23 time trial and is the youngest of the quintet at 18 years old.

Gene Bates, AusCycling’s Head Coach of Endurance – Performance, said there was a great feeling around the potential of the selected squad.

“We are really proud of the group that has been brought together to race in Glasgow for the U23s this year,” Bates said.

“The U23 category is one of the most hotly contested races in the championships, and I’m sure this year will be no exception.

*Hamish McKenzie is stepping up as a first-year U23 after winning a silver medal in the junior men's time trial at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong. Picture: Con Chronis/Getty Images*

“Luke Roberts will be stepping in as the U23 sports director for Australia in Glasgow and we are looking forward to seeing what the group can achieve together.

“Australia has a rich history of some world-class U23 performances by riders who have subsequently gone on to successful professional careers, and we are hopeful that we will see a similar trajectory from this group.”

The Glasgow routes

This year’s U23 men's road race will tackle 168.4km and start in Loch Lomond, north of Glasgow, before making its way back into the city centre for seven 14.7km laps of the Glasgow circuit.

The 36.2km time trial will feature an uphill finish at Stirling Castle. Both events are part of the first multi-discipline UCI Cycling World Championships.

The team was chosen in accordance with AusCycling’s selection policies.