WA Cyclists Tackle Road World Champs in Austria

Western Australian cyclists competed across junior, U23 and elite men’s levels at the recent UCI Road World Championships in Austria.

Robert Power was a member of the Australian men’s elite road race team, Jai Hindley and Michael Storer contested the U23 men’s road race, whilst Tyler Lindorff lined up for the junior road race.

The men’s elite road race was a brutal 258.5km course that included nine climbs. Unsurprisingly, the tough layout caused havoc, with only 76 riders managing to complete the assignment.

Robert Power was one of those to complete the course, but with the 23 year-old riding support and Australia’s team struggling to make an impact near the front, he would eventually cross the line in 70^th position 14 minutes and 23 second behind race winner and new world champion Alejandro Valverde of Spain.

The experienced Spaniard led home Frenchman Romain Bardet and Canada’s Michael Woods. Jack Haigh was best of the Australians, finishing in 19^th overall.

Jai Hindley produced a strong effort in the men’s U23 road race to take 11^th place overall. The U23 race tasked riders with a 179.9km assignment which was impressively won by Swiss rider Marc Hirschi – after a successful solo breakaway.

Hindley was part of a six man group that came home just 47 seconds behind the world champion. Michael Storer was further back in 52^nd place.

There was disappointment for youngster Tyler Lindorff – who was riding in his first world championships – with the 18 year-old crashing in the junior road race and withdrawing through injury.

The race was won by a future star of the sport in Remco Evenpoel – who completed a double after also winning the men’s junior time trial.

The Belgian suffered a fall shortly before a climb, but jumped back on and steamrolled his way to a commanding race victory, bridging a near two-minute deficit before eventually winning by a margin of more than a minute and 20 seconds from second place.