Power Selected for Road World Champs

Western Australian Robert Power has earned selection for the eight-strong Australian men’s road race team at this year’s UCI World Road Championships in Innsbruck, Austria.

Power will make his first appearance at senior world championship level and joins a men’s road race squad boasting big names such as Richie Porte, Simon Clarke and Rohan Dennis.

His selection follows on from his recent maiden pro win at the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia in Spain, in what is proving to be a breakout season for the 23 year-old.

He missed a large chunk of 2016 after being diagnosed with bone marrow edema, which stems from excess fluid in the bone marrow, causing swelling. 

Meanwhile, Western Australia will also be represented in the U23 men’s road race by first year pros Jai Hindley and Michael Storer.

It means the state will have male riders at each level, following the announcement of Tyler Lindorff in the U19 road race last May.

The road titles will commence on September 23 with Australian Technical Director Brad McGee explaining the thinking behind a strategy to select squads in support of an individual podium prospect.

“We know the course is going to be super tough and feel confident we have the right mix of talent and purpose for this event.

“We started this process thinking about how to win these races. Then we worked back from that end point and considered which riders had the capabilities to deliver on that strategy.

“At the Commonwealth Games we worked in a very similar manner and produced gold medals in both road events. We’re taking the same approach to these World Championships and hope to produce a similar result.”

For Australian Cycling Team Performance Director Simon Jones, the key to success at Innsbruck in 2018 will be executing on the defined strategy.

“From the moment the course was released, we have been thinking about how to best perform this year. The team has developed the best possible strategy and the selections were made to support the key objective of maximizing the chances of winning.

“From a selection process perspective, we have moved to an earlier selection timeframe to give all athletes time to prepare and think about their roles and where applicable do specific work,” Jones said.