The chase for Australia’s nationwide titles on the Westbridge Funds Highway Nationwide Championships is opening up the summer season block of racing. Opponents from the WorldTour are coming again residence from Europe and lining up with the perfect of the home scene in Western Australia to see who will get the honour of sporting the inexperienced and gold striped jerseys of a title holder for the remainder of 2026.
The competitors opens with the time trials, the U23 males among the many opening acts as they got down to tackle the race in opposition to the clock on Wednesday January 7, with the U23 and elite girls’s and elite males’s time trials unfolding on Thursday January 8.
Then it’s onto the criteriums on the quick however technical Northbridge circuit on Friday January 9 when the climate is predicted to chill from its 30°C+ temperatures and there’s potential for rain. Saturday, with its cool summer season forecasts of temperatures within the low 20’s, is when the street races start to unfold, with the U23 males’s battle among the many schedule. Sunday is the ultimate day of competitors by means of Kings Park, with the prize of the U23 girls’s and elite girls’s title up for grabs in the midst of the day and the elite males race into the night to resolve the ultimate battle in Perth.
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Time Trials
Elite Girls
With the retirement of Olympic gold medallist and World Champion within the self-discipline Grace Brown in 2025, Brodie Chapman (UAE Crew ADQ) rapidly pulled on the elite girls’s time trial nationwide stripes. Now she has had one other 12 months of fine-tuning and delivering highly effective ends in the race in opposition to the clock – a person time trial fourth on the Highway World Championships and a successful effort as a part of Australia’s Blended Relay Crew Trial squad. Although, a rider who was her ally in Kigali is now one she has singled out as one among her best threats in Perth, with the 2023 Junior World Time Trial champion, Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Lidl-Trek), stepping up into the elite ranks this 12 months. The 2025 U23 champion Alli Anderson (Liv-AlUla-Jayco Continental) will even be shifting as much as the elite class and its by no means sensible to rule out Amber Pate (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), runner-up in final 12 months’s title chase and the one different rider within the area inside a minute of Chapman within the 29km race in opposition to the clock.
Elite Males
Similar to within the girls’s particular person time trial, there are two key favourites which might be exhausting to go previous, defending champion and three-time title winner Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) and 2023 victor Jay Vine (UAE Crew Emirates-XRG). Plapp final 12 months was eight seconds forward of Vine because the race performed out on the brand new 38.5km time trial course in Daring Park however Vine is trying to step it up this 12 months. He informed Cyclingnews late final 12 months when reflecting on 2025 that ‚I simply went into Australia a bit underdone, so I am making an attempt to repair that‘. With such a small margin between the highest two any enchancment from Vine might present a major problem, although Plapp has a fame of being the grasp of discovering January type given he has each three elite street and time trial titles to his title already at simply 25. So far as the decrease spots on the rostrum go, Kelland O’Brien (Jayco-AlUla) has hardly ever been off them, ending third within the elite time trial in three of his final 4 appearances, with a fourth being as far-off from the rostrum as he has been. The Australian group even have Ben O’Connor on the time trial begin record this 12 months. Nonetheless, a brand new potential podium challenger that might assist scale back the probabilities of Jayco-AlUla sweeping up so lots of the prime spots is rising with the looks of 2023 junior world time trial champion Oscar Chamberlain (Decathlon CMA CGM) on the beginning record.
U23 Males
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Within the U23 males Julian Baudry (Crew Brennan) was final 12 months’s shock street race winner in his first 12 months within the class after getting away early within the break however figuring out he will not be let get away simply this time, the main target has turned to the time trial in 2026. This was evident when he took third within the race in opposition to the clock on the Tour of Shiny in December as the primary of the U23 riders behind elite nationwide champion Plapp and his Jayco-AlUla teammate O’Brien. Nonetheless Baudry will even should deal with loads of rivals stepping up from the U19 class, together with those that claimed the rostrum spots within the junior division final 12 months, together with the 18-year-old Max Goold (NSN Improvement Crew), Lucas Stevenson (Crew Brennan) and Fletcher Medway (Ineos Grenadiers Racing Academy). It should even be attention-grabbing to see what a little bit of time with a time trial bike at Lidl-Trek Future could have finished for multi-discipline bike owner Jack Ward.
U23 Girls
Within the U23 girls the riders from the highest two steps of the rostrum in 2025, Anderson and Wilson-Haffenden, have shifted as much as the elites this 12 months leaving the native rider Sophia Sammons, who was final 12 months third, as a key rider to look at. The native, who final 12 months additionally took fifth within the mixed U23 and elite girls’s street race, can be comfortable if her favoured scorching situations stay at the very least till the race in opposition to the clock is completed. Sophie Marr additionally seems to have stepped it up a degree, coming third within the Tour of Shiny time trial, gained by Chapman. Then there’s additionally final 12 months’s fifth and sixth-placed riders Kiera Will and Mackenzie Coupland, who is that this 12 months stepping up from the event squad to the WorldTour group of Liv AlUla Jayco.
Highway Races
Elite Girls & U23
The Liv Alula Jayco AlUla assault on the mixed elite and beneath 23 girls’s street race on Sunday appears set to be the definition of overwhelming drive. Not solely does the squad have Australia’s solely Girls’s WorldTour group bringing a robust contingent to the beginning line but additionally the Continental improvement group, which is residence to the defending champion Lucinda Stewart who final 12 months swept up each the elite and U23 titles when she crossed the road first after discovering her approach into the lasting early break. Between the 2 squads they’ve 9 riders on the beginning record and that features the final two winners in Stewart and Ruby Roseman-Gannon. The 2024 winner appears like a rider who might effectively be a prime card on the course with punchy climbs ought to it come all the way down to a bunch battle and Georgia Baker could be a robust dash drive if she will be able to grasp in over the climbs on the entrance of the race. Nonetheless with so many choices for the group and so many ways that might unfold it is a lengthy record of choices throughout each the highest tier and improvement group to select from that additionally consists of Amber Pate together with Talia Appleton and Sophie Marr, who’re each eligible for the U23 title. Nonetheless, the Lidl-Trek trio of Amanda Spratt – a 3 time winner who’s retiring on the finish of the season – Felicity Wilson-Haffenden and Lauretta Hanson aren’t ones to concede defeat simply and there’s additionally the highly effective mixture of Neve Bradbury, Tiffany Cromwell and Emily Dixon – who can be eligible for the U23 title – from Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto. Quite a few home groups even have stable numbers, from Continental squad Meridian Bikebug to Butterfields Ziptrack and can be making an attempt to spice up a rider onto the rostrum. There are additionally some harmful lone rangers, together with two former winners, Brodie Chapman plus Nicole Frain (Issue Racing), who’s hoping to take advantage of her gravel type.
Elite Males
Jayco-AlUla have gained the elite males’s street race and dominated the rostrum as effectively within the final two editions, with a clear sweep of the steps led by Luke Plapp in 2024 and Luke Durbridge and Plapp claiming the highest two locations in 2025. The dangerous information for his or her rivals is that also they are pulling in one other trump card in 2026, with Ben O’Connor taking to the beginning line at his residence Nationwide Championships and making the already formidable group much more of a drive to be reckoned with as they head to the beginning line with six riders. They do not, nonetheless, have the entire edge in numbers as Crew Brennan – which this 12 months additionally has a robust addition within the type of Patrick Eddy – is lining up with seven and the group of final 12 months’s third-placed Liam Walsh, CCACHE x Bodywrap has the largest squad, with eight sturdy riders. There are additionally loads of different contenders who can be flying solo from Jay Vine (UAE Crew Emirates-XRG) who got here sixth within the street race final 12 months and is intent on delivering a stronger begin to the season this 12 months in Australia. A recovered Matthew Dinham (Picnic PostNL) will even be returning to the Australian nationwide title race for the primary time in three years whereas Sam Welsford can be lining up for brand spanking new group Ineos Grenadiers and hoping he can get an opportunity to dash for victory in entrance of residence crowds. The 2024 U23 street title winner and 2025 runner-up Fergus Browning will even be stepping up into the elite class, placing on show his new Terengganu Biking Crew colors. Then there’s the sturdy and skilled native rider Mark O’Brien, at all times a little bit of a wild card and harmful if he’s let get away, a reality confirmed by his inexperienced and gold gravel stripes and Melbourne to Warrnambool title.
U23 Males
Defending champion Julian Baudry could not be let slip away simply after final 12 months’s win however that does not imply he will not try to he additionally has a lot of different Crew Brennan teammates to chase the title. That features Levi Hone, who completed fourth final 12 months and proved his highly effective type in December when he took victory on the prime of Mount Buffalo on the Tour of Shiny. Will Heath, who completed seventh final 12 months, must be a robust contender for the 9 sturdy CCACHE x Bodywrap squad. Jackson Medway (Tudor Professional Biking U23 Crew) and his youthful brother Fletcher Medway (Ineos Grenadiers Racing Academy), who’s simply stepping out of the junior class, are additionally amongst these to keep watch over. Then there’s final 12 months’s junior street race winner Alex Hewes who can be becoming a member of forces with the 2025 junior time trial title winner Max Goold as they each take to the road for the NSN Improvement Crew. Jack Ward, who signed with Lidl-Trek Future mid 2025, has additionally added a substantial quantity of expertise since lining up final 12 months and taking ninth and the course might play effectively into his sturdy climbing means mixed with a surprisingly punchy end.
