17/09/2024
BC Press Release 17 Sept 2024
Images SWPix.com
16 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC MEDALLISTS TO REPRESENT GREAT BRITAIN AT 2024 UCI ROAD AND PARA-CYCLING ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
British C*cling can today announce the 55 strong squad that will be representing Great Britain at the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland from 21-29 September 2024. Stars of the road including Tom Pidcock, Anna Henderson, Fin Graham and Sarah Storey will compete across a combined racing schedule, aiming for more success in the form of the rainbow stripes, to cap off a successful Olympic and Paralympic year. Young British talent including Joe Blackmore, Ben Wiggins and Cat Ferguson will also be on the hunt for a world title to add to their growing palmeres.
ROAD
Elite men
Heading up the elite men’s road team will be Tom Pidcock, following a jam-packed summer season which has included the defence of his Olympic MTB title, a bronze medal at the world championships and three top 10 finishes at the Lloyd’s Bank Tour of Britain Men (TOB). Pidcock will be joined by double stage winner and overall TOB Men winner, Stevie Williams.
Tour de Suisse winner Adam Yates and AlUla Tour winner and brother Simon Yates return to ride for Great Britain for the first time since the Toyko 2020 Olympic Games, while up-and-comer Oscar Onley will contest the rainbow jersey following on from two top five finishes at this year’s TOB Men. Mark Donovan, James Knox and Jake Stewart will also join this year’s team.
After narrowly missing out on an Olympic medal in the time-trial, national time-trial champion Josh Tarling will be back with the aim of upgrading his world championships bronze medal from 2023.
Elite women
The elite women’s team will be headed up by Anna Henderson, who after taking the Olympic time-trial silver medal in Paris, will be looking to get on the top step after a fourth-place finish in 2023. Double Olympic track medallist at this year’s Games Elinor Barker will join her for the elite road race, alongside Lizzie Holden and Claire Steels.
Also competing in the road race, for the under-23 women’s title will be Tour de Normandie Feminin stage winner Josie Nelson, and Alice Towers.
Under-23 men
Having recently become the first ever Brit to win the Tour de l’Avenir, Joe Blackmore will lead out the under-23 men’s team onto the undulating Swiss course, supported by Giro Next Generation stage-winner Matthew Brennan. Bob Donaldson, who took four top 10 finishes at the TOB Men, will join him.
Also having a successful TOB, taking three top 10 stage results, Louis Sutton will make his world championships debut. He will be joined by Callum Thornley who took the KOM jersey at the TOB and Oliver Stockwell to contest the under-23 title.
After taking the junior time-trial silver-medal in 2023, Ben Wiggins will be aiming high in his first year at under-23 level. He will be joined in the time-trial by Josh Charlton.
Junior men
Having taken overall wins at the Junior Tour of Wales and Junior Tour of Mendips this season, Seb Grindley will head up the junior men’s squad. National junior road race champion Oliver Dawson and Elliot Rowe will join him in the road race, representing Great Britain at a world championships for the first time. Fellow debutants, national junior time-trial champion Dylan Sage and silver medallist Fin Tarling will be contesting the time-trial world title.
Junior women
National junior road race champion and 2023 world championship silver medallist Cat Ferugson will be aiming for the top step in Zurich, contesting both the road race and time-trial titles. Also competing in the two events is national junior time-trial champion Imogen Wolff.
Double stage winner of Omloop van Borsele juniors Carys Lloyd will be a welcome addition to the road race squad, alongside world championships debutants Arabella Blackburn and Esther Wong.
PARA-CYCLING ROAD
Women
Fresh from winning incredible 18th and 19th Paralympic titles, Sarah Storey will head up the stellar squad of riders heading to Zurich aiming to get their hands on a coveted rainbow jersey. Storey will be joined in the C4-5 events by Morgan Newberry who has taken two time-trial bronze medals across this year’s world cup series.
The women’s C1-3 events will be well-represented for GB, with Paralympic time-trial silver medallists Fran Brown (C1) and Daphne Schrager (C2), who saw success in Paris on the track, both called-up. They will be joined by 2023’s C2 time-trial bronze medallist Amelia Cass and C1 time-trial bronze medallist Katie Toft.
Men
After securing an incredible gold medal win in the C1-3 Paralympic road race, reigning C3 road race champion Fin Graham will be looking to take back-to-back titles in Zurich. He will be joined by Paralympic track gold medallist Jaco van Gass and Ben Watson. All three will be contesting the C1-3 time-trial along with Matt Robertson, who will also compete in the separate C2 road race.
Paralympic silver medallist in the track pursuit, Archie Atkinson (C4) will race the C4-5 road race and time-trial events, as will reigning men’s C5 road race champion Will Bjergfelt.
In the hand-bikes and trikes classifications, Felix Barrow (T2) will aim to emulate the success of his time-trial bronze medal from Glasgow, while Callum Russell (H4) will make his world championship debut.
Alex Brooke-Turner (H4) was selected but has unfortunately withdrawn on personal grounds.
Tandems
Four-time Paralympic medallists Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl will be aiming to upgrade their road race bronze from last year, having just returned as Paralympic champions in the women’s tandem road race.
Lora Fachie piloted by Corrine Hall, and Lizzi Jordan piloted by Danni Khan, also had a successful Games, bringing back three bronze and one gold medal respectively and will also be competing in the road race and time-trial events.
Having taken the bronze medal in the men’s tandem time-trial at the Maniago world cup earlier in the year Chris McDonald piloted by Adam Duggleby will be the solo tandem bike competing.
Performance Director for the Great Britian C*cling Team, Stephen Park CBE said:
“As the Great Britain C*cling Team, we are coming off the back of a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic summer and are proud to be able to bring 16 medallists, eight of them gold winners, to compete in Zurich so soon after their success.
“It’s fantastic to see riders in such good form after a busy season, and motivated to defend titles or contest rainbow jerseys for the first time. For our younger riders, this is a fantastic opportunity to compete at world level alongside teammates they can look up to and learn from and I’m confident we’ll see some great successes from our future stars.
“We saw last year at the 2023 UCI C*cling World Championships in Glasgow, the benefits for riders, spectators and the sport as a whole that came from combining the Olympic and Paralympic track programmes, so to bring the road programmes together is something I am a huge advocate of.
“Day in, day out our programmes across all levels and all disciplines work collaboratively together, so to be able to continue this into competition and showcase all of our athletes on the same stage, is a truly fantastic opportunity.”
Great Britain C*cling Team squad for the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships:
ROAD
Elite men
Mark Donovan
James Knox
Tom Pidcock
Oscar Onley
Jake Stewart
Josh Tarling
Stevie Williams
Adam Yates
Simon Yates
Elite women
Elinor Barker
Anna Henderson
Lizzie Holden
Claire Steels
Under-23 men
Joe Blackmore
Matthew Brennan
Josh Charlton
Bob Donaldson
Oliver Stockwell
Louis Sutton
Callum Thornley
Ben Wiggins
Under-23 women
Josie Nelson
Alice Towers
Junior men
Oliver Dawson
Seb Grindley
Elliot Rowe
Dylan Sage
Fin Tarling
Junior women
Arabella Blackburn
Cat Ferguson
Carys Lloyd
Imogen Wolff
Esther Wong
PARA-CYCLING ROAD
Men
Archie Atkinson (C4)
Felix Barrow (T2)
Will Bjergfelt (C5)
Jaco van Gass (C3)
Fin Graham (C3)
Matt Robertson (C2)
Callum Russell (H4)
Ben Watson (C3)
Women
Fran Brown (C1)
Amelia Cass (C2)
Morgan Newberry (C5)
Daphne Schrager (C2)
Sarah Storey (C5)
Katie Toft (C1)
Tandems
Lora Fachie (piloted by Corrine Hall)
Lizzi Jordan (piloted by Danni Khan)
Chris McDonald (piloted by Adam Duggleby)
Sophie Unwin (piloted by Jenny Holl)
British C*cling
