Otago and Southland are well represented in a 29-strong New Zealand squad selected to contest the UCI World Championships in Glasgow next month.
The world championships will involve 13 cycling disciplines over 11 days of competition.
The New Zealand team is largely comprised of World Tour riders and European-based professionals.
Invercargill rider Corbin Strong has been selected in elite men’s road team, while fellow Southlander Tom Sexton will compete in the time trial.
There is an exciting young team named to contest the elite and under-23 combined women’s race. Wanaka riders Kim Cadzow and Mikayla Harvey and Dunedin’s Ella Harris will join under-23 road world champion Niamh Fisher-Black, Ella Wyllie and Ally Wollaston in a team of six riders.
There is plenty of experience and talent for a power-designed time trial headed by Commonwealth Games medallist Georgia Williams, the exciting Wyllie, who was sixth in the under-23 time trial last year, and Oceania champion Georgia Perry.
Logan Currie heads the under-23 men’s team, after finishing fourth in the time trial at Wollongong last year. He is joined by Jack Drage and Lewis Bower, who are both based in professional teams in Europe.
There are full squads in both junior lineups.
Carter Guichard (Wanaka) and Eli Tregidga (Queenstown) have been named in the junior men’s road team, while Wanaka’s Muireann Green will contest the junior women’s time trial.
The road cycling team will contest time trials on August 9-11 in the medieval town of Stirling, 43km from Glasgow, which was the historic site of the famous battle in the 13th century when William Wallace defeated the English.
The road courses all conclude with a 14km city circuit, like the course used for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, when Jack Bauer won the silver medal.
The junior women and men will race solely on the Glasgow circuit over five laps and nine laps respectively on August 5. The elite men’s race (271km) is the following day.
The men’s under-23 road race is on August 12 and the elite and under-23 women race on August 13.
New Zealand team
For UCI World Championship
Elite men (road): George Bennett, Patrick Bevin, Ryan Christensen, James Oram, Laurence Pithie, Corbin Strong.
Time trial: Finn Fisher-Black, Tom Sexton.
Elite & under-23 women (road): Kim Cadzow, Niamh Fisher-Black, Ella Harris, Mikayla Harvey, Ally Wollaston, Ella Wyllie.
Time trial: Georgia Perry, Georgia Williams, Wyllie.
Under-23 men (road): Lewis Bower, Logan Currie, Jack Drage.
Time trial: Currie
Junior men (road): Carter Guichard, Eli Tregidga, Finn Wilson.
Time trial: Noah Hollamby, Elliot Robertson.
Junior women (road): Maia Barclay, Bonnie Rattray, Georgia Simpson, Ruby Spring.
Time trial: Maia Barclay, Muireann Green.
