Porte and Spratt headline Australia team for World Championships
(Cyclingnews.com)

With the 2018 UCI Road World Championships still more than a month away, Australia have announced their line-ups for Innsbruck. Richie Porte and Amanda Spratt headline the men`s and women`s road race events, while Rohan Dennis has been confirmed to contest the men`s time trial. Ranked eighth and second in the men`s and women`s categories respectively, Australia have qualified for the full quota of riders. In line with the reduction of team sizes throughout the sport, the maximum number of riders for the men`s teams will be eight, while that for the women`s teams remains at seven. `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,` said technical director Brad McGee. `We started this process thinking about how to win these races. Then we worked back from that endpoint and considered which riders had the capabilities to deliver on that strategy.`ADVERTISEMENT Following a broken collarbone sustained in a crash during the opening week of the Tour de France, Porte named the World Championships as his primary goal for 2018. He will ride the forthcoming Vuelta a España in order to get himself match-fit for the Worlds, which begin on September 23. The team to support him is a mixture of climbers and powerful riders for the flats. In the engine room will be Rory Sutherland (UAE Team Emirates) and Damien Howson (Mitchelton-Scott). For the climbs, Porte has trade teammate Dennis along with Simon Clarke (EF Education First-Drapac), Jack Haig and Robert Power (Mitchelton-Scott) and Chris Hamilton (Team Sunweb). Spratt goes into the women`s road race as a major favourite following a strong season in which she has taken her second straight Santos Women`s Tour and won the Emakumeen Bira. She also took third place at the Giro Rosa and claimed podium finishes at Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Australia for 2018 UCI Road World Championships You can read more at C ...