GreenEDGE Cycling duo Michael Matthews and Ruby Roseman-Gannon powered to gold in the Mixed Relay World Championships as Australia took a thrilling victory in Zurich.
The six-rider team claimed the win by less than a second ahead of Germany in a nail-biting finale to the 53.7km relay race. Matthews, alongside future teammate Ben O’Connor, had earlier helped the team set the fastest time in the opening leg before handing over to Roseman-Gannon and the women for their turn on the challenging and twisting course.
A strong performance saw Germany edge their way back into contention as the gap between the two teams continued to fall throughout the final leg. However, a final surge from former GreenEDGE Cycling rider and recently crowned Word Time Trial Champion Grace Brown in last kilometre was enough to secure a gripping win by the narrowest of margins.
The gold medal is the second medal for Matthews in the Mixed Relay event after taking the bronze medal on home soil back in 2022, while the victory is the first visit to the podium at a World Championships for Roseman-Gannon.
Michael Matthews:
“It was a hard one! I think Jay [Vine] put me to the sword straight away on that first climb, I think we average 650 watts from bottom to top, so it was a hard day. There wasn’t much recovery out there, so we really had to try and stick together as a team as much as possible and just keep that speed as high as possible.
I think we came through with the fastest time and we were quite confident from there, we knew we had a really good and strong women’s team to finish it off. I won this event when it was trade teams, but this is the first time I’ve had this experience to win this event now. We came in confident, let’s say, but you never know until you cross the finish line.
To win this, here now, I think we’re still in a bit of shock at the moment, but once it sinks in that we’re world champions in the mixed relay we can enjoy it much more.”
2024 World Championships – Mixed Relay TTT Results:
1. Australia 1:12:52
2. Germany +0:01
3. Italy +0:08
Photo: Sprint Cycling
