WA’s Coupland claimed the world title in a close finish


Coupland also struggled at the finish but held on for the win by 32 seconds.

This is her first year as a WorldTour rider and she will compete in the National Champion jersey this season.

Teammate Ruby Roseman-Gannon, who won the criterium title on Friday night, edged Neve Bradbury (Canyon SRAM) into second place.

Katelyn Nicholson (Butterfields Ziptrack), who was on break with Talbot and Ruby Taylor (Team Redcat), finished off her strong run in fourth place.

In the men’s competition, Pat Eddy produced a massive boil to defy the might of Jayco AlUla to win the Australian Men’s Elite Road Championship.

Eddy held off Jayco AlUla star Luke Plapp at the finish to complete the 177km road race in Perth on Sunday.

Jayco AlUla will be kicking himself as defending champion Luke Durbridge was out front alone for most of the final three laps of the 13-lap race.

Eddy and teammate Brennan Oliver Bleddyn, a team pursuit gold medalist at the Paris Olympics, then took on Plapp and Jayco AlUla teammate Ben O’Connor in the final round.

Durbridge faded and was caught near the finish, leaving Eddy and Plapp to decide the championship.

In the men’s race, Durbridge attacked the front group at the start of the penultimate lap and had a lead of more than 40 seconds in the final 30km.

As the temperature reached 35 degrees on Sunday afternoon, the men stayed together for the first laps of their race.

Durbridge was prominent as the front group of 14 came out after 40km and quickly built up a lead of over four minutes.

O’Connor was also on the attack alongside Chris Harper (Pinarello Q36.5) and Sam Welsford (Ineos Grenadiers).

As the best sprinter in the front group, Welsford was the main danger to the plans of the other teams, but was dropped well before the finish line.

The front group and peloton broke apart in the heat as the non-break riders, notably time trial champion Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), increased the pace.

Plapp was also in the peloton, who surprisingly finished eighth in the time trial and worked his way to the front of the race.

Vine fell out of contention in the last three rounds.

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