Four Australian riders have been crowned world champions on a memorable day for the ARA Australian Cycling Team at the 2025 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Belgium.
After Lauren Parker’s impressive H3 world title the previous day, the Australian team dominated the C-class time trials in Ronse, picking up a whopping six-medal haul: four gold, one silver and a bronze.
Alana Forster led the Aussie charge in the C5 category, hunting for her first rainbow jersey on the road.
On what was possibly the ride of her life, she had a 20-second gap over her nearest rival at the first time check and continued to extend that margin over the 23.2-kilometre race, negotiating the tricky wet and slick conditions.
She made no doubt that she is the fastest in the world in the category, finishing with a huge one minute and 55 second gap to second-place.
Her win set the tone for the rest of the day.
Tara Neyland had a dream debut in the green and gold for Australia, catapulting to the top of the world in the C4 category.
It was a tight battle for the podium positions, but Neyland held onto a 13-second lead to take her maiden rainbow jersey, with fellow Aussie Meg Lemon winning bronze 27 seconds behind.
“It’s an absolute honour and a privilege to wear the green and gold for the first time, bringing home the rainbow jersey is a dream come true and I’m just really proud of myself,” the 31-year-old from Victoria said.
“I channelled our golden girl Grace Brown and kept telling myself ‘you can be world champ’ especially when I was really hurting in that last lap. I didn’t have a radio (by choice) or a follow car. I really tried to race my own race and challenge my mindset when doubt creeped in.
“I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who has helped me to get here.”
Joining Neyland in also winning a maiden world title was Tahlia Clayton-Goodie who powered to victory in the C1 time trial, with a 5-minute gap to her nearest competitor.
Emily Petricola also found herself on the top-step of the podium, winning the C3 time trial, having recently been re-categorised from C4.
Petricola held back tears as she sat in the hot-seat when she the realisation hit that she had won the world title.
Holding in bronze medal position at the half-way point, Petricola was neck-and-neck with Germany’s Marie Quellhorst in the battle for silver, with America’s Clara Brown setting the fastest times at the checkpoints.
Petricola drove it hard on the second lap, bringing down the gap, and went into the gold medal position with Quellhorst and Brown still to come.
Quellhorst was unable to better Petricola’s time finishing 22 seconds off the pace.
With Brown the only rider left on course who could upset Petricola’s chances of gold, the American lost significant time after suffering a rear-wheel puncture and requiring a wheel change within the final few kilometres.
Fellow Aussies Paige Greco finished fifth and Emma Mickle placed seventh behind Petricola.
While in hotly contested men’s C2 category, Darren Hicks won silver, just two second ahead of the hometown favourite, Ewoud Vromant.
The C-class riders have a rest day before hitting the Belgian streets on Sunday for their road races.
Images: SWPix
Day 2 results
Women C1 Individual time trial
🥇 Tahlia Clayton-Goodie, 19:34.82
🥈 Victoria Maria de Camargo e Barbosa +05:08 minutes
🥉 Nuraini Muhamad Shukri +06:33 minutes
Women C3 Individual time trial
🥇 Emily Petricola, 36:35.00
🥈 Marie Quellhorst +22.32 seconds
🥉 Clara Brown +41.88 seconds
5th Paige Grego +01:25.73 minutes
7th Emma Mickle +02:09.10 minutes
Women C4 Individual time trial
🥇 Tara Neyland, 33:51.60
🥈 Grace Norman +13.60 seconds
🥉 Meg Lemon +27.84 seconds
Women C5 Individual time trial
🥇 Alana Forster, 33:08,41
🥈 Morgan Newberry+01:55.00 minutes
🥉 Nicole Murray +02:09.27 minutes
Men C2 Individual time trial
🥇 Alexandre Leaute, 31:10.91
🥈 Darren Hicks +01:08.43 minutes
🥉 Ewoud Vromant +01:10.87 minutes