There's no sign of any brakes on the ARA Australian Cycling show at the 2025 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, with the second day at Rio Olympic Velodrome delivering four more world champions, three new world records, two silvers and a bronze.
World championship medals were dropping left, right and centre for the Australian squad, starting with Emily Petricola's world record winning ride in the C3 Women 1km Time Trial.
The Victorian powered around for her four laps of the Brazilian track in 1:14.630 to clinch her 12th track world title.
Korey Boddington has made The Flying Burrito is own since his heroics at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and whenever the kilo comes around the schedule the Queenslander goes above and beyond a little extra spice on the pedals.
The kilo tragic served up a world record time of 1:02.848 to win his second rainbow jersey of the week.
Tara Neyland continued her whirlwind 2025 season on Friday night as the third and final member of the Australian kilo world record club.
The Victorian blasted around the track in 1:10.806 to set a new world best for the C3 Women 1km Time Trial and place world champion next to her name for the second time in as many days.
An impressive C1-2 Scratch Race performance from Tahlia Clayton-Goodie led to her claiming the fourth gold medal of the night for the green and gold.
Clayton-Goodie, racing as one of two C1s, matched it with the higher categorised riders throughout the entire 40-lap scratch race, which brought a delight to her face while comfortably winning the C1 world championship.
Kane Perris and pilot Luke Zaccaria picked up silver in the Tandem B Men 1km Time Trial, Gordon Allan won his ninth UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships medal via silver in the C2 Men Sprint and Michael Shippley confirmed his newfound status as a dual athlete and sprinter across para-cycling and athletics by winning bronze in the C4 Men Sprint.
What they said
Korey Boddington:
I’m all banged up, body is sore, hip is jacked up, ankle it pretty jammed and shoulder cracked I limped my way to the taxi (after sprint crash while rolling down) and crawled my way to the room. Maxed out on pain meds this was my first full night of sleep in a couple days finally catching up on missed sleep. I woke up absolutely foaming at the mouth! It’s kilo day, this is what I have been training for, this is what I absolutely love, the training sessions where you bury yourself so deep you question everything but you keep showing up in the pursuit of self improvement and excellence.
The kilo for me is not about the medals or jersey for me on this one (but don’t get me wrong, I want it haha) but in my psychopathic mind it is the best test! Regardless of class, age, location and so on, you have five beeps before you explode out of the gate and give it your all over 1000m. Time doesn’t change so it is the greatest comparison.
I arrived at the track four hours before my race to ensure I had maximum time to loosen up the body as I was still pretty tight battered and bruised from my crash the day before. In my warmup accelerations my body was hurting but I knew I had come there not at 100 per cent so what will be, will be.
Ripped it out of the gate, was a bit wobble and slow but got it up to speed and was hooking. All I can control at this point is ensuring I leave nothing in the tank and empty the tank as efficiently as possible which is what I did. I crossed the line and as my eyes are loosing sight and my efforts would catch up to me I saw I the words world record and knew I must have done a good time.
It wasn’t until I stopped, and got back to my bike for cool down that I was able to ask my team what time I had done. While I am extremely happy with the time (third fastest kilo in standard conditions, Paris conditions were extremely fast so to do this that’s pretty incredible). But there is still this part of my that is not satisfied! My goal remains and that is to be the first para-cyclist to go under one minute! I was the fastest athlete of all single bike (tandem boys were on fire!) that was my main goal of coming to Rio but the overarching goal remains and that is sub 60 seconds.
Elimination tomorrow and Sunday is team sprint and we have an absolute rocket ship of a team and we are going to go fast! Team races hit differently and a solid result as a team will give the team insane energy as we wind up this competition, it will set us up for the next cycle as we lead into LA!
The poms won't roll over on this one, as Paralympic champions and multi time world champions, they definitely do not want to lose their crown but the Aussies are coming and we have a fast team and nothing to lose which is a dangerous combination! Stay tuned, this one is going to be spicy!
Emily Petricola:
Team vibes are definitely high, so much positivity and success with everyone. It is only the year after the games so no one’s getting carried away, but we are enjoying it nonetheless! Having a bigger team at both events helps it feel like we are becoming a strong unit again and a force to be reckoned with this cycle.
Honestly removing the IP is a relief! It is a lot of pressure to front up year in, year out as the world, Paralympic champion and world record holder. Everything on the track feels completely new and fresh and the kilo is well suited to my physiology, even if not my medical condition! I’m going to enjoy challenging myself to get better in this - the Canadian is rapid and will only get faster, as will the Dutch and lots of other riders to rejoin track in the next couple of years. I’m grateful for the win here, but know there is a lot of work to do to keep the title.
Tara Neyland:
It’s pretty surreal to see world record holder next to my name. The younger version of myself would be so incredibly proud.
I think my coach and I weren’t too sure initially how I’d go in the kilo. We knew I had the engine to be able to hold myself in the back end, I just needed to work on my first two laps.
There’s still work to be done, but I’m loving the process and keen to keep working hard to see what else is possible.
Tahlia Clayton-Goodie:
It still feels a little surreal to have collected four rainbow jerseys in just a few months. When I began my para-cycling journey at the end of 2022, I set myself the dream of one day winning a rainbow jersey. To now have achieved that goal four times over is something I could never have imagined.
I also really enjoyed the opportunity to race with the C2s. The last time I competed in a combined scratch race in Glasgow 2023, I wasn’t able to finish, so I went into this race simply aiming to stay with the bunch. To have been able to do that this time around was a really rewarding feeling.
Gordon Allan:
This medal is definitely a special one for me. To be able to get on the podium in a new event is always promising. The C2 class has always been very competitive, so to win another medal against these guys is always tough, regardless of the colour!
Definitely excited to have another sprint event on the schedule. Especially one where you need to use race tactics to get a result!
Feature picture: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com