It was a day of mixed fortunes for the ARA Australian Cycling Team at the 2025 UCI MTB World Championships in Switzerland with the junior downhillers the first to go up against the clock.
In the junior men, the notorious Champèry track showed no mercy with crashes cutting short some campaigns.
Victorians Patrick Ward and Lachlan Roberts both came unstuck in the same top section, with their bikes getting tangled in the course netting.
Not long after, Cooper Northey also slid out on his run, fighting to the finish despite the setback.
Cooper Northey crossing the line after his race.
Hudson Tarling stayed upright to post a solid top-15 ride, crossing the line in 14th.
That left Zac Bradley-Hudson, who had impressed with seventh in qualifying, as Australia’s final hope.
The New South Wales rider attacked the steep Swiss slopes with everything he had, briefly slotting into second and splitting up the host nation’s domination of the hot seat.
Zac Bradley-Hudson secures a top-1o finish.
By the end of the event he had secured ninth place, finishing ten seconds behind the winner to deliver a well-earned top-10 for Australia.
In the junior women, Matilda Henness started strongly, sitting inside the top five splits early before finishing 16th with a time of 4:23.349.
Matilda Henness with a 16th place finish in Champèry.
Teammate Elleni Turkovic, the reigning national junior champion, was just behind in 17th a further three seconds back,
Results
Junior Men
🥇 Max Alran (FRA) 3:00.878
🥈Tyler Waite (NZL) +2.916🥉Till Alran (FRA) +3.3799 Zac Bradley-Hudson (AUS) +10.130
14 Hudson Tarling (AUS) +13.600
48 Lachlan Roberts (AUS) +35.984
52 Cooper Northey (AUS) +43.831
56 Patrick Ward (AUS) +2:30.053
Junior Women
🥇 Rosa Zierl 3:35.962
🥈 Eliana Hulsebosch (NZL) +1.864
🥉 Aletha Ostgaard (USA) +2.316
16 Matilda Henness (AUS) +47.387
17 Elleni Turkovic (AUS) +50.569
Full results can be found here.
Photo Credit: SWPix