Georgia Baker and Alex Manly win UCI Track Nations Cup Madison silver in Adelaide

Georgia Baker and Alex Manly’s last minute heroics in the women’s Madison led the ARA Australian Cycling Team showing on the second day of racing in Adelaide at the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup.

In stifling conditions, Baker and Manly continued to prove themselves as one of the best Madison pairings in the world, winning Australia’s only medal for the day.

Their 27 points earned them a silver medal behind Great Britain duo Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald, with the Australian taking a big chunk of learnings from another vital Madison performance before the Paris Olympics.

“It was a solid ride out there. It was really hot in the velodrome as well, but I thought we raced a pretty technically good race, and we learned a lot,” Baker said.

“The main thing for us is like a lot of our strong competitors are here, and so it's also learning how they race as well.”

“Also, how we like felt on the gears, because that all goes into what we're going to choose to do at the Olympics,” Manly added.


Harriet Burbidge-Smith Signs with Canyon

Australian freerider Harriet "Haz" Burbidge-Smith will be riding for Canyon in 2024.

The Red Bull athlete, two-time amateur BMX World Champion and eight-time Australian Champion will be joining Sam Soriano, Tim Bringer, Olivia Silva, Ryan McNulty, Kaos Seagrave and Fabio Wibmer in the Canyon CLLCTV freeride stable.

Her main bikes will be the Canyon Stitched and Torque and she'll be kicking off her season at Darkfest and Red Bull Hardline before heading to New Zealand for Slopestyle, Speed & Style and Dual Slalom competitions at Crankworx Rotorua. She will compete in all four rounds of the Crankworx World Tour.

Down Under stage winner Manly to lead Jayco-AlUla again

Stage winner Alex Manly and Ruby Roseman-Gannon again loom as the trump cards for home team Jayco AlUla at the Tour Down Under.

Manly and Roseman-Gannon were confirmed in a team featuring five Australian cyclists for the January 12-14 Adelaide event.

Manly won stage two this year and took the race lead, only for Grace Brown and Amanda Spratt to crack her on the decisive Corkscrew climb at the end of the third and final stage.

Australian duo Baker and Manly confirmed through to end of 2024

Australian duo Georgia Baker and Alex Manly have committed to Team Jayco AlUla by extending their contracts to see them through to the end of 2024.

The pair returned to the team in 2022 after previously racing with the Australian squad before switching their attention to the track and the Tokyo Olympics. Manly has gone on to shown her qualities on the road since her return with several strong results, including a stage win at the Tour Down Under earlier this season, plus four stage wins and the overall victory at the Thüringen Ladies Tour in 2022.

From BMX to MTB, this is Harriet Burbidge-Smith's biking journey

Being on a mountain bike makes Harriet Burbidge-Smith happy. The 27-year-old mountain bike freeride athlete has emerged in recent years to be one of the leading lights in the women's mountain bike scene.

But mountain biking wasn't her first love. Burbidge-Smith's first rides were on a BMX race bike, and the Australian experienced a pro career there at a high level, before she made the switch to competing in mountain biking events five years ago. Creative fulfilment, recognition and success have come quickly since she made the switch.

This is how, 'Haz', as she's affectionally known by family, friends and competitors, got to her happy place..

Harriet Burbidge-Smith wins third Crankworx dual slalom gold of the season

Though her victory may have been somewhat overshadowed by the drama surrounding Ryan Gilchrist’s crash, let’s not take anything away from Harriet Burbidge-Smith. She was the best woman in the Boneyard on Thursday, outperforming the likes of Caroline Buchanan and Jill Kintner—with five Queen of Crankworx titles between them. 

Not that fans were necessarily surprised. Burbidge-Smith has been the Empress of Dual Slalom this year with three gold medals from Rotorua, Cairns and now Whistler. She knocked out Georgia Astle, then Ellie Smith, then eventual bronze medallist Martha Gill en route to a finals date with Louise Ferguson. While the Scottish contender was game, Australia’s Burbidge-Smith prevailed in both of their runs to stand atop the podium.

‘Haz’ hit on mountain bikes and never looked back

AFTER more than 20 years of BMX racing, Harriet (“Haz”) Burbidge-Smith, 27, was invited to experience something new.

“I spent the first years of my professional career doing BMX, but I got invited to a mountain bike event about four years ago, and I kind of fell in love with it, I felt like it fit my vibe better,” she says.

“So, I made the decision to switch to mountain biking, leaving all my sponsors and support from BMX, and starting fresh.”

Novocastrian Davis-Meehan Caps Off Return To Freeride World Tour With Win At Kicking Horse

Newcastle snowboarder Michaela Davis-Meehan put down a winning run in her search for a finals berth on the Freeride World Tour over the weekend.

The Kotara local was a wildcard entry to the 2023 competition and kicked off her campaign at the Baqueira Beret Pro in Spain last month with a fifth place finish. On the second stop in Andorra, which had previously been a happy hunting ground for the 31-year-old, she slipped to last in the Ordino Arcalís Pro.

At the bottom of the overall rankings, Davis-Meehan needed victory at Canada’s Kicking Horse to have any hope of surviving the cut and she proved clutch under pressure.

Dropping in first after a fresh dusting of snow, the natural-footer impressed with back-to-back airs in a steep and exposed section of the course, before speeding through some powder turns for a score of 10,000 points.

Manly wins and takes Tour cycling lead

Alex Manly and her team know a fierce challenge from Amanda Spratt will have a big say in whether she wins the women's Tour Down Under.

Manly stormed to the overall lead on Monday by winning the second stage at Uraidla in the Adelaide Hills.

The 26-year-old Australian holds an eight-second lead in the overall standings ahead of Tuesday's third and final stage.

That 93.2km stage from Adelaide to Campbelltown features the tough Corkscrew climb, where Spratt and other rivals are sure to ask stern questions of Manly.

Aussie Michaela Davis-Meehan scores wildcard for Freeride World Tour

The Freeride World Tour has announced Australian snowboarder Michaela Davis-Meehan as a season wildcard for 2023 competition.

Davis-Meehan commenced her Freeride World Tour journey on the Freeride World Qualifiers back in 2016 and competed for three years before securing a place on the 2020 Freeride World Tour.

Her rookie year saw her take a first place podium in Ordino Arcalis and a second place podium at Hakuba and Fierberbrunn, finishing second on the leader board at the end of the tour.

Harriet Burbidge-Smith on a mission to get more women mountain biking

Canberra cycling prodigy Harriet Burbidge-Smith had been on her BMX bike for almost two decades, ever since she was a four-year-old. “My parents realised even at that age I was really enjoying the bike,” she recalls. “They looked up local activities and the BMX club was one of them. They took me there and I couldn’t stay away.”

Burbidge-Smith, known simply as “Haz” in the BMX community, was an instant hit. “From a very young age I was going overseas to compete,” she says. The Australian won two amateur world championships and eight national crowns. A future of success beckoned – Olympic and world titles were within her grasp. And then she stopped.

Manly in first GC podium finish in Norway

Rising Australian cycling star Alex Manly has made the general classification podium at a WorldTour event for the first time with an excellent third place at the inaugural Tour of Scandinavia.

Fresh from helping Australian teammate Georgia Baker take the Commonwealth Games road race title, 26-year-old Manly produced a series of stand-out performances during the six-day race, including four top-five stage finishes and a maiden WorldTour stage win.



Carol Cooke and Stuart Jones claim medals on opening day of 2022 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships

Australia has claimed silver and bronze in the T2 time trial on day one of the 2022 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in Canada.

Carol Cooke claimed silver in the women's T2 time trial to add to her 14 medals since 2011, while Stuart Jones took bronze in the men's T2 time trial.

"I decided that today I was just going to concentrate on the process," the 61-year-old Cooke said.

"After last week's World Cup and not being on the podium, I was starting to wonder if my time of international racing was over, but not concentrating on the outcome helped today.

"Just worrying about what I was doing and my own race, to do the best I could was what was in my head.

"To come away with a silver medal was certainly the icing on the cake – so absolutely stoked."

Commonwealth Games: Clubs gold completes gymnast Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva’s Games set

Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva hopes her emotional Commonwealth Games gold medal will trigger conversation around the lack of funding for rhythmic gymnastics and inspire the next generation.

The Australian burst into tears when she won Saturday’s clubs final at Arena Birmingham, the breakthrough coming after bronze in the individual all-around final and team silver on day one of a relentless three-day program.

Fifth in the ball and ribbon finals completed her campaign, the 20-year-old now a five-time Games medallist after claiming team and ball bronze on the Gold Coast.

“The emotions just came out and they’re still coming out and every time I see this medal I’m probably going to cry,” Kiroi-Bogatyreva said of a tearful climax to three days of intense focus.

“Today was psychologically difficult; I just had to remind myself that I’m here because I want to be, have fun ... and I came away with the gold.”