Newly-crowned Australian champion Mackenzie Coupland takes confidence boost to Tour Down Under in WorldTour debut

Contemporary off of profitable the Australian Nationwide Highway Race Championships, Mackenzie Coupland (Liv AlUla Jayco) will make her Ladies’s WorldTour debut on Friday, as she strains up in inexperienced and gold on the Tour Down Beneath.

Nonetheless solely 20 years outdated and promoted from Liv AlUla Jayco’s improvement group this 12 months, Coupland received her first elite title earlier than even making her official entrance to the WorldTour, however hasn’t needed to wait lengthy to make that step and exhibit her new jersey.

Using in a group that features Ruby Roseman-Gannon, Ella Wyllie and Georgia Baker, Coupland is flying excessive on her outcome from Perth, however conceded that her function will probably be completely different in Adelaide.

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“I am feeling fairly assured from final Sunday,” she mentioned on the pre-race press convention on Friday.

“My function will most likely be attempting to help and dig deep as far into the race as potential. And I really feel like we have got a fairly sturdy group, so positively serving to out a pair riders.”

Although she is probably not anticipating to go for the wins – although she’s clearly in nice kind, and the Tour Down Beneath may be an unpredictable race – that does not imply that Coupland is beginning her rookie season with out ambitions.

“I positively have private objectives,” she mentioned. “That is my first World Tour race, so it is very thrilling, and I do have private objectives, however I would most likely see myself as extra of a domestique this time round.”

At solely 20, Coupland continues to be defining what sort of rider she will probably be, however her intensive European racing expertise from 2025 with Liv AlUla Jayco Continental has already highlighted her strengths, with ninth general on the Tour de l’Avenir confirming her as an all-rounder with GC capabilities.

How that shapes the remainder of her 12 months and programme with the WorldTour squad stays to be seen, however first up, she’s in Adelaide to attempt to assist the house group take an general win right here for the primary time since 2019.

In distinction to their males’s group, who got here underneath hearth for complicated group techniques, Liv AlUla Jayco performed the ladies’s street race properly and will probably be hoping that cohesion carries over to the Tour Down Beneath, particularly with the inexperienced and gold jersey of their quantity.

“I feel any of us Liv AlUla ladies might have had the prospect to win Nationals. We had been all fairly sturdy simply in that profitable transfer,” Coupland mentioned. “So I feel this jersey is kind of a illustration of how sturdy our group is, and yeah, I really feel like we’ll be fairly assured coming into it.”

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