Australia successfully defended their Mixed Relay TTT world title at the UCI Road World Championships, beating France in a tense finish on the hilly 41.8km course in Kigali on Wednesday.

The Australian squad, who beat Germany by less than a second last year in Zurich, closed out their ride with a more decisive margin against the French team.

The six-rider squad of Michael Matthews, Luke Plapp, Jay Vine, Brodie Chapman, Amanda Spratt, and Felicity Wilson-Haffenden completed their ride with a time of 54:30.47, taking the rainbow jerseys by just five seconds ahead of France, while third-placed Switzerland were 18 seconds behind.

Hosts Rwanda finished 11th out of 15 teams, while among the five African teams it was second behind Ethiopia, who came in 10th.

The three podium teams were among the final grouping of five teams of 15 on the day, with Switzerland kicking off the action.

They were the quickest of the 11 teams to that point, with the men’s trio of Jan Christen, Stefan Küng, and Mauro Schmid leading out and the women’s team of Jasmin Liechti, Marlen Reusser, and Noemi Rüegg finished it off before a fast-starting Italy topped the leaderboards early in their run.

France were ahead of the Italians at the midway switchover, though Switzerland still topped the standings by over 20 seconds at that point. The French women finished stronger, however, to take over the hot seat with a time of 47.004 kilometer per hour (kph).

Italy, fading from a provisional second behind Australia in the early stages to fourth at the line, and Germany, passed through both slower than France, leaving it up to Australia to put in the final challenge for the gold medals.

At the changeover, Australia led by 33 seconds, but France’s women put in the quickest women’s time of the day – 12 seconds quicker than anyone else and 28 seconds up on Australia – to run it all the way to the line.

In the end, it was the Australian squad who held on, narrowly beating France to take the glory for the second year in a row. Away from the podium, Italy took fourth place with a time of 55:45.03, while Germany rounded out the top five with a time of 56:04.05.

Ranking

1. Australia

2. France

3. Russia

4. Japan

5. Germany

6. Spain

7. Belgium

8. Ukraine

9. China

10. Ethiopia

11. Rwanda

12. Ile Maurice

13. UCI World Cycling Centre

14. Uganda

15. Benin