BRONTE Stewart won first female rider at last week's Butch Menz Memorial in Wagga, bursting to announce some good news a much bigger stage awaits.
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But now word of her junior road world championships selection is public, the 17-year-old is hopeful of standing on a more prestigious podium at Wollongong in September.
The Tolland Cycling Club member has spent at least a year compiling strong results which proved impossible for selectors to ignore, and she is the only NSW rider chosen in the five-strong women's squad.
She registered two podium finishes at the Oceania Road Race Championships in April, and strong results in January's Road Nationals (third in junior women's criterium, fourth in time trial and fourth in road race), and for National Road Series team Sydney University Staminade.
Stewart has also recently returned from an under-19 development squad tour of Europe, where she finished second in the junior classification and tenth in general classification in the Tour du Gevaudan, as well as seventh in a prestigious kermesse event.
She learned of her selection for Australia after getting a call from selector and coach Donna-Rae Szalinski last Tuesday when in the family car with mother Julie.
"At the Butch Menz Memorial I was biting my tongue not to tell anyone," she said.
"I knew (the call) was coming. Mum and I were talking about in the car then Donna called, that was pretty exciting.
"It's a home worlds, which rarely happens. I know I'll get a lot of support from everyone from because, which will make it even more special. Seeing them on the sideline will give me a bigger push.
"I was pretty confident but didn't want to get my hopes up because sometimes things don't go your way. To lock it in, I'm pretty excited."
The squad will compete in a road race and time trial, and Stewart said riders will be notified of their roles in coming days.
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"We don't know what we're doing yet, we'll get notified in the next couple of weeks," she said.
"There'll be a plan put down, and we'll all have different roles to play.
"We'll get to know the course pretty well, which is an advantage.
"I'd like to have a role as the captain on the road, I feel like I can read the race pretty well. My mind is constantly ticking over when I'm racing, so I hope that's my role."
Stewart said she learned plenty on race craft in Europe, despite not everything going to plan on the trip.
"That was full of challenges. First my bike didn't arrive at the airport, and I got it the day before we left for France for a race," she said.
"I got COVID with my roommate so I was out for a week and that knocked me around. But I got some really good results at the Nations Cup and that was what I wanted to do, to get my name out.
"Missed two weekends of racing but finished the last weekend with some good results at a strong kermesse. I think everyone was blown away because I'm so small, but have the power to keep up."
The UCI Road World Championships will be held from September 18-25.
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