Australia leave team spots empty, USA riders pay $1,000 to race: the World Championships' national team model faces serious financial problems

Australia left roster spots unfilled in the elite men's and women's road races, American riders are paying $1,000 out of pocket, and New Zealanders are racing without any federation funding at the 2026 World Championships in Montreal. According to a new analysis by The Outer Line, these are not isolated incidents but evidence that the national team model for Road Worlds has, as the publication put it, run its course.

According to Stanley Street Social, Australia left roster spots unfilled in both the elite men's and elite women's road races, presumably to save on the cost of transporting and supporting riders on the ground. The squad that did travel to Canada includes former world championship medallists Ben O'Connor and Michael Matthews alongside Jai Hindley, Jack Haig, Michael Storer, and debutant Luke Tuckwell, but the federation chose not to use every available slot.

Across the Pacific, USA Cycling's publicly available selection criteria show that riders who do not meet its top-tier Level 1 standard are classified as Level 2, meaning they must pay a $1,000 service fee and cover their own airfare and checked luggage to represent the United States.

The Outer Line noted that, by its count, only Matteo Jorgenson met those Level 1 criteria for Montreal, raising the prospect that the majority of the American squad, Quinn Simmons included, will race under a pay-to-play arrangement at one of cycling's most prestigious events.

The Outer Line described the UCI's World Championships as "an anachronism that may be overdue for change," arguing that cycling is one of the few major sports in which top-level athletes routinely have to pay their own way for one of the season's biggest races, while federation officials attend with their expenses covered.

The American and Australian examples add weight to the New Zealand case that has already drawn attention. As we reported last week, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider Finn Fisher-Black publicly questioned Cycling New Zealand's long-standing policy of providing zero funding to its elite road squads, calling it a dynamic that changes how the team approaches the race entirely.

The policy is written directly into Cycling New Zealand's selection criteria, which state that riders must fund themselves to attend and compete at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships. The federation said it committed $70,000 for UCI requirements and on-the-ground delivery, in line with its investment agreement with High Performance Sport New Zealand, but nothing for individual rider travel or expenses.

The Outer Line argument raises the question of whether professional trade teams, which already fund their riders' training, travel, and equipment throughout the season, should contest the championship rather than national squads that cannot properly support them. Currently, all World Championship events are ridden by national teams rather than trade teams, making it one of the biggest structural differences between Worlds and the rest of the professional calendar.

The idea has surfaced before. After the 2025 Gravel World Championships descended into controversy over confused Dutch team tactics, calls grew for trade teams to replace national teams at UCI championships. The UCI's Peter Van Den Abeele rejected the notion, telling Sporza: "World Championships are for nations, not for trade teams."

The subject also came up on The Move podcast, with former Belgium rider and sports director Bruyneel calling for change at the World Championships: "This needs to change, it needs to be trade teams in the future. It's not going to happen because the UCI owns the World Championships," claims Bruyneel. "That's the power they hold over the National Federation. So, it's a whole business question also. That's where the money comes from for all the federations, but it just makes no sense."

Bruyneel also lays some blame at the National Federations door: "For Australia to go to Canada it's a big trip, it's a big it's a big expense. But let me tell you something, I can guarantee you that the presidents and all the top staff of these federations, even including Australia, they're going to be one week to two weeks in a super nice hotel in Montreal. Let me tell you, it's four, five star hotels, you know, there's money for that. There's just no money to send the riders," finished the former director.