Australia has selected its 9 riders for the world championships roads and will be spearheaded by Cadel Evans, Richie Porte and Rohan Dennis. The latter two will also ride the time trial while there was no room for Luke Durbridge in his preferred discipline.

National coach Bradley McGee has selected the 9 riders that will represent the country at the world championships road race. As expected, the team will be led by three climbers who all have the potential to excel on a course that has been dubbed the hardest since 1995.

Cadel Evans, Richie Porte and Rohan Dennis have been designated as team captains, having all shown good form recently. Originally, the team was thought to be built around Simon Gerrans but injuries sustained in a Vuelta a Espana crash has forced the Ardennes specialist to put an early end to his season.

Following his disappointing Tour de France, Evans returned to competition in last week's Tour of Alberta where he finished 4th in the prologue and won a stage. Porte was back in competition at the USA Pro Challenge but showed lack of form. However, he was much better when he raced the GP de Quebec on Friday and like Evans, he will race the GP de Montreal later today.

Dennis has had a fabulous first year as a professional and finished in the top 10 and won the white jersey in the Criterium du Dauphiné. He recently won the Tour of Alberta overall.

The three captains will be supported by Simon Clarke, Michael Matthews, David Tanner (who are all racing the Vuelta at the moment), Cameron Meyer, Rory Sutherland (who are both racing in Canada) and Mathew Hayman (who has just started the Tour of Britain today).

“Cadel, Richie and Rohan Dennis have all shown very strong recent form and they will be supported by a highly capable line up of seasoned professionals," McGee said. “Despite a couple of late injury setbacks we have a strong squad capable of making the podium and we are going to Italy expecting success.”

For the time trial, McGee has selected Dennis and Porte. Hence, there was no room for national champion Luke Durbridge who had hoped to prove his talents on the flat course in Florence and expressed immediate disappointment with the decision via his Twitter account.

In recent years, Australia has taken a major step forward and has been a dominant force in the cycling world. Those results have been reflected at the world championships with Evans winning the rainbow jersey in 2009 and Matthew Goss finishing 2nd two years later.

Cycling Australia's high performance director Kevin Tabotta is confident that the team will be able to continue the run of success.

"Australia always go into the Worlds with the expectation that our athletes will challenge for podium positions," he said." Despite recent high profile omissions through injury, this group is capable of delivering across the categories.”

The road race takes place on September 29 while the time trial will be held four days earlier.

Australia for the world championships road race:

Cadel Evans, Simon Clarke, Rohan Dennis, Richie Porte, David Tanner, Mathew Hayman, Michael Matthews, Cameron Meyer and Rory Sutherland

Australia for the world championships time trial:

Rohan Dennis and Richie Porte