South Australia's Miles Scotson claimed bronze in the under 23 men's time trial, to earn Australia's first medal of the 2016 UCI Road World Championships, in Qatar.

"I aimed for the sky today," said Miles Scotson. "I wanted to win a world title. It was important for me here, leading into next year with teams and contracts, that I did a solid performance today. It was a bit of relief more than anything to get bronze."

The 2015 under 23 national time trial champion was the 25th of 74 riders to start the 28.9 kilometre time trial in Doha's heat on Monday afternoon. Part of the second of five waves of riders, Miles held a consistent pace throughout the race, never outside the top five at any of the three time splits.

"There's always things you would do differently," said Scotson. "I probably rode at the highest temperature of the day but so did the guy who got silver. He obviously did an exceptional job. He said he thought he went out too hard, and I was the same.

"Temperatures like this, 37 degrees, in Australia, it wouldn’t bother you that much over the summer,” Sctoson added. 

"We’ve done some heat adaption work, but it surprised me the way my body responded in that heat. I thought I would cope with it better in 37 degrees than I did today but it must be a different kind of heat here.

"Those last 10 minutes were so hard for me and after the race, I couldn't hold my head up. I couldn't talk. I was in a bad way for five or ten minutes."

Having stopped the clock in 34 minutes and 46.07 seconds for the second fastest time, Miles sat in the bronze medal position at the end of the second wave of riders. It would be a two and a half hour wait to confirm he won the bronze medal.

"I was pretty relaxed in the hot seat most of the time, but I started to get a bit nervous at the end," Scotson admitted. "I realised how badly I wanted to hold onto bronze, and there were still a few challengers coming in at the end." 

2016 makes it eight of the last nine years that Australia has claimed a medal in the under 23 time trial, with four gold, two silver and four bronze from eight different riders.

In what National U23 Men's Road Coach James Victor had previously described as a "family showdown!" Callum Scotson, two years younger than Miles was the sixth last rider to start and got off to a blistering pace also in the top five at the three intermediate checks to be well positioned to challenge for a medal.

The younger Scotson was unable to hold the pace over the final kilometres but the Rio 2016 team pursuit silver medallist battled home to finish in a strong 10th place.

"Callum still has two more years at the level," Miles Scotson said of his brother. "He'll come back and have another solid crack at it."

Before turning his attention to the road race, the bronze medallist wanted to heap praise on the Cycling Australia staff and Men’s Track Endurance Head Coach Tim Decker.  

"I want to thank the Cycling Australia staff for giving me the best opportunity possible," Miles Scotson added.  "James Victor did perfect preparation and the national track coach, Tim Decker, always backs me every time and helps get me in the right mindset.

"Today in the last 10 minutes, when it got really hard, I think the mentoring I had from Tim helped me keep on really pushing. Tim and James both put a lot of effort into me."

Miles Scotson is back in action on Thursday for the under 23 men's road race alongside Lucas Hamilton (VIC), Jai Hindley (WA), Jason Lowndes (VIC), Nicholas Schultz (QLD) and Michael Storer (WA). Scotson says he expects heat to be a major factor in the 10-lap 152-kilometre circuit race in the Pearl Qatar. 

"I think a lot of people are going to find the road race pretty hard if the temperature is the same," Scotson said.

"It's going to be incredibly hot. You can be going as well as you can but everybody deals with the heat differently.

"You could see it out there. There we some riders pouring water over themselves in a time trial. I normally deal with the heat pretty well, so I'm looking forward to the road race. I want to have another crack at it after today." 

Results
Under 23 Men's Time Trial
Gold - Marco Mathis (GER)
Silver - Maximilian Schachmann (GER) +18.63
Bronze - Miles Scotson +37.98
10th - Callum Scotson +1:22.30

Cycling Australia