A new under-23 women's world title will be a major goal for Great Britain in Saturday's World Championships road race, especially with a young team, British Cycling coach Chris Newton has admitted. [25-year-old Lizzie Holden and 23-year-old Anna Henderson are among the youngest teams on the start list.

Newton explains that the youth of the team is partly due to the new under-23 title available, but also to the emergence of new talent representing the UK.

Although young, the team has Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM), Anna Shackley (SD Works), and Elinor Beckstedt (Trek Segafredo) on the World Tour, and final member Alice Towers (Le Cor Wahoo) is the British National Champion.

"I think it reflects where we are as a GBCT (Great Britain Cycling Team)," Newton told Cycling News. [and Newton told Cyclingnews, "It was fortunate for us that the under-23 title was won in an elite race."

"It's a great achievement for us," Newton told Cyclingnews.

Having an under-23 race within an elite race has been questioned, especially in terms of how tactically difficult it is to compete for the under-23 title in an elite women's race. However, the British still have this as a goal.

"Like most countries, it's another title up for grabs, so yes, of course it's our goal," Newton said.

"It's going to be difficult and it's not going to be straightforward in the sense that it's going to be complicated alongside the elites.

"We have four riders under the age of 23, so the title is a very important goal.

While Newton suggests that "most countries" may see the under-23 title as a goal, Great Britain stands out from the pack with its young team.

Neither the U.S. nor its home country, Australia, chooses to take an under-23 player to Wollongong, and big teams such as the Netherlands and Belgium have only one player each selected for the title.

Forty of the 158 players on the starting list will compete for the under-23 title.

The UCI apparently made the late decision to make it easier to identify the under-23s among the elite peloton: the 40 under-23s will wear black numbers, while the elite riders will wear the usual white numbers.

Although this title is the goal of the British team, the athletes have mixed feelings about the under-23 world title.

The eventual winner will have little (if any) opportunity to wear the rainbow band, as under-23 races are few and far between on the women's calendar.

"It's always nice to win a race and get the jersey," Shackley said.

"There are no under-23 races, so apart from the European Championships, this is the only race in this category. But it's always nice to win, so it's a good race, but I think we need a little more infrastructure for the young riders to fully develop."

Shackley added, "I think we're going to need a lot more infrastructure to get the young riders up to speed.

Beyond the symbolic nature of the jersey, the "race within a race" dynamic is complex, with riders under 23 not knowing where they stand in comparison to their competitors.

"It's a positive step, but having a race within a race can be a bit confusing. It's a different dynamic because you have a mix of tactics with riders who race for themselves and those who are less involved with the team," Shackley explained.

Newton agreed with Shackley. [Having two races in one will affect the riders' tactics and it will be an interesting race. It will certainly be a difficult race and it will affect the way we ride, so we are discussing what we can do in it."

The UCI is expected to add a single under-23 women's race to the 2025 World Championships, making the current combined race an interim solution.

While Great Britain is clearly not waiting for a stand-alone race to become a goal, Shackley called for expanding the under-23 category in the coming years.

"Once this category is more established, I think it will be better in a few years to have a completely independent race than to have a race within an elite race," Shackley said.

"We would also like to have a 23-and-under race throughout the year, so that it becomes a category in its own right.

Vittoria Guazzini (ITA) came out on top in the time trial on Saturday, winning her first U23 women's world title. However, no British athletes were entered in the women's time trial.

British athletes entered the junior men's, junior women's, under-23 men's, and elite men's time trial, winning two world titles and a bronze medal.

Newton welcomed the chance to race in Australia, but explained that the costs associated with such an event were the reason the women did not participate in the time trial.

"For us, we have to take into account the growing size of cycling events run by the UCI and UEC. We have aspirational and competitive riders for most events, but it is increasingly difficult to balance rising costs and medal competitiveness to be able to participate in all the events we want."