Canberra's Oscar Chamberlain wins cycling junior world championship

The Canberra teenager has a burning ambition to become a world champion at the elite level, and realising a dream with the junior world championship time trial title takes him one step closer.

Australian cycling's future looks in good hands after Chamberlain battled up the cobblestones towards Stirling Castle in Scotland to win the junior men's crown, 24 hours after Tasmanian Felicity Wilson-Haffenden was heralded as the nation's new golden girl having won the junior women's title.

Eighteen-year-old Chamberlain clinched the world championship by defeating Ben Wiggins - the son of Britain's first Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins - by 24.78 seconds, well clear of Germany's Louis Leidert in third.

"This has been my dream since I was a little boy. It was always in the back of my mind that it was possible, and I think if you don't think about it then it's not going to happen, but I can't believe it," Chamberlain said.

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"Obviously everyone's goal coming in is to win. I don't think people are going to come here to not try their best, so I woke up this morning and had a goal - and that was to win.

"After the road race, I didn't quite achieve my goal. I came 10th so it wasn't the end of the world but that gave me a little more fire in the belly.

"The next dream is to do this in elite. Being world champion in elite among the pro peloton would just be a dream come true. Today is a step towards that."

Chamberlain's time trial success comes after he finished 10th during the weekend's junior road race after a mechanical problem left him scrambling to fix his own chain during a chaotic event.

He can now dare to dream of following in the pedal strokes of Belgian superstar Remco Evenepoel, who went on to win the senior elite time trial.

"On the way out it was a headwind and I knew some of the boys had gone out pretty fast, and I guess the flat bit was going to be my strength. I'm a big guy and I got a big gear on the front and was just driving it along there," Chamberlain said.

"On the small rollers I just gave it everything because I knew that's where someone like me, a bigger guy, would lose a bit of time.

"And then the last kilometre was just as much as I could. The cobbles were just killing me - felt like I wasn't moving and then got across the line and got the good news. I'm just stoked it was good enough."

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