Madeline Ballard
Hi, my name is Maddie and I’m from New Zealand. I’m moving to Brisbane for university in 2025 to study environmental management. I'm so excited to be racing with WCDI for the 2025 season. The Australian racing scene is completely new to me so it will be great to work alongside some like-minded girls. Bring on 2025 and the race season ahead!

Q&A
All my childhood dreams and aspirations revolved around sport and primarily long distance running for the majority of my childhood, until I suffered some consistent knee injuries and through that process triathlons were suggested to me and though that I found my love of cycling. In NZ we also have a massive schools cycling program so the school team and coaches at Saint Kents inspired me to continue and pursue the sport even more especially my first school coaches Sam Gardner and Jared Banham who were such big inspirations to me in my early years.
My first ever race was representing my school at an Auckland Points road race in 2019. During the race I thought I was doing amazingly, winning heaps of laps and spending a lot of time on the front. But when I finished I found out that I won basicly every non-point lap and staying on the front just uses up your energy and doesn’t actually mean you were winning. Certainly, a lot of learnings from that race and defiantly no medal to take home
I just graduated high school in 2024 (Saint Kentigern Collage) and am moving to Brisbane in 2025 to start Uni and the University of Queensland. I am either looking to study a Business Science conjoint majoring in economics and Biochemistry or study Environmental Management.
The ultimate dream in cycling is to go Pro and race in world tour races, inspiring younger generations and simply riding my bike as much as possible. My dream race is Paris – Roubaix simply because of your tough and rewarding it looks. Its a lot of luck and even more determination which I love, plus the iconic velodrome finish is just so cool.