Unsurprisingly, Powell was selected in the Australian team for the Para-cycling road world championships in Baie-Comeau, which starts at the end of August.

The ACT sports star of the year will travel to the NSW-Queensland border for this weekend's Tour de Tweed for ''a bit of fun'' before putting her ''head down, bum up'' and focusing on defending her title.

While the 45-year-old is a multiple world champion on the road and track, and won gold and silver at last year's London Paralympics, Powell said she didn't know whether she was going to Canada until the team was announced on Tuesday.

In a similar low-key way, she talked about her chances of defending her world titles.

''It's pretty hard, it's a very hilly course, I've been to Canada before and I'm not a great hill climber,'' Powell said. ''I'm not supremely confident, but I'm going to give it my best shot and do everything I can to be the best hill-climber I can be and go out there and try and defend it with pride.''

That doesn't mean she's discounting herself - you don't become a world champion without self-belief.

''I'd probably back myself if I can get to the end of the road race with the other girls, I'd probably give myself a pretty good chance to be able to outsprint them - if I've got any legs left,'' she said.

Powell has used the Narrabundah velodrome to train on in the past, but it was closed by the ACT government last week.

She didn't want to comment further other than to say: ''We'll wait and see what happens after world road championships and what the situation is … the situation is certainly not firm or fixed and we don't know what the future is.''

Powell, who suffered her spinal injury while playing hockey, has modified her training to help prolong her career.

She has modified her program to take the pressure off her ''unstable'' spine, and will need surgery ''at some point''.