AusCycling Cyclo-cross National Series Preview: Rounds 5 & 6
Surf’s up, dude! This weekend the nation’s best cyclo-cross racers will head to the Sydney suburb of Maroubra for the fifth and sixth rounds of the AusCycling Cyclo-cross National Series.
The beachside suburb, made famous by the 2007 documentary film Bra Boys: Blood Is Thicker Than Water, is also home to Heffron Park, which will play host to the weekend’s racing on its grass and sands.
The course
The course is laid out across Heffron Park, and is expected to be fast, grassy and relatively flat. Unsurprisingly for a course so close to Sydney’s famous beaches, sand sections will feature heavily, with multiple sections on course likely to test riders’ technical abilities. Check out race organiser Robbie Allen’s preview below!
The course has hosted rounds of the New South Wales & ACT state CX series in both 2022 and 2023, including the NSW state championships last year.
It uses a mix of grassy corners, sandy sections through the brush and flat sections of the Heffron park criterium circuit, which hosts road racing throughout the year.
The race organisers have promised a course which will feel quite different between Saturday and Sunday, with Saturday’s ‘Fast n Flowy’ course promising to be fast and flowy with cambered turns and high speeds that should suit those with a road cycling background, before Sunday’s ‘Tuff n Techy’ course introduces a few more awkward corners and steep pinches that will play more to the advantage of mountain bikers.
To get an idea of what the course has in store once the race tape is in place, check out the race recap from the 2022 round of the NSW/ACT state series below.
The Weather
Although Sydney experienced heavy rains earlier in the winter - even forcing the cancellation of one race - some milder weather more recently has the course running dry and fast.
As with the previous race weekends in the CX National Series, the forecast for this weekend is for mild temperatures and little chance of rain - no need for mud tyres here!
Although the course is mostly fast and grassy, there were still some soft sections for Niki Hale to negotiate at the 2023 round of the NSW/ACT state CX series held at Heffron Park.
Photo: Rich Scriven
