AusCycling CX National Championships: Course Preview
The AusCycling Cyclocross National Championships will be held in Ballarat this year, as Australia’s fastest and finest cyclocross riders head to Victoria Park to battle for the green and gold stripes on Saturday August 19th. The Victorian State CX Championships will be held at the same venue the following day, with the direction of the course reversed.
The Course
Here’s the map of the course that the organisers Corporate Cycling have in store:
Photo: CX Ballarat
In case the image above doesn’t make it clear, the race village will be at the north end of the park, with riders travelling around the course clockwise for the national championships on Saturday, before reversing direction for the Victorian state championships on Sunday.
For the Saturday course, this will mean a short sprint and some tight, grassy corners to start the race, which will place priority on a good starting sprint to secure a position near the front of the pack. The 2022 course then headed east on a section that went through a deep puddle, but thankfully for the bearings of riders that’s been omitted this year. Instead, riders will pass the course’s pits before negotiating some flowing turns and heading south, crossing the tarmac of Poplar Road. At the bottom of the course riders will encounter the course’s main feature: a short, steep climb, a steep descent into a hairpin turn, and a run-up on a hill that the organisers have dubbed ‘The Mound.’
It’s best to check out the video below to get an idea of that feature.
Tilly Field powers through the muck of the Ballarat course in 2022.
Photo: CX Down Under
Riders with sufficient sprinting power will be able to ride up and over the initial hill at the entrance, but doing so will tax the legs significantly and possibly slow down the subsequent run up the second hill. The runup is short, but steep enough that most riders will need to shoulder the bike in order to better balance themselves if it’s slippery.
After taking the brief downhill off the mound, riders will have likely had their last bit of respite for the lap, as the journey back to the event village at the end of the lap will tax the legs - and likely the drivetrains - of all competitors.
As the course heads back towards the race village for its second half, it becomes flatter and less technical, with long stretches through flat grass - which would likely be very fast were the race held in summer.
The map above doesn’t confirm the location of the course’s barriers, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they’re placed towards the end of the lap to add a bit of a technical challenge for tired riders, as well as creating an obvious focal point for crowds when multiple riders are in a close battle with a championship on the line.
The weather
Last year’s Ballarat course saw wet and muddy conditions that turned large stretches of the course into a tractor pull. The terrain was so heavy that even Elite riders opted to run straight flat sections rather than continue to slog through the mire.
Conditions for the national championship weekend look broadly similar, with rain projected to fall on the two days prior to the big event, which should see riders reaching for their mud tyres and running the lowest pressures they can get away with.
The weather in Australian cyclocross this year has tended towards the warm and sunny, but with the course likely to be muddy you can expect to see some riders heading into the pits for clean bikes during their race.
