AusCycling CX National Championships 2024: Course Preview
The AusCycling Cyclocross National Championships will return to Ballarat this year, as Australia’s fastest and finest cyclocross riders head to Victoria Park to race for the green and gold jersey on Saturday August 17th.
The following day a UCI Category 2 (often abbreviated to C2) will he held on the same circuit, with riders in the Elite, U23 and U19 categories racing each other for prize money and UCI points. Sunday’s race will be the first time a UCI C2 race has been held in Australia since the Melbourne Grand Prix of Cyclocross was last held in 2019.
Course designer (and this year’s Australian National Team Director at the World Championships) Rob Doyle has given us some exclusive insights on what the course will have in store. Let’s check it out!
Photo: CX Ballarat
The Course
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 in a clockwise direction for the national championships on Saturday and the UCI C2 race on Sunday.
Although the riders will travel in the same direction on Sunday, some modifications will be made to the layout of the course to deliver a slightly different riding experience. It will also feature a ‘Pro Only’ section which will only be part of the courses for the Elite and U23 championship races.
This will mean a starting sprint on the tarmac start straight, leading into a gentle left-hander before a nervous right-hand turn onto the grass after around 200m. The pace is sure to be high early on, and the slippery transition from bitumen to wet grass has claimed more than one overambitious rider on previous race days.
After that there will be some longer grassy straights with only gentle curves, which will reward those able to position themselves near the front of the pack. The 2022 course then headed east on a section that went through a deep puddle, but thankfully for everyone’s bottom brackets that’s been omitted since. Instead, riders will turn around a 180-degree hairpin bend, heading in the direction of the start village on a section that’s traditionally been the muddiest part of the course.
Even a dual national champion like Bec Locke found it faster to run sections of the 2023 national championship course.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r
Riders will then have a chance to change out their muddy bikes as they pass the course’s pits for the first time before turning left and heading south, hitting a power section that’s the best part of a minute long before crossing Poplar Road.
At the southern end 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. The hill that riders will run up is officially known as Mount Holled-Smith, but the organisers have simply dubbed it ‘The Mound.’
This year’s course will see a change to the Mound as it was raced in 2023, with the National Championship course crossing around to the far side of the hill, beginning a pair of short, sharp uphill running efforts. The first will only be around 50m long, but a large step-up at the top of the rise means that riders definitely will need to dismount.
After a quick remount, riders will descend for a few seconds before a right-hand turn takes them into the second and much harder of the two runs. The ‘Pro Only’ section will take the riders almost to the very top of the mound, requiring 25-30 seconds of running up a grade of 15-20%. Check out Rob Doyle’s video of the ‘Pro Only’ line - those run-ups are no joke!
Although the standard course won’t climb quite as high, it’s still going to require an uphill sprint of 10-15 seconds at full gas before riders begin traversing the hill and thinking about a descent.
Once at the top, riders will need to make a quick remount on uneven ground before flying downhill and into a left-hand turn that’s likely to be very muddy. If you’re a photographer, the bottom of this descent could offer up some spectacular spills over the weekend!
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 phrase ‘tractor pull’ was used more than once to describe this section last year, and got heavy enough after a day’s racing that even the most powerful of the Elite riders found it quicker to get off and run rather than try to slog through the mire. Riders who have a pit crew and a spare bike will get some respite at the end of this section, as they’ll be able to swap for a fresh machine.
Miranda Griffiths takes a clean bike from her pit crew at the 2023 National Championships.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r
The map above doesn’t confirm the location of the course’s barriers, but if they’re positioned similarly to previous years they’re likely to be placed towards the end of the lap as riders approach the team tents 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.
Alicia Reynolds carries her bike - and about a kilo of bonus mud - over the barriers.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r
A final right-hander takes riders into the home straight, where a 100m sprint on tarmac awaits. This stretch is short enough that it’s unlikely a rider challenging from behind will have the time or speed to get past a rival, so leading into this stretch could prove critical.
The weather
This will be the third year in a row that Ballarat’s hosted a major Australian CX race, and the third year in a row where conditions will be cold, wet, and muddy.
The weather in Australian cyclocross this year has mostly 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.
The race organisers have already confirmed that a full-sized pit area and two power washers will be at the disposal of riders and pit crews who want to switch between machines while racing.
Based on current forecasts rain is projected to fall heavily on the day 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 rules regarding tyre width were relaxed for age-group riders this year to allow tyre widths of up to 42mm, but a running a tyre that wide - especially a gravel tyre with minimal tread - is likely to be a very slippery and heavy affair!
Thanks to Rob Doyle for generously sharing his footage with us.