AusCycling Cyclocross National Series Preview: Rds 1 & 2
The opening two rounds of the 2022 AusCycling Cyclocross National Series are taking place in Adelaide this weekend, with racing due to take place at a course in the parklands surrounding the Adelaide Superdrome in Gepps Cross.
Here’s the map of the course that Port Adelaide Cycling Club have in store:
In case the image above doesn’t make it clear, the race start on day 1 will be in the top right-hand corner (in the Superdrome carpark), with riders travelling around the course anti-clockwise, with the course direction (excepting the staircase) to be reversed for Round 2 on Sunday.
For the Saturday course, this will mean a sprint on tarmac through the Superdrome carpark to start the race, with riders then whistling up a small grassy hill past the team tents before negotiating some tight turns and a long straight into the barriers. After remounting, riders will continue along a straight next to the fenceline before taking a right-hand turn into Foresters’ Forest, riding past the pits and turning right again onto a hard-packed dirt path through the parklands.
Riders should be able to gain some speed on the dirt path before a left-hand turn on grass, then a quick gravel section and a left-hand turn onto a long straight on top of a levee bank, again on hard-packed dirt.
Riders will drop off the bank and face some turns through the grass before coming to the Stairway to Heaven, a staircase installed by the hardworking folks at Port Adelaide CC before last year’s rounds of the National Series.
After turning right at the top of the staircase, riders will quickly negotiate a couple of off-camber turns across the levee bank before riding back along the top for around 250m.
At this point the course turns left for what is marked as a long sand section through Foresters' Forest - probably 300-400m in total. Depending on the amount of rain the course receives before the start of competition, this could be a real mud bog that will also be hell on competitor’s drivetrains.
After turning right off the sand section, racers will be able to get back up to speed along a long straight section of grass. After a gentle right-hand bend through a creek bed and another grassy straight of roughly 50m, riders will take on a double left-hand bend back onto a hard-packed gravel track which should be wide enough to make passes provided you can lay down the power.
Passing here is a good idea, as the next section is a series of corners weaving through a series of trees, meaning the course is unlikely to be much wider than the 3 metre minimum, and overhanging branches are likely to be plentiful.
After the forest section, riders will face one final dip through the creek bed, which precedes a left-hand turn onto a long, slightly downhill straight back to the start/finish line.
It all sounds well and good in theory, but what will it actually look like for the riders?
Thanks to Oscar Zhang of Team MOOD, we have some idea. This video was taken during the Men’s Expert race at round 1 of last year’s National Series rounds at the same venue. The course is almost unchanged from last year, meaning that this video should be a fairly good guide of the layout of the course.
The main difference between the course in that video and the course that will confront riders this weekend will be the rain. Suburban Adelaide has received around 50mm of rain this week alone, and this weekend could possibly see that much rain again!
With such a wet forecast for the weekend, you can be certain that there’ll be lots of mud, plenty of mud tyres and some even muddier cyclists for the opening round of this weekend’s AusCycling Cyclocross National Series.
You can follow all the action here on CX Down Under, as well as on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
What are your thoughts on the prospective course for the Adelaide rounds of the 2022 AusCycling Cyclocross National Series? Any features that you’re excited for?