AusCycling Cyclocross National Series Preview: Rds 7 & 8
The final two rounds of the 2023 AusCycling Cyclocross National Series are taking place in western Sydney this weekend, with racing taking place in the parklands surrounding the Dunc Gray Velodrome in Bass Hill.
Here’s the map of the course of what Parklife Cycling Club have in store, seen from above.
Photo: AusCycling NSW & ACT Series on Facebook, with coloured annotations by CX Down Under.
After a fast start on the tarmac of the Dunc Gray Criterium circuit, riders on Saturday will have a couple of long grassy straights that will take them past the pits for the first time and should help string out the bigger fields. The first turn off the tarmac has been the ice of one of the bigger mud pits on the course in previous years, so riders won’t have clean bikes for long!
The first turn off the tarmac saw bikes get very dirty at the opening round of the 2022 AusCycling NSW & ACT CX Series.
After a couple of turns riders will come off the grass and back on to the crit circuit, heading anticlockwise around the track for a high-speed section of tarmac riding, with progress occasionally interrupted by brief detours into the vegetation.
Once the riders have completed two-thirds of a lap on the crit track they’ll make a right turn and zig-zag through another grassy section, heading south through the trees and negotiating a couple of hairpin turns, taking them past the outside of the velodrome complex to the most southerly point of the course.
The course at Dunc Gray Velodrome weaves its way between the park’s gum trees.
A sweeping hairpin will face the riders north again, taking them on a paved service road outside the base of the velodrome until they reach one of the defining features of the course - a long stair section that is sure to challenge the shouldering technique of already fatigued riders.
Once the riders have reached the top of the stairs they’ll ride across the velodrome’s carpark, negotiate a couple of tricky off-camber corners, hurdle the course’s barriers, and pass the pits for the second time before one final hairpin brings the finish line in sight.
It all sounds well and good in theory, but what will it actually look like for the riders?
Here’s a video preview from a racer’s perspective, courtesy of Masters 1 National champion Charles Wheeler.
Although the AusCycling CX National Series has taken place in Perth, Adelaide and Ipswich so far this year, one thing that every race has had in common is unseasonably mild conditions - every round of the series so far has seen temperatures north of 20ºC.
That trend looks set to continue this weekend, with bright sunshine and wind forecast for Saturday before the mercury dips a little for the eighth and final round of the series.
This will be good news for many of the racers, who will hopefully be able to avoid the loose grass and heavy mud that put paid to more than one derailleur the last time this course hosted a major race.
Bikes at the opening round of the 2022 AusCycling NSW & ACT CX Series tended to finish up heavier than they started.