AusCycling Cyclo-cross National Series Preview: Rds 1 & 2
The 2024 AusCycling Cyclo-cross National Series is starting in Adelaide this weekend, with the opening two rounds to be held at G.S. Kingston Park/Wirrarninthi in the Adelaide Parklands. Nicknamed ‘Zombie Park’ due to the West Terrace Cemetery that lies on its southern border.
Here’s what you need to know!
The course
Located on Kaurna country just west of Adelaide’s CBD, the course hosted the Australian national championships in 2016 and 2017 as well as the 2023 South Australian state championships, and has been nicknamed .
Here’s the map that Port Adelaide Cycling Club have provided of this weekend’s course.
In case the image above doesn’t make it clear, the race start on day 1 will be at the north end of the central straight, with riders travelling around the course anti-clockwise, with the course direction to be reversed for Round 2 on Sunday.
For the Saturday course, this will mean a fast sprint past the team tents and early battles for position among some technical corners. The riders will make their way south over some tricky little ridges before making their first passage of the pits and negotiating the course’s barriers. This video taken at the 2016 National Championships shows the challenge of this section in wet conditions.
After that, a long U-shaped power section at the southwestern end of the course should see riders reaching high speeds, especially the tarmac section along Catholic Cemetery Road - all the more necessary given that this is the closest point to the West Terrace Cemetery and the zombies that lie within!
Once on the eastern side of the home straight the course gets significantly faster, with a few corners through grassy fields and loose mulchy corners the only sections that break up a number of long power sections. A left-hand turn into the final straight might see some last-minute battles for position before a sprint finish.
The course direction will be reversed for Sunday’s second round, with only minor alterations to the course expected.
The Weather
The last time the National Series visited Zombie Park in 2017 was one of the wettest days Aussie cyclocross has ever seen, but conditions could scarcely be more different for the series’ return in 2024.
Speaking to AusCycling for the official race preview, Port Adelaide CC president and chief course designer Gemma Kernich described the circuit as ‘dry, dusty and sandy – it’s Zombie Park, but not as we know it.’
‘It hasn’t really rained at all in Adelaide for four months.’
That’s set to continue this weekend, as the weather forecast is a balmy 21 degrees and sunny on both days, and should be a last opportunity for many riders in cold-weather states to race in short sleeves before the chill of winter sets in for good.
Videos from the Vault
Given the amount of time that’s passed since the last race at the venue we’ve had to dig into the archives to find good video footage of the course, and we’ve come up with a couple of gems.
First up is this on-bike footage from the National Series in 2017 - it features much muddier conditions than racers can expect this weekend, but the course map is almost identical to the map displayed above, and could be useful for those looking to do their homework before touching down in Adelaide. (Note: video contains some swearing)
But the real gold was to be found by digging further into the archive, in one of the only clips we’ve ever found of cyclocross making it to Aussie TV!
Check out this Cycling Central coverage of round 4 of the 2012 Aussie CX National Series - featuring 2024 course designer and PACC president Gemma Kernich getting stuck into the Elite Women’s race, plenty of retro kits, and cantilever brakes galore!