Katherine Hosking and Chris Aitken win Australian Elite CX Championships
Chris Aitken (MAAP Sixpence CX) and Katherine Hosking (Orbea Women’s Racing) are all smiles on the podium in Ballarat.
Photo: CX Down Under
The 2023 AusCycling Cyclocross National Series saw Katherine Hosking (Orbea Women’s Racing) and Chris Aitken (MAAP Sixpence CX) triumph in the Elite Women’s and Elite Men’s races respectively on a very heavy and muddy course in Ballarat. This is the first national cyclocross championship victory at the Elite level for both riders.
The Victoria Park first featured in the AusCycling Cyclocross National Series (CXNS) in 2022 in very wintry conditions, and the 2023 National Championship was held in similar weather, with temperatures struggling to break into double digits and rain falling on the course throughout the age group racing that was held in the morning.
Although the sun briefly poked through during the Elite races, the result was a course that was extremely heavy going, with heavy mud sticking to both bikes and riders, necessitating frequent pit exchanges for those who had the option.
Elite Women
The Elite Women’s national cyclocross championship for 2023 was won in a huge boilover by Katherine Hosking (Orbea Women’s Racing). She finished 30 seconds ahead of local rider Miranda Griffiths (Batch Brewing Co.), with former national champion Peta Mullens (Roxsolt Liv SRAM) 1:24 back in third place.
Hosking started strongly, forging a gap of 23 seconds over Griffiths over the first two laps of racing, and managing to maintain that gap for the remainder of the 50 minute race. She wavered slightly on the penultimate lap, losing 8 seconds to Griffiths, but was ultimately able to hold her nerve and take her first Elite national title in any discipline.
Although Katherine Hosking is relatively new to the sport of cyclocross, she displayed impressive skills to take the title in Ballarat.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r
This was Hosking’s first ever victory in a cyclocross race at the national level, and only her fifth cyclocross race ever. The Canberra-based member of the Orbea Women’s Racing Team was the winner of the 2023 National Cross Country Olympic (XCO) mountain biking series and finished second in the national championships for cross-county marathon (XCM) mountain biking earlier this year, but only started riding CX in May. The 22-year old first won a local club race in her hometown of Canberra before winning a round of the NSW/ACT series in July and competing at her first CXNS races in Sydney a week later, where she finished 5th and 3rd.
Hosking seemed as surprised as anyone in her post-race interview, saying that ‘I had very little expectations coming into this race, but when I saw the mud this morning I thought that I was going to have a good day…I really can’t believe it - I didn’t expect it at all.’
Like most riders on the Ballarat circuit, Katherine Hosking got very dirty over the duration of her race.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r
Behind Hosking and Griffiths, the battle for the third step of the podium was being contested between two former dual national champions in Bec Locke (Cuore) and Peta Mullens (Roxsolt Liv SRAM). Locke started the stronger of the pair and looked in the early going as though she might have been able to win a third green and gold jersey, but was unable to hold onto the pace of Hosking and Griffiths as the race passed the quarter hour mark.
By contrast, Mullens was a little slower out of the blocks, and the two had a fascinating battle that saw the lead change a couple of times before Mullens was able to pull away on the fourth of the race’s six laps, eventually securing third place by 16 seconds.
The Elite Women’s podium: (L-R) Miranda Griffiths, Katherine Hosking and Peta Mullens.
Photo: CX Down Under
Photo: CX Down Under
Elite Men
The Elite Men’s national championship saw Chris Aitken (MAAP Sixpence CX) take his first Elite national championship at his sixth attempt. The 29 year-old from Newcastle finished 21 seconds ahead of Nick Smith (Duke Flanders Racing), with Aitken’s teammate Garry Millburn finishing in third place, 1:26 behind the lead.
A frantic start to the race saw Millburn lead through the first few corners, with Aitken and Smith in close pursuit. The highly experienced trio finished the first lap in a group, with 2022 national champion Tom Chapman (Team BridgeLane) pursuing about 20 seconds behind. Aitken led the field away from the event village on the second lap before falling on a slow right hand corner - a mistake that saw Smith alone in the lead of the race for the next three laps.
Aitken recovered from his early mistake and gradually closed the gap back to Smith, taking the lead on the race’s fifth lap, eventually extending the gap over his fellow New South Welshman to 21 seconds by the time he took the chequered flag.
Aitken was quick to praise the efforts of his support crew in his post-race interview, saying that ‘It really came down to a bit of teamwork in the pits…it was really muddy like last year and we were changing bikes every lap…every six or seven minutes you’re on a fresh bike.’
This corner under a pine tree was one of the only dry sections on the Ballarat course.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r
Behind Aitken and Smith, the battle for third place was closely contested between Aitken’s teammate Garry Millburn and defending national champion Tom Chapman. After a crash on the first lap saw Chapman with a deficit of around 20 seconds to the leaders, the rider from Adelaide began to claw his way back to the front of affairs, and at the halfway point he’d overtaken Millburn and looked poised to make a charge for the front of the race.
However, Millburn responded strongly to the challenge from the Team BridgeLane rider, retaking third place just after the halfway point and gaining momentum as the race wore on, posting lap times equal to Aitken’s while Chapman began to falter. Millburn would cede a little time to Chapman on the final lap, but eventually took out third place by 11 seconds.
Chris Aitken wasn’t afraid to run some of the course’s muddier sections to help maintain momentum.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r
Photo: CX Down Under
Photo: CX Down Under
