Australian National CX Championships: Elite Women’s Preview
Spring is here - the weather is warming up, flowers are beginning to bloom and the cyclocross season is coming to an end. There’s just one CX race left down under for 2022 - the AusCycling National Cyclocross Championships. Read all about it below!
The Venue
While Greenvalleys Mountain Bike Park is a privately owned facility that normally caters to the enduro and downhill crowd, this Saturday will see the venue swap suspension forks for skinsuits as it hosts the 2022 AusCycling Cyclocross National Championships.
The course is draped over the hillside at Greenvalleys, situated on Tharawal land about half an hour’s drive southwest of Wollongong. With a couple of decent climbs and long descents and plenty of the circuit out in the open to make spectating a breeze, it looks as though it’ll be a challenging course to end the Aussie CX season.
While Greenvalleys MTB Park usually hosts events with a gravity riding focus on the upper slopes of the hill to the right, this weekend will see riders on the flatter terrain of the lower slopes.
Photo: AusCycling MTB & CX
The Weather
The weather on race day looks to be almost perfect for spring cyclocross, with temperatures projected to reach 21ºC under partly cloudy skies.
Given that conditions at Australian CX races this winter have tended towards the wet and muddy side (especially at the final weekend of the CX National Series in Ballarat), the grassy conditions and relative lack of recent rain should promise somewhat drier conditions for this year’s National Championships.
With a few showers on Thursday the only scheduled rainfall between now and race day, it’s most likely to be a course for intermediate tyres rather than a full mud tread - though given the amount of elevation gain per lap riders will likely want to trim weight from their machines where possible.
Rebecca Locke - VIC
The dominant rider in the Australian women’s cyclocross field this year, Locke will be looking to add a second green and gold jersey to the one she earned in Adelaide in 2016.
She’s definitely been the form rider of the season, winning seven of the eight rounds of the National Series - with the only blot on her record coming after an early mechanical in Creswick saw her a minute behind the leaders, which she managed to close to just 10 seconds by the finish line. With that in mind, it’s tempting to presume that the most likely impediment to her quest for a second national title is a niggling back problem she’s been dealing with over recent weeks.
A firefighter by trade, Locke comfortably won the Victorian State CX Championship in Warragul in late August, and will be hoping her season-long form can hold for one more race to earn her the crown.
Bec Locke corrects her line mid-feature at round 6 of the Victorian State CX Series in Beechworth.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
Peta Mullens (Roxsolt-Liv-SRAM) - VIC
The reigning CX national champion will be heading to Greenvalleys Mountain Bike Park shooting for her third Elite Women’s national championship in cyclocross, and her thirteenth across all cycling disciplines.
Her preparation for this year’s Nationals has been far from ideal, reading more like the classic Simpsons scene involving free frogurt.
She raced criteriums in America this winter!
That’s good!
But she had to come back to Australia early after breaking her collarbone in June.
That’s bad.
But she finished 3rd at the Cross-Country Marathon MTB national championships.in August.
That’s good!
But she’s recovering from a bout of COVID.
That’s bad.
But she’s riding a really sweet bike!
…Can I go now?
With all that in mind, Mullens isn’t the nailed-on favourite for the jersey she’s been in previous years, but on the right day she’s still more than capable of adding yet another national title to her trophy cabinet. If we had that bike we wouldn’t want to give it up either.
Peta Mullens has her bike and skinsuit matching beautifully as she powers through the mud at round 8 of the National CX Series in Ballarat.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
Tilly Field (Roxsolt-Liv-SRAM) - VIC
Although she’s a teammate of Peta Mullens, Tilly Field strikes quite a contrast to the current national champion. Unlike Mullens, Field has only started riding bikes relatively recently, going from local crits to racing for the points jersey at the Women’s Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta del Sol in a little over two years.
She also hasn’t raced a whole lot of cyclocross, with just four races under her belt this year, including a second and third place at the National CX Series rounds in Ballarat in early August.
However, what she lacks in CX-perience she makes up for in raw talent - she gave the first hint of her potential at the only two rounds of the 2021 Victorian State CX Series in Creswick, where she used her powerful engine to hammer over a minute into the likes of Bec Locke, Fi Morris and April McDonough on an extremely muddy course. Given that the forecast is for wet and muddy conditions on what’s likely to be a hilly course, the course could suit her perfectly.
Safe to say there’s a bit more rolling resistance in the mud of Ballarat than the roads of Spain for Tilly Field.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
April McDonough (Flanders-FMB) - VIC
The third former national champion on the start list this year, McDonough won her green and gold jersey at Sam Miranda Winery in 2018.
The 35 year-old and mum of 2 hasn’t quite been at the same level of form in 2022 as her title-winning season and has hinted that this is her last year racing at the Elite level, but she’s still pulled down respectable results in the National CX Series, as well as the state series in her native Victoria. She finished 3rd at the Victorian State Championships last month behind a rampant Bec Locke, and will be looking to score one last podium finish at Nationals before hanging up the wheels.
April McDonough accelerates out of a corner at round 1 of the 2022 National CX Series in Adelaide.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
Also racing
Elisa Vienna - NSW
A true unknown for this race, as we were unable to find any previous records of her competing in cyclocross before. Will be interesting to see what she can bring to the table!
Notable absences
Fiona Morris (MAAP-Sixpence) - VIC was able to record top 3 finishes at the National Series in a number of rounds this year, but broke her sternum and fractured 2 vertebrae in a nasty crash in the Victorian State Championships last month, and is off the bike long-term.
Meg Withers - VIC is a relative newcomer to CX who recorded a pair of third places at the National CX Series in Ballarat in early August and finished second behind Bec Locke in the Victorian State Championships, but as she’s not an Australian citizen she’s ineligible to wear the green and gold jersey.