Australian National CX Championships 2023: Elite Women’s Preview

The biggest race in Australian CX is taking place this Saturday in the Victorian town of Ballarat - the AusCycling National Cyclocross Championships. Read all about it below!

The Venue

The course will be a mostly flat circuit at Victoria Park, on the western side of Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree. Ballarat is a notoriously cold town, and the wind whipping off the lake can create very wintry conditions for riders and spectators alike.

The majority of the course will be on open grassy terrain, with occasional turns under the canopies of local pine trees.
The park’s grass is likely to be initially dewy for the early morning practice laps, before being churned to mud by the Masters categories that will be racing before the Elite categories. The course’s many corners that would ordinarily be straightforward are likely to get significantly trickier as a result.

There’s very little elevation gain for much of the lap, with the exception of the course’s main feature at the southern end of the track. It’s a short, steep climb, followed by an immediate steep descent into a hairpin turn, and a run-up the same hill that the organisers have dubbed ‘The Mound.’

The Mound is the course’s most technical feature, and - due to the carpet of pine needles that cover the ground - one of the few places on course that’s not likely to be muddy.

Once The Mound has been completed, riders will make their way back to the start village at the north end of the course, passing by the pits on the way.

Cyclocross courses are often thought of as being on a spectrum of technical difficulty, with easier courses with more steady pedalling tending to favour those with a road background, while technically challenging courses with on-off power thought to give an advantage to mountain bikers.
When measured against that metric the Ballarat course is definitely more to the road side - it favours riders with raw power over remarkable technical prowess, but depending on the weather conditions on race day it could still produce a variety of winners.

If you want to know about the course in more detail, you can check out our full course preview, or take a look at our race video from the same event last year.

The Weather

Last year’s Ballarat course saw wet and muddy conditions that turned large stretches of the course into a tractor pull. The terrain was so heavy that even Elite riders opted to run straight flat sections rather than continue to slog through the mire.

Conditions for the 2023 national championship weekend look broadly similar, with rain projected to fall on the two days prior to the big event, which should see riders reaching for their mud tyres and running the lowest pressures they can get away with.

The weather in Australian cyclocross this year has tended towards the warm and sunny, but with the projected low temperatures and the course likely to be muddy you can expect to see some riders heading into the pits for clean bikes during their race, as well as plenty of action from mechanics at the bike washing stations.

Last year’s Ballarat course was definitely a muddy one, and similar conditions are forecast for 2023.
Photo: @thatbikenerd

The Champion - Bec Locke (VIC)

CX national championship participations: 6
Previous highest finish: Champion (2016, 2022)

The national champion and former world championship representative has had a successful stint in the green and gold this year - she’s won 5 of the 8 rounds of the AusCycling Cyclocross National Series (CXNS), as well as a round of the AusCycling Victoria State Cyclocross Series (VICXS). The 43 year-old Victorian was the national champion in 2016 and 2022, and is looking to join Lisa Jacobs as the only women with three Australian titles to their name.

She was beaten by Miranda Griffiths in the most recent round of the Victorian state series and three most recent CXNS rounds, though she has said in an Instagram post that she was suffering from a respiratory infection during July.

Although the Melburnian speeds around in a fire truck as part of her day job, on the cross course the unsponsored Locke is more of a diesel engine, and is an extremely consistent rider who tends not to make drastic mistakes.

She’s generally happier holding her own pace at the front of affairs rather than responding to high-intensity attacks. With that in mind, she’ll be hoping for plenty of rain to fall on the course and blunt the sprinting edge of some of her rivals.

Bec Locke is smooth over the barriers at round 2 of the AusCycling National CX Series in Adelaide in June.
Photo: @thatbikenerd

The Challenger - Miranda Griffiths (VIC / Batch Brewing Co.)

CX national championship participations: 0
Previous highest finish: N/A

Miranda Griffiths is the only rider in the Elite Women’s field to have beaten Bec Locke in the past two seasons, and will go into this weekend as one of the favourites for victory. A Ballarat local, she placed third and fourth in the corresponding rounds of the National Series on this course last year.

After years spent as a road rider on the domestic scene, this is Griffiths’ first full season racing at the AusCycling Cyclocross National Series, and she’s placed well in the six rounds she’s contested, coming away with three wins and three second places. The 41 year-old’s last four starts have all been victories, including a 21 second victory over Locke at Dirty Deeds CX at the end of July on a course reasonably similar to what riders will face in Ballarat. While Locke will be doing a rain dance to maximise her chances of success this weekend, the more explosive Griffiths will be comfortable with clear skies and a hard-packed course.

She’s sure to get lots of support from her home crowd - will she be able to take the crown at her first ever CX National Championships?

Miranda Griffiths is fully focused on her way to victory at round 7 of the AusCycling Cyclocross National Series in Sydney in July.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r

The smokeys - Tilly Field (VIC / Roxsolt-Liv-SRAM)

CX national championship participations: 1
Previous highest finish: 2nd (2022)

Unlike a lot of other riders in the Elite Women’s race, Tilly 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.

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.

She finished second and third on the two days of racing in Ballarat when she raced at this course in 2022, before taking on her first national CX championships at Greenvalleys Mountain Bike Park last year, where she finished runner-up to Bec Locke.

This year she has raced CX a little less often, winning a round of the VICXS in Shepparton and finishing 3rd behind Griffiths and Locke at Dirty Deeds CX this July.

A rider with fantastic raw power, she tends to excel in very heavy conditions - which could suit her if the course is anywhere near as muddy and slow as last year.

Tilly Field is a blur of colour through the corners at Dirty Deeds CX, held at Brunswick Velodrome in July
Photo: @thatbikenerd

Claire Aubrey (ACT / Ride and Thrive)

CX national championship participations: 3
Previous highest finish: 6th (2013)

Claire Aubrey is a long-time friend of CX in Australia, and has been organising races and competing at the top end of Australian cross for over a decade. The Canberra-based rider finished 6th in the first UCI-sanctioned national championships in 2013 and is a chance to improve on that position a decade later at the age of 43.

A former elite mountain biker, the bubbly mum of two briefly took a pause from racing at the top end of the Elite field from 2016-2018, but after a couple of crushing national championship victories in her Masters grades she returned to mixing it with the country’s very best.

One of the few riders in the field to have ever had a pump track in their suburban backyard!

Claire Aubrey tips it in on a visit to Dirty Deeds CX in Melbourne in July.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r

Fi Morris (VIC / MAAP Sixpence CX)

CX national championship participations: 5
Previous highest finish: 6th (2019)

Another highly experienced cross rider in the world of Australian CX, Fi Morris grew tired of watching her husband Garry Millburn compete on the international CX scene in 2015 and decided to give it a whirl herself. Fast forward eight years and her Crossresults page has almost 100 race results listed - so it’s fair to say she’s now a fan of CX in her own right!

Originally from Sydney, she now lives in the town of Bright in Victoria’s high country - a common destination for holidaying cyclists in the summer and snowsports fans in the winter. When she’s not working for the local tourist board or appearing in MAAP photo shoots, she’s heavily involved in organising local club racing. Given that the winter temperatures in Bright often dip below freezing, she’s unlikely to be perturbed by the cold temperatures predicted for Ballarat this weekend.

She’s stated that she’s looking to make a trip to Europe later this year to get a taste of high level cross racing, with a goal of competing at her first CX world championships. Grabbing some UCI ranking points with a high finish at the National Championships will certainly help with that goal, and she surely wouldn’t say no to a podium spot either…

Fi Morris flicks through a chicane at the Dirty Deeds CX race in July.
Photo: @shotbyleealexand3r

The race will be starting at 2:30pm AEST in Ballarat. The race won’t be televised, but you can follow all the action by following CX Down Under on Facebook and Instagram - we’ll be doing our best to document all the highs and lows of the day!

Who’s your tip to be Australia’s Elite Women’s CX National Champion in 2023? Let us know in the comments below!