The state of Australian CX part 2: Tasmania
Facts and figures
Number of 2019 CX series races: 4
Number of other 2019 CX races: 0
Organising club/s: Hobart Wheelers/Dirt Devils Cycling Club
First race: June 30th
Last race: September 8th
Total number of race entrants: 108 (6th)
Biggest race day: 33 (6th)
Average participants per race day: 27.0 (6th)
Percentage of male participants: 84.3% (1st)
Percentage of female participants: 15.7% (6th)
Racers graded by: Age
Claims to fame:
Smallest series
Highest levels of mountain bike participation
Highest percentage of male racers
Tasmania is Australia’s smallest state, both in terms of size and levels of cyclocross participation. It was the only one of Australia’s states that we’re featuring not to have a dedicated state series, and the only state not to send any representatives to the 2019 edition of the CX National Championships (to our knowledge at least - please feel free to reach out if you have any corrections).
There were only four CX races held in Tasmania in 2019 - all hosted by the Hobart Wheelers/Dirt Devils Cycling Club at St Virgil’s College in Austin’s Ferry, where the club has been hosting cyclocross races as far back as 2013 (nice one!)
They were held on:
Round 1 - June 30th
Round 2 - July 28th
Round 3 - August 25th
Round 4 - September 8th
In 2019 the club’s cyclocross events managed to draw a moderate level of support from the local cycling community, with a high of 33 people for the Round 2 event on July 28th. This only gives us a fairly small sample size to work with, so the conclusions that we’re drawing are less concrete than in other states where there’s a larger statistical sample to draw from.
Methodology
Where ages of participants are referred to, these will refer to racing ages (effectively one year older than most people are IRL). The participation figures are for each individual race day, so a person who entered every round would account for 10 people in the figure below. While this may skew results slightly in favour of those who turn up most regularly, we feel it’s most representative of what the sport as a whole looks like from race day to race day.
Things we’ve included in this article:
Race results from the four races organised by Hobert Wheelers/Dirt Devils Cycling Club in 2019, including results by age and gender;
People who started races, but did not finish, and are marked as DNF on the results sheet.
Things we’ve not included in this article:
Data for kids races where participants are 10 and under, because:
Most kids races don’t give their smallest racers timing chips (meaning they won’t show up in officially timed results);
We believe that the priority for young kids is to get them enjoying bikes, and we want to encourage race organisers to promote having fun over racing; and
We want to respect the privacy of the kids and their loved ones.
People who entered races, but didn’t start, and are marked as DNS on the results sheet.
Battle of the bikes
One way in which Tasmania’s record-keeping of the results of their CX races is unique is that their results sheets separate out which participants are on CX bikes as opposed to mountain bikes. Unlike most other cyclocross series around Australia, flat-bar bikes seem to be more popular among Tasmanian racers than their drop-bar equivalents, with many of the local club members drafting in their XC mountain bikes for double duty on the CX course.
Bike usage in Tasmanian CX races, by type
Gender and Tasmanian cyclocross
The Tasmanian cyclocross scene was one of the most starkly divided in terms of gender, with women and girls making up 16% of total series entries, compared with 84% for men and boys.
Participation in Tasmanian cyclocross races in 2019, by gender
The good news was that those women and girls who did turn up did so with great consistency - there were at least 2 women and 1 girl at each round of Tassie CX in 2019 in part because three individuals came to all four of the club’s races. While the levels of female participation were below the national average, one upside is that there certainly seem to be an abundance of junior boys taking to the start line - they even managed to outnumber the adult men in round 1!
Participation in Tasmanian cyclocross races in 2019, by gender and race day
Age group racing in Tasmania
Of all Australia’s states, Tasmania is unique by being the only state whose racing grades were all entirely sorted by age group, as is common in mountain bike racing and the CX National Series. In this system everyone is governed by their age - with junior grades in 2 year increments (Under 13, Under 15, Under 17 etc.) and Masters grades in 5 year increments (Masters 1 for 30-34 year olds, Masters 2 for 35-39 year olds and so on).
By contrast, most other states have a grading system more reminiscent of that of road cycling, with competitors sorted into different grades based on their abilities (A Grade, B Grade, C Grade etc.).
Male participation in 2019 Cyclocross races in Tasmania, by age group and race day
Female participation in 2019 cyclocross races in Tasmania, by age group and race day
Given how wintry Tasmanian weather can get in June and July, we’d love to see the sport expand further over the next few years - ideally with other clubs taking on the challenge of organising their own cyclocross races, and encouraging more Tasmanian women to take part in our sport.