The State of Australian CX: Part 6 - South Australia
This is part 6 of our extended series on the state of Australian Cyclocross. You can read the others here:
Part 1: CX National Series
Part 2: Tasmania
Part 3: Victoria
Part 5: Queensland
One of Australia’s most passionate and dedicated cyclocross scenes can be found in South Australia, under the watchful eyes of the Port Adelaide Cycling Club (PACC). Here’s a look at South Australia’s CX-ploits in 2019.
Anna Kubilius (left) and Jenny MacPherson (right) embrace after crossing the line in Round 1 of the 2019 CX National Series in Adelaide.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
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 dataset:
Race results from the 2019 Crossfire Cup, including results by grade and gender;
Race results from the 2019 South Australian CX State Championships, including results by age and gender; and
People who started races, but did not finish, and are marked as DNF on the results sheet.
Things we’ve not included in this dataset:
Data from the 4 club races held by PACC that were not part of the official Crossfire Cup;
Data from the 2 rounds of the MTBA CX National Series that were held in Adelaide (you can read about those here);
People who entered races, but didn’t start, and are marked as DNS on the results sheet.
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.
Four time Cyclocross National Champion Chris Jongewaard in action under a sunny Adelaide sky.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
The 2019 Focus Crossfire Cup
The 2019 Focus Crossfire Cup was made up of three state series rounds and the State Championships, all hosted within a few minute’s ride of Adelaide’s CBD.
Round One: Mothers’ Day CX @ North Adelaide, May 12th
Round Two: Port Adelaide, July 14th
South Australian State CX Championships: Gepps Cross, August 4th
Round Three: John E Brown Park, North Adelaide, September 8th
One of the reasons that the Focus Crossfire Cup was able to attract such a consistent level of participation is the close proximity of all races to the Adelaide CBD. In this regard, ‘cross in South Australia is at a distinct advantage, as the design of Adelaide’s CBD - which is ringed with parklands - enables cross races to happen in close proximity to the majority of the South Australian cross community (after race organisers have done the appropriate wrangling with local councils, of course).
State cyclocross series in Australia in 2019, sorted by race distance from state capital
Facts and figures
Number of 2019 CX series races (including State Championships): 4 (Crossfire Cup races x 3, South Australia State CX Championships)
Number of other 2019 CX races: 4 races, all organised by Port Adelaide Cycling Club (3 x CX TwiLITE races in the Summer, 1 x Blind Date Cross season opener)
Organising club/s (series races):
- Port Adelaide Cycling Club
First race: May 12th
Last race: September 8th
Total number of race entrants: 384 (4th)
Biggest race day: 115 (T-3rd)
Average participants per race day: 96.0 (4th)
Percentage of male participants: 75.3% (4th)
Percentage of female participants: 24.7% (3rd)
Racers graded by: Ability (A/B/C Grade)
Claims to fame:
· Most committed ‘cross club (Port Adelaide CC)
· Closest Series to a major city (Crossfire Cup)
· Biggest summer CX series (CX TwiLITE)
Jo Easson (right) leads fellow South Australians Stacey Riedel (centre) and Tessa Manning (left, hidden) in round 2 of the 2019 CX National Series.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
Cyclocross in South Australia - a one-club show
It’s fair to say that Port Adelaide Cycling Club was the home of South Australian cyclocross racing in 2019 - every single CX race in the state was organised by the good folks at PACC. The four races we’ll look at in this dataset are the three rounds of the 2019 Focus Crossfire Cup, as well as the 2019 South Australian State Championships.
In addition to the four rounds we’ll examine here, PACC also ran four other races and a series of skills clinics aimed at getting new riders involved in CX. It’s a commitment to the sport that’s truly admirable - no other single club is doing more for CX in Australia right now.
Port Adelaide CC president Gemma Kernich is all smiles after competing in round 2 of the 2019 MTBA CX National Series in Adelaide.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
In total there were 384 registered participants across the four events, with an average of 96 participants per race, a high of 115 participants at the State Championships in August, and a low of 75 participants at the season ending race in North Adelaide. This is enough to make the South Australian scene the fourth largest in Australia (trailing Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland), both in terms of overall attendance and the average number of riders per race.
These fluctuations between the two races with the highest and lowest participation can best be explained by the structure of the Australian cyclocross calendar. As we’ve seen in other states such as Queensland and NSW/ACT, a state championship will tend to pull more riders out of the woodwork than normal, and in 2019 South Australia’s state championships were held a week before the National Championships - making them the perfect lead-in race for those chasing the green and gold stripes the following week.
Participation in 2019 Focus Crossfire Cup, by race day
South Australian cyclocross is famed for its use of dry mulch…
Photo: @thatbikenerd
… but it’s not unusual to see muddy conditions either.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
Grading and gender in South Australian Cyclocross
When it comes to racing grades in South Australian CX, things are fairly straightforward, with adult men and women being separated into A, B and C grades by ability, while juniors are divided into grades by two-year age increments.
Men's participation in 2019 Focus Crossfire Cup, by grade
Men's participation in 2019 Crossfire Cup, by race day and grade
Looking at the participation data from the three rounds of the Focus Crossfire Cup in 2019 (excluding the state championships, as the grading is different), we can see that Men’s B grade is the most popular of the racing grades - something that’s also true of B grade racing in most other states, including Victoria, NSW/ACT and Queensland.
What is different in South Australia among the men’s grades is the comparative popularity of A grade - while in Victoria A grade fields typically make up around one-fifth (19.5%) of male participants, in South Australia this is closer to one third - 29.5% of all male participants in the Focus Crossfire Cup in 2019 raced in A grade.
However, in the grand scheme of things, the split between Men’s A, B and C grades is as equal as anywhere in Australia - a sign that there’s a good core of riders participating in each grade, and that there aren’t too many riders sandbagging in lower grades to poach a win.
Men’s C Grade proved to be a category that grew in popularity throughout the season, and it was encouraging to see that by the end of the season it was the most popular of the three men’s grades.
This can in part be explained by the CX clinics that PACC have been running through the past couple of winters, which help new riders learn CX skills that encourage them to try racing for the first time, and help riders in lower grades master some of our sport’s trickier techniques.
While other clubs do run cyclocross skills clinics every year, having a series of clinics that allows participants to develop their skills over a number of sessions is something for which Port Adelaide deserves credit.
Age and South Australian cyclocross in 2019
Of the 384 riders in our dataset, the most popular age brackets for men were 30-39 (27.8% of all men), closely followed by 40-49 (26.8%) and 19-29 (18.1%) - more or less in line with the age data seen in our analysis of the CX National Series. For women, the most common age brackets for cross participants were 40-49 (32.6% of all women). Encouragingly, the next most popular category was riders aged 10-18 (22.4%), which is a sign of a bright future for women’s CX in South Australia.
As noted in our look at the CX National Series, the most noticeable divide in participation between men and women occurs after the age of 50, when men seem to be far more likely to continue with the sport than their female peers.
Men's participation in South Australian cyclocross in 2019, by age bracket
Women's participation in South Australian cyclocross in 2019, by age bracket
Amber Pate - South Australian Elite Women’s state champion for 2019 - rounds a corner.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
Gender and the 2019 Focus Crossfire Cup
When breaking down South Australia’s cyclocross participation statistics by gender, we can see that over the four races in 2019, there were a total of 95 entries by women and girls, making up 24.7% of the total CX population.
Of those four races, the most popular race for women was the State Championships - and by a considerable margin, too!
Participation in 2019 Crossfire Cup, by gender and race day
When we take a closer look at the separate grading for women, we can see that A grade is the most popular category, closely followed by B grade. This is something quite unique to South Australia, as in all other states (regardless of gender) it’s one of the lower grades (B or C Grade) that typically has the largest fields. This isn’t just an anomaly for 2019, either - the first race of the 2020 season also saw the largest women’s field in A Grade. However, with National Series regulars like Stacey Riedel, Jo Easson, Amber Pate, Tessa Manning and Nat Redmond all calling Adelaide home, perhaps this isn’t so surprising!
Women's participation in 2019 Crossfire Cup, by race day and grade
Catherine Seal Yates is pumped to cross the line after racing the ‘Not the Circus’ course in round 1 of the 2019 CX National Series.
Photo: @thatbikenerd
What are the next steps for South Australian cyclocross? There’s no denying that Port Adelaide Cycling Club run a tight slate of races that get the local community going, but we’d love to see other local clubs around SA jump in and give cyclocross a try, especially outside of Adelaide. Until then, you can count on CX racing happening in and around Adelaide’s CBD - we’ve even heard a whisper that there are big plans afoot for next year!