Izzy Flint (Cervelo Australia Off-Road) and Max Hobson (Team BridgeLane) claimed the elite titles at the AusCycling Cyclo-cross national championships on a wet and muddy course at Ballarat's Victoria Park.
The races for the green and gold jersey played out on day one of the two day CX Ballarat – with Sunday delivering a UCI C2 event – on a course which was soaked by rain the night before. The fields included former winners but also some new challengers to take on the 2.65 km loop, featuring a short but steep climb and descent on a section known as 'the mound'.
Hobson, who was second in the U23 title race last year but made the step up to the elite category in 2024, and the 2023 U23 title winner Tristan Nash, both took off in the early stages of the elite men's race. However, in the final third of the nine lap race Hobson made his move and struck out to the front alone though Nick Smith (Duke Flanders) plus mountain bike and gravel racer Tasman Nankervis (Merida / BMC Shimano) were in pursuit.
“I was trying to hold off Tristan getting too far up the road, and he had a little slip up toward the end of the track," said Hobson in an AusCycling media release. "I’m not sure if he had a little issue with the bike, but I just took it and decided to attack. I got maybe 10 seconds on Nick Smith and I was just like I just have to hold this for the next three or four laps."
That is exactly what he did, crossing the line ten seconds ahead of Smith, while Nankervis was a further 24 seconds back in third with Nash fourth.
Flint may have been a late entrant to the elite women's race but the Australian U23 cross-country mountain bike champion was in a hurry to make her mark. She broke away from last year's winner Katherine Hosking and had carved out a five second gap by the end of the first lap of seven. From there the positions shuffled behind but the Tasmanian mountain biker just continued to build her lead, crossing the line more than one-and-a-half minutes ahead of her nearest rival.
“I didn’t really know what to expect," Flint said. "I only decided that I was going to race three days ago. I was meant to be in Europe but I changed my international flight once we found out this was on.
“It’s nice to be out racing with the girls and to do something different," she added.
"I love riding in the mud on the mountain bike and I was just hoping my skills were going to transfer across to cross, so all in all a pretty good day.”
Miranda Griffiths (Batch Brewery X Seight), who had the home-town advantage, worked her way up the field to claim the runner-up spot for the second year in a row while the 2016 and 2022 winner Rebecca Locke was third and Hosking took fourth.
In the under 23 races Zoe Davison and Sam Northey took the Australian titles.
Australia, which is nearing the end of its winter season, is among the first nations to award the national titles for the 2024-25 season. Fellow southern hemisphere nation New Zealand opened the national championship battles last weekend, with Craig Oliver taking the New Zealand's men's elite title and Josie Wilcox the women's elite title.
