Australian Cyclo-cross National Championships – Izzy Flint and Max Hobson declare elite titles

Izzy Flint (Cervelo Australia Off-Road) and Max Hobson (Team BridgeLane) claimed the elite titles on the AusCycling Cyclo-cross nationwide championships on a moist and muddy course at Ballarat’s Victoria Park.

The races for the inexperienced and gold jersey performed out on day one of many two day CX Ballarat – with Sunday delivering a UCI C2 occasion – on a course which was soaked by rain the night time earlier than. The fields included former winners but additionally some new challengers to tackle the two.65 km loop, that includes a brief however steep climb and descent on a piece often known as ‘the mound’.

Hobson, who was second within the U23 title race final 12 months however made the step as much as the elite class in 2024, and the 2023 U23 title winner Tristan Nash, each took off within the early levels of the elite males’s race. However, within the ultimate third of the 9 lap race Hobson made his transfer and struck out to the entrance alone although Nick Smith (Duke Flanders) plus mountain bike and gravel racer Tasman Nankervis (Merida / BMC Shimano) have been in pursuit.  

“I used to be attempting to carry off Tristan getting too far up the highway, and he had just a little slip up towards the top of the monitor,” stated Hobson in an AusCycling media launch. “I’m undecided if he had just a little difficulty with the bike, however I simply took it and determined to assault. I acquired possibly 10 seconds on Nick Smith and I used to be identical to I simply have to carry this for the subsequent three or 4 laps.”

That is precisely what he did, crossing the road ten seconds forward of Smith, whereas Nankervis was an extra 24 seconds again in third with Nash fourth.

Flint could have been a late entrant to the elite girls’s race however the Australian U23 cross-country mountain bike champion was in a rush to make her mark. She broke away from final 12 months’s winner Katherine Hosking and had carved out a 5 second hole by the top of the primary lap of seven. From there the positions shuffled behind however the Tasmanian mountain biker simply continued to construct her lead, crossing the road greater than one-and-a-half minutes forward of her nearest rival.

“I didn’t actually know what to anticipate,” Flint stated. “I solely determined that I used to be going to race three days in the past. I used to be meant to be in Europe however I modified my worldwide flight as soon as we came upon this was on.

“It’s good to be out racing with the ladies and to do one thing completely different,” she added.
“I really like using within the mud on the mountain bike and I used to be simply hoping my expertise have been going to switch throughout to cross, so all in all a reasonably good day.”

Miranda Griffiths (Batch Brewery X Seight), who had the home-town benefit, labored her method up the sector to assert the runner-up spot for the second 12 months in a row whereas the 2016 and 2022 winner Rebecca Locke was third and Hosking took fourth.

In the beneath 23 races Zoe Davison and Sam Northey took the Australian titles.

Australia, which is nearing the top of its winter season, is among the many first nations to award the nationwide titles for the 2024-25 season. Fellow southern hemisphere nation New Zealand opened the nationwide championship battles final weekend, with Craig Oliver taking the New Zealand’s males’s elite title and Josie Wilcox the ladies’s elite title.