The results are in from the Australian XC National Championships, with Matthew Dinham, Rebecca McConnell, Cameron Wright and Katherine Hosking taking the Elite and U23 titles for 2021. Rebecca McConnell secured her ninth consecutive Elite national title with a win of nearly six minutes on second-placed Zoe Cuthbert. After winning again this year, Rebecca McConnell has now reached a 16-year winning streak at the National Championships that goes back to her time as a Junior. Matthew Dinham managed to take the national title in the Elite Men's racing, with last year's champ Daniel McConnell coming across the line in second place.
Check out the full results below.
Results:
Elite Men:
1st. Matthew Dinham: 1:36:56.52
2nd. Daniel McConnell: +5.48
3rd. Cameron Ivory: +2:13.60
4th. Sam Fox: +4:01.48
5th. Tasman Nankervis: +4:57.04
Elite Women:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 1:40:37.75
2nd. Zoe Cuthbert: +5:40.19
3rd. Holly Harris: +8:32.53
4th. Peta Mullens: +9:10.37
5th. Ella Bloor: +12:11.88
U23 Men:
1st. Cameron Wright: 1:26:24.77
2nd. Tom Cheesman: +3:14.87
3rd. Isaac Fletcher: +6:39.71
4th. Angus Neaves: +9:25.66
5th. Daniel Aurik: +11:48.44
U23 Women:
1st. Katherine Hosking: 1:27:43.37
2nd. Holly Lubcke: +50.30
3rd. Izzy Flint: +6:33.34
4th. Lillee Pollock: +14:18.29
5th. Emily Wooster: +16:34.27
Full Results:Elite Men:Elite Women:U23 Men:U23 Women:
So that's the more traditional 'cycling', but what about DH, enduro etc, well that is where we Excel, dirt bikes, bmx are cultural norms and there's plenty of youth participation,, they typically feed into Gravity focused MTB so participation rates are much higher, we have strong systems that enable the cream to rise to the top, hence we punch way above our weight here, ( Troy, Sam, Jack, Tracy).
That's all just my opinion of course, not based on facts whatsoever.
@Augustus-G The local XC races here (Canberra) have about 60 racers during the COVID era. In earlier times I've seen at least 100. But, compare that to the hundreds and hundreds of people that turn up to our main bike park on weekend, it's small. The sport is massive here and there are heaps of bike shops. About ten years ago when I moved back to Canberra (population a third of a million) had more Giant dealerships that the entire San Francisco Bay Area (7 million).
The bottom line is that I would not be equating the low turnout at the National Champs as a sign of low level of participation in MTB in Australia. It's huge.
- very high travel costs
- Tasmania is too far for most people to travel
- large COVID restrictions including locked borders still occurring
- stronger push towards support in road racing, leading to lots of riders making the move to the road. Matt Dinham rides for a road team, then you have the likes of Jack Haig, Chris Hamilton, Nathan Haas and many more made the move to the road to chase professional opportunities (and smashing it)
- Aus Cycling (newly formed national body) could put more effort into a national series to provide exposure to higher level racing across the whole country
Just my 2c
I was surprised to see Roly Kyme over from Margs for the DH race. He had a good showing so it has worked out well for him.