Peta pipes it up!

Words: Jamie Finch-Penninger   Photos: Tim Bardsley-Smith, Kirsty Baxter

Peta Mullens has spent her life racing bikes of all descriptions over all sorts of different terrain. She is a three-time Australian mountain bike champion, a national road race champion, a junior track cycling champion and increasingly rides cyclocross races. Mullens’ goal is refreshingly simple and is pursued with her forthright style – to do what makes sense for her to be happy. 

A list of season results for Mullens can read like the palmares of two different riders
mashed together, but her jumps from the road to the dirt are carefully planned and thought through well in advance. 

“So this year, I turn my main focus to the road. But in the back of my mind I know that it’s a pre-Commonwealth Games year so I know there’s things that I need to do to satisfy selection criteria to be able to race the Commonwealths on the dirt,” Mullens explains.

“That includes the MTBA National Championships and the World Championships in Cairns in September. So I’ll dabble enough to keep my foot in the ring, but not so much that it takes away from my road cycling. I’d like to build up my strength and endurance and take some results for my new team in USA.”

Mullens has signed with American road team Hagens Berman Supermint for 2017 and dispalyed the colours prominently throughout the Australian summer, especially in the Santos Women’s Tour where she was right up the pointy end in some of the sprints. Recent years have seen many riders burn out from overwork or even slide into depression when isolated overseas. Mullens has countered the second issue by making part of her deal with Hagens Berman Supermint include her long-term partner, Jarrod Moroni, being taken on as a mechanic for the team in races in America.

“That was a really big thing when I was deciding on a team – some teams are open to it whilst others are completely against it,” she says. “We’re certainly not a public display of affection, lovey-dovey couple, so I’d like to think we’re not difficult to have around and Jono (Jonothan Coulter, Hagens Berman Supermint sports director and co-owner) was really supportive of that.

"So Jarrod will come over a couple of weeks after I do and work with us during the Tour of California. Then we’ll leave the team for a few weeks and I’ll do some racing just with him, we had some great host families last year on a similar stint last year and there are some great races like the Tour of America’s Dairylands (which Mullens won last year). I think that’s the most important part of the year, where I take a little bit of time away for myself and just enjoy bike-riding with my partner.”

Mullens, 28, is pretty enthusiastic about her new team, which had big ambitions for the Tour Down Under and the major stage races in USA. There’s a bit of pay on offer – not much, but enough to save Mullens from doing extra shifts at the meat-packing factory in Bendigo where she has worked in the past. The dynamic of the HBS squad is different from many however, with the focus on rider wellbeing and happiness.

“With this team, the average age is a lot older than teams I’ve ridden with before,” Mullens says. “I feel that I’m starting to become a veteran of the sport but on this team I’m one of the young ones. I think that means we are essentially at different points in our life. We love to win bike races but we are just as much about having fun, staying fit and healthy and having a good time. We know we’re not going to be world champions any day soon but that doesn’t stop us from being the best athletes we can and trying to win some bike races.”

Winning bike races has never been a problem for Mullens and she will look to add to her list of honours against some of the best riders in the world. There are plenty of other goals for Mullens to fulfil during the 2017 season.

“This year I’d like to do well and get some key results in the Womens World Tour races in America and hopefully put my hand up for selection in the Road World Championships,” she says. “It’s something I’ve never done before and something I’d love to tick off the list. I think the course in Norway suits me and I’ll be letting the selectors know that’s on the cards for me.

"The mountain bike worlds are always something I always love to do and top 20 is something that I’m happy with there. The road worlds are a bit different as it’s a team event, so you can’t set any goals for that until you are part of the team and see what your role is.”

The January road campaign for Mullens wasn’t the heady high of her nationals road race win in 2015, but she was never far from the pointy end of races and her main targets remain on the horizon.

“The early part of January can be really tough for Australians, you might have 70 riders in a race and nine of the best are from Orica-Scott. So nationals can be tough, but then you go to a race like the Tour Down Under and all the riders who were by themselves have teams now and it’s an even playing field, numbers-wise. So races like TDU and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race are better for me to have a real crack.”

Results aside, Mullens takes a lot of enjoyment from the experience of the sport and she appears to appreciate the process as much as the endpoint. Maybe it is a product of having such a varied schedule and making it more important to live each moment and enjoy it as it comes. The American scene is also an attraction for the 28-year-old, who sees the booming growth of cycling as a big draw card.

“I was really interested to see how my form built last year during the season,” Mullens says. “I haven’t raced Tour of Cali or the Philadelphia Cycle Classic before, so those are two races that I’ll be the most interested in targeting and the two I’m most excited about. Racing in America is huge, not just for the men, equally for the women and there’s something about it that excites me.

"In Australia, I’ve seen an event like the Bay Crits dwindle down over the past few seasons. It used to be packed to the rafters and be five deep, but now it’s two deep – whereas in America it’s going the other way.”

Many on the women’s side of the sport struggle to make ends meet and whilst Mullens isn’t exempt from that reality, she does it more successfully than most, keeping herself happy and sane in the process. And if you want to keep track of Peta through the season, follow her on Instagram: @petamullens.