Day 3 at the Australian National Mountain Bike Championships
In some frantic racint Zoe Cuthbert and Dan McConnell were crowned short track national champions.
Zoe Cuthbert has powered to her first elite cross-country national title, while veteran Dan McConnell won his first championship since 2021 in today's Cross Country Short Track events.
After the dusty days so far, overnight rain brought welcome relief for the riders at Awaba Mountain Bike Park. The late withdrawal of Rebecca Henderson left the door open for a new elite women’s champion, and Cuthbert took the opportunity with both hands. After securing the hole shot – with one foot unclipped – Cuthbert controlled the race from start to finish, finishing solo with plenty of time to celebrate.
"I was super keen to get a good start and then try and just keep it the whole way," Zoe said after the race. "I knew there wasn't very much overtaking and that when we would catch the back of the other riders, it would be quite difficult."
Cuthbert made special mention of her fellow Canberrans in the race, including Ella Bloor and Alice Patterson-Robert, who shared the podium with her.
“It’s always great to win, but to do it with so many girls that I've just spent the summer training with, and we've all just been so supporting each other, it's just unreal. We're all from Canberra. We do slightly different disciplines, but we've all been training together. I live with one of them, they’re all my best friends, both on and off the bike, and coming here and racing together is just so perfect.”
The elite men’s race had all the speed, drama and intrigue deserving of a national championship.
From the beginning, defending champion Sam Fox set a ferocious tempo, and the pace never yielded until th e chequered flag. Young rider Jack Ward looked most comfortable, gluing himself to Fox’s wheel as the field stretched behind them.Eventually, a group of around nine riders came together at the front of the race, including McConnell, Scott Bowden and former professional Jared Graves.
Late in the race, Ward and Graves came into contact, tumbling the pair to the back of the pack. Fox looked to accelerate to keep control of the race, only to suffer his own collision and slip out of the podium places.
Amongst the carnage, it was the McConnell who held his nerve and made a decisive surge to the front with three laps to go. On the narrow track, the 38-year-old Canberran staved off all challengers to win a tight sprint finish.
Daniel McConnell said: "I'm pretty happy with that. I'm a bit surprised. Short track's not normally my strong point, so to come here and just start the weekend off with a win is really promising. I guess it’s a course with not a lot of passing, so position is really important. And I was just able to settle in for the first 10 minutes. There wasn’t much happening, and the pace was that fast that you couldn’t really get around anyway."
“Then, I guess, fatigue started kicking in in the last few minutes, and I was just able to move up, move up, get to the front, and then I could dictate the pace for the last couple laps.
“[Last year] I just stayed home and just tried to get things into some sort of routine, and then in December, leading into Christmas, I just started training a bit more and I thought, ‘oh well, let's go for Nationals and see what happens. I’m just really enjoying my riding. I guess it's not the only thing in my life now.”
In Downhill, eight-time national champion Troy Brosnan and local rider Ellie Smith have set the fastest times in the Elite Men's and Women's seeding. They will start last out of the gate in tomorrow afternoon's final.
