SBS will have highlights from the opening two rounds of the Auscycling MTB National Series from Canberra available on the SBS Sport website and on SBS On Demand.
Taking place at Stromlo Forest Park one week after the competitors booked all available slots for the national downhill opening round at Mt Buller, Saturday and Sunday’s back-to-back cross-country races offer locals a chance to race against, or watch, world-class riders on home soil.
Hosted by the Canberra Off-Road Cycling Club, the event offers a rare opportunity for Australian and New Zealand riders to gain valuable UCI points to improve their start-line position in international races later in the season.
Canberra locals including 2022 world number one Rebecca (Bec) McConnell (Primaflor Mondraker Genuins) and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Zoe Cuthbert (Trek-Shimano Australia) will be racing the Elite Women’s event. Former World Cup winner Daniel (Dan) McConnell (Trek-Shimano Australia) and former Under-19 world champion Cameron (Cam) Wright will be racing in the elite men’s.
Curious to learn more about what this weekend’s racing means in the bigger picture of mountain biking in Australia, and pathways for Australian riders to succeed at an international level, SBS Sport spoke with the ever-passionate and enthusiastic Adam Kelsall, head coach at .
Kelsall has run coach education around Australia for AusCycling and has attended three world championship events as a performance staff member with AusCycling.
Hi Adam, can you talk us through what this weekend’s opening rounds of the national cross-country MTB series mean to some of the people who are racing it?
"It will mean different things to different athletes. For example, Rebecca McConnell, Zoe Cuthbert, Dom Paolilli, Sam Fox, Cam Wright will all be chasing World Cups this year. In terms of preparation for World Cups, it'll be a hit out and it will be a meaningful hit out, but their World Cup season doesn't start ‘till May. A lot of those athletes will still be doing base training, so they’re probably not as fit or as fast as they will be later in the year.
"For the Under-19s, it's a really important race. If Under-19s want to be selected for the World Championships, this is a compulsory race for them. Depending on their personalities, there'll be an extra bit of pressure for Under-19s this weekend."
Adam Kelsell chats with Australian cross-country and marathon racer Imogen Smith before the elite women's cross-country world championships race Lenzerheide, Switzerland in 2019 (Matt Rousu)
"Dom, Sam and Cam all competed at the road national championships, which would have been an incentive for them to do some long kilometres and build up their endurance base. They'll all be building up slowly.
"The Under-19s will be really sharp. There's a chance that this weekend some of the Under-19s will be faster than some of the elites, just because, in terms of their preparation, the Under-19s need to be on it this weekend.
"The elite riders will still be fast. Rebecca and Zoe, they’re world-class and they'll be world-class all the time. And Dan McConnell is in the mix as well. He's been racing World Cups for 10 years or so, and just through experience he'll know exactly where to be and what to do. So watch for Dan."
What role does the XCO National Series play in the bigger picture hopes, dreams and plans of these younger riders?
"For Under-19 men and women, it's a huge weekend in terms of their dreams. For the Under-19s who raced in Europe last year, this will be about getting back to Europe because they have to get selected.
"For the first-year Under-19s who have never raced in Europe, they'll be very nervous and very excited about this weekend! They'll probably have come through Under-15s and Under-17s, and this will be a race where they can start to get selection happening, so they'll be very excited for that."
That really changes the narrative of the event, doesn't it? We often focus so much on elite riders, but it’s the competitions between the younger riders where there’s more at stake this weekend.
"It does. For Under-17s, it'll be really about getting race experience on a very technical track. Canberra is technical up. It's technical down. It's technical everywhere. There's no relief for any of the riders.
"For Under-17s, for most of them, this will be their first exposure to the Mount Stromlo track, and it is a track that was used for the world champs when it was in Australia in 2009. You'll see them coming back from their track practice and their eyes will be wide open."
Nino Schurter of Switzerland races his blinged-out bike (by 2008 standards) down the infamous Hammerhead at Mount Stromlo during the 2008 mountain bike world cup round held on the purpose-built track Credit: Stefan Postles/Getty Images
"I think it's both. I think a lot of the Under-17s will come to Stromlo having only ridden their local tracks and maybe a few other tracks, so this will be their first experience with a world-level track. They then get a benchmark: OK, this is what a world-class track looks like. Then hopefully they go away and work on those skills.
"There's a feature called Hammerhead, which is a three-tiered rock feature for example. This might be controversial, but it's actually gotten easier over time with improvements in bike technology, especially dropper posts.
"You can see images of Bec McConnell years ago, probably around that World Champs time, and she's on a hardtail mountain bike (no rear suspension) with a high seat and her body is almost in line with the angle of the rock of Hammerhead. But now, with the with dropper posts, riders can negotiate that a lot easier (as they can move their bodies behind the seat more easily).
"Still, they're doing Hammerhead after they've done the Cardiac Climb where they'll be doing close to maximum heart rate for a couple of minutes, then drop into these very technical features. It's a very demanding track."
That's it's interesting that you say that about the dropper posts. I remember when Glen Jacobs from World Trail was designing that track he was designing it with dropper posts in mind so it would stay challenging as bike technology developed.
"Yeah, I remember that as well. That's fascinating. He really wanted to push the technology. The Under-17s coming through now benefit from Glen's foresight, which is great."
One of the other big challenges Australian riders face is gaining race experience in a big field of top-level riders. What difference has it made having world-class riders race in domestic events over the Australian summer?
"Having someone like Bec McConnell racing in Canberra, after winning three world cup races in a row last year, is really exciting. Also having Zoe on the line as a Commonwealth Games silver medallist. From a whole event perspective, that raises the level and the buzz and the vibe around the races.
"For the other women competing in that race, that's such an exciting opportunity, and maybe even a little bit intimidating as well. They can go to a domestic race and find out exactly where they’re at and what they need to work on.
"I think equally as important is that Bec and Zoe both spend a lot of time with the junior girls. They are happy to talk. You'll see that over the weekend. They'll be signing autographs, which is really cool too. It brings a bit of rockstar to the sport."
As someone who's coached Zoe for the last three years, what do you think it’s meant for Zoe’s development as a racer having Bec race these events? Having a local rider of that calibre to race against is a benchmark that Bec didn’t have for instance.
"I think what it does for Zoe is that it makes it a believable thing. She lives in Canberra and Bec lives in Canberra, so Zoe sees superstar world cup racer Bec. But she also sees - I don't even know if Bec drinks coffee - but I’m gonna say, for example, she sees Bec in the cafe just as a normal human.
"So there's that belief that OK, that Canberra girl made it on the world stage, so I can make it on the world stage as well."
As a coach, what do you see as some of the key ingredients for success for Australian mountain bike riders with international aims?
"It takes a big cross-section of things to be successful.
"I think they've got to be willing to go on a long journey. They have to be patient. They have to recognise that to be successful overseas, apart from Cadel Evans, no Australian mountain biker has been successful overseas straight away.
"They've got to able to ride their bikes really well in Europe, but then hustle off the bike to get support for Europe, which is an interesting balance of skillsets.
"They also have to be incredibly skillful on the bike. A research paper I recently read said that for 30 per cent of the race, or between 25 and 30 per cent of the race, they’re not putting any power through the pedals. That's where skills, decision-making, being able to stay calm when they’re descending, being able to recover are all important. And they have to have the physiology to be world-class. And that's still a bit of a mystery, what the perfect physiology is to be successful.
Kelsall (L): "It takes a big cross-section of things to be successful" (Matt Rousu)
"Something that I'm really excited about is that kids are getting mountain bikes under their Christmas trees now!
"I was in Tasmania last year and they had an interschool championship. There were 500 kids. I said, 'What's driving this? Why are there so many kids?' And they said, 'In Tasmania, every kid has good trails at the end of their street'.
"I get excited about racing, but I get equally excited about the recreational increase in mountain biking, especially in terms of the health benefits to both mental health and physical health. People are getting out on their bikes and being happier humans. We saw great examples of this during Covid - so many people took up mountain biking and bike riding in general.
"I'm also excited for the talent coming through. There’ll be a lot of talent at Stromlo this weekend!"
SBS will have highlights from the opening two rounds of the Auscycling MTB National Series from Canberra available on the SBS Sport website and on SBS On Demand.
