Results: Australian National XC Championships 2022

 It seems odd that there are so few riders. I recently read an article that cycling had made it into the top 5 participation sports in Australia. I'd love to hear from the natives here at PB about the state of cycling sports down under.

 @Augustus-G: There seems to be a strong local race scene at least where I live, there is a full xc, enduro and downhill local series. But it seems like there is no intermediate gap between that very local racing and top level racing. Which is probably because of how small Australia's cycling federation is for mountain biking at least, which is a real shame.

 @Augustus-G: it's probably a few things. There is very little cycling culture here like you'd get in Europe/UK. Bikes traditionally haven't been used as a form of transport and due to urban design around the car, you don't get that many kids riding bikes to get around. I think this impacts the cycling culture. It is changing as our latte sipping elites aspire to be more wokey. I read somewhere that a Brisbane bike way is the second busiest in the world after Berlin. Road/xc are reasonably popular, but cycling is more of a sport and the Average Aussie probably hasn't riden a bike since they took their stabilisers Off. I think that lack of cycling culture hinders enthusiasm and growth amongst the general population.
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.

 @sirbikealot I'd say the main reason for the low turnout is that it was held in Tasmania - small population (less local participation) and harder to get to (fewer competitors travelling from the mainland ). Only those that were serious attended.

@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.

 @Augustus-G: maybe there is so few riders because xc is the worst form of mountain biking..?

 I spent a bit of time racing XC and Marathon here in Aus, and I think there are a few key factors to the low turnout
- 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

 @DeclanAus: you’ve nailed it. Especially the first few points. I can’t speak on Australian cycling and their focus but as a long time rider, it’s no surprise. Off road cycling has always been light on support from the national bodies. The only exception being in the lead up to the 2000 Olympics.

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.

 @deknarp: its the best type of road biking

 Crashed early on, put in a good go at getting back but in his own words was just going backwards. No need to bury yourself for 10th. Went on to take the short track title the following day.

 Is that still a thing?

 @Mntneer: people who are vaxxed and got omnicron say they have had normal colds that are worse than omnicron.. so yea

 @deknarp: Speaking from personal experience,I'm calling bullshit on your observation.

 @kiwimattP: k