Video & Race Report: 2022 AusCycling National Cup - Adelaide

Words: John O'Brien
Photos: Fletcher Media
Video: FSR Industries

The first Australian National Cup Gold race of 2022 went down in Adelaide over the weekend, and for once Eagle MTB Park didn’t turn on the rain or freezing conditions!

Although Adelaide’s hills aren’t the biggest, the local club Inside Line has a rich history and has some big names under its membership including Troy Brosnan and Connor Fearon.

Over the last two years, local South Australian MTB clubs have been seeing an absurdly high race entry list – with round one at Willunga three weeks ago reaching 285 entries.


Nationals...

Despite most Australian downhill events seeing higher numbers than ever, unfortunately, we have not had a true National series for over two years.

Instead we are currently running on a program called the 'National Cup' which has various tiered events (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum). However this system has its issues, and many are wanting to form a separate National series, rather than being part of a convoluted ranking system which can often put average riders at the top of the table.

But with over 330 entries and almost 50 interstate racers, it's a good sign that downhill racing is alive and well in Australia, and hopefully the National Cup format can be rejigged to bring it back to a proper National format.


With Troy out of action, it was looking like Connor would be pushing for the win, but being a National event more than a few big names including Jackson Frew and Kye A'Hern were making their way interstate to knock him off his perch!

For the Elite women we had Sian Ahern making her way across to Adelaide with the aim to take out local legend Shelly Flood.


The venue, Eagle MTB park has held national events in the past, but nowhere near the level we saw this weekend!

The park runs across the ridge of a disused quarry which makes event planning super easy, with the race village setup in the bowl of the old quarry.

Up top it's fairly rocky and janky with numerous techy drops, with the lower half leading towards a clay based soil which is easy to ride but hard to ride fast!

Special shout out to the volunteers who had put in loads of hours, sculpting, digging, and watering the track which was no easy job considering it was so dry in the weeks leading up to the race.





Final Results

Connor Fearon and Sian Ahern took out the wins in the Elite categories with times of 1:48.882 and 2:07.573 respectively.

Kaele Foale and Connor Mielke took out the wins in the Under 19 categories with times of 1:56.321 and 2:14.986 respectively.

Special mentions goes out to the fastest of the day which shows a whole bunch of junior racers putting in times close to the elites (check out Kael Foale, U19 with the third-fastest time of the day in amongst the world cup racers, and Izack Fielder almost creeping into the top 10 at only 16 years old!)

Thanks to everyone involved with the weekend – we look forward to seeing you all at the remaining four rounds of the South Australian series and the State Champs later in the year!

Full Results HERE