New time trial course unveiled for Australian Road Nationals
Cycling Australia has unveiled a new time trial course for the 2020 Australian Road National Championships in Ballarat.
The new course will start and finish at Federation University, the championships’ title sponsor, and will take riders on a lumpy out-and-back route to the north of the campus.
There are five course variations that will be used across the two days of time-trialling, as elite, U23, U19, paracycling and club team time trial riders race against the clock.
The elite & U23 women (who race together) and the U23 men will compete on the pink course, taking in two laps for a total of 28.6km. The elite men, meanwhile, will do two laps of the yellow course for a total of 37.7km. Both courses include two passes of Fisken Road, a fast and sometimes technical descent that’s frequently featured in Nationals road races in recent years. Both courses also go through Federation University on several occasions, providing better viewing opportunities for spectators than the previous course.
“Cycling Australia is very excited about the changes to the time trial course for 2020,” said the national body’s CEO Steve Drake. “We are continually looking at how we can energise the Championships and create a better event for the athletes and spectators, and we think we’ve achieved that with this change.”
The new course marks the first location change for the Nationals time trial since the introduction of a lumpy out-and-back course in Buninyong in 2015.
In 2020, the Australian Road Nationals returns to a more traditional Wednesday-to-Sunday format, after a year as a Friday-to-Tuesday meet. The time trials kick off the championships, on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by criteriums on the Friday, and road races on Saturday and Sunday.
Schedule for the 2020 Australian Road Nationals
– Wednesday 8 January: Federation University Time Trials – Para categories; cyclists with intellectual impairment; U19 Men; U19 Women; U23 Men; Elite Men; U23 & Elite Women
– Thursday 9 January: Federation University Time Trials – Para – UCI C1 Time Trial; Club Teams Time Trial; Schools Teams Time Trial
– Friday 10 January: Ballarat Criteriums – U19 Men; U19 Women; U23 Men; National Street Climb Challenge; Elite Men; U23 Women & Elite Women
– Saturday 11 January: Buninyong Road Races – U19 Men; U19 Women; U23 Men; Para all categories & cyclists with intellectual impairment, Gran Fondo National Championships
– Sunday 12 January: Buninyong Road Races – U23 & Elite Women; Elite Men
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