fameandspear:
Australian NCXS ‘13 Round 5 - Alphington, Melbourne
I thought it quite fitting that the final round of this year’s National Cyclocross Series would make its way down to Melbourne, the unofficial home of CX in Australia.
The race was put on by the ever amazing team at Dirty Deeds Cyclocross.
Not only had Nik laid out a long, painful and all round awesome course, the DDCX had also upped the game by having Australia’s first ever flyover!
The day proved to be no disappointment with the course getting churned up and by the time B Grade CX started people were getting seriously muddy - and it only got better.
The highlight of the course was a fast grassy downhill with a huge puddle at the bottom. Initially riders were avoiding it but eventually they were coaxed into hammering through it which provided some amazing entertainment for the crowd.
Women’s Elite featured the same familiar faces at the pointy end of the field with Sarah Holmes taking the win with the iRide duo of April and Mel filling the minor placings. Overall, Rowena Fry managed to hold onto her overall win and take out the series with Sarah Holmes in 2nd and Mel Ansett coming in 3rd.
The men’s elite was a similar affair with Paul Van Der Ploeg continuing his dominance finishing first with Cameron Ivory and Andy Blair both riding strong races to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively. Overall, The big man VDP was untouchable and took out the series with Adrian Jackson in 2nd overall and Peter Hatton in 3rd.
MASSIVE thank you to the whole DDCX crew, all of the volunteers, Dave, sponsors, spectators and of course the riders for making Sunday’s race the best CX race I’ve ever been to.
Sadly, this marks an end to my coverage of this year’s NCXS. I have all 5 races + the CX Nationals in a collection on my Flickr which you can check out here and you can see the whole set from Sunday’s race here.
In a few days I will have a little announcement about something Ive been working on which is almost ready to be brought into the world and I’m really excited about so keep your eyes peeled here and to my Facebook page for all the info!