The Criterium course
The course is called a 'hot dog crit' because the course outline resembles a sausage shape, but it's a nice, plump German-style sausage in this case, with the wide boulevard of Sturt Street providing less of a hairpin at either end, so the constant attrition caused by braking and re-acceleration is less dramatic than it could be, also with less crashes.
At 1.1 kilometres, the course does have a distinct uphill and downhill side, with the home straight on the uphill a false flat incline to catch any out that launch their sprint too soon. The weather is set to be hot and humid, SBS commentator and former national road race champion David McKenzie described conditions on the ground during a recent live show as being similar to south-east Queensland.
2021 Federation Universtiy Road National Championships criterium course Credit: AusCycling
Elite and Under 23 Women’s Criterium contenders
The field is quite open in the women’s race, which probably lends itself to a more attacking race like we saw last year. That time, Ruby Roseman-Gannon was the rider everyone was watching, and she was very active in forcing and covering attacking moves until the final lap flyer taken by Amber Pate saw the neo-pro take the win, with teammate Alex Manly cleaning up the sprint for second.
Look to Liv AlUla Jayco to control the pace and complexion of the race again as the only Australian WorldTour team. They only have four riders, but they are four potential winners in Pate, Georgia Baker, Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Manly.
All can sprint, all have track experience which is relevant to this shorter racing format and they should come into the race with confidence.
Coming up against them are a small number of sprinters who will fancy their chances in a bunch kick against the Liv AlUla Jayco contingent.
Maeve Plouffe (DSM Firmenich) is probably the most rapid of the riders to contend here, but we saw precious little of her sprinting in action last year as stepped up to the Women’s WorldTour full-time. If she can regain the form that saw her dominate in Australia, she will be right in the mix.
Maeve Plouffe (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast) celebrates after winning the inaugural Women's Melbourne to Warrnambool race. Credit: Con Chronis
It may be a local team that proves the biggest threat in a sprint finish, with the train of National Road Series team ARA Skip Capital one of the strongest present. Sophie Edwards, Lucie Fityus and Chloe Moran could all be the final sprinter, though I would shade Edwards as the fastest finisher in this event.
The rest of the field has more opportunists, but it’s hard to go past Peta Mullens for her all-round race nous and criterium experience. She’s not got the most horsepower, but her racing ability will see her perfectly positioned, and she can win races that she’s not supposed to on paper.
The Under-23s is a race within a race, and the field doesn’t have many pure sprinters, Keira Will (ARA Skip Capital) and Keely Bennett (Team Bridgelane) are the best credentialled in a dash to the line, but Neve Bradbury is a Women’s WorldTour level rider and should be one of the strongest if the race splits apart dramatically.
Elite Men’s Criterium contenders
All eyes will be on Caleb Ewan in his return to Australian team Jayco-AlUla in 2024. A homecoming, a rebirth, and hopefully a sign of changing fortunes for Ewan’s career, as the 29-year-old looks to put an acrimonious end to his time at Lotto Dstny behind him. The success of Ewan’s switch won’t be decided in Australia, though a good start certainly won’t hurt, and it’s been a favoured hunting ground for him.
He won every edition of the Road Nationals Criterium from 2016 to 2018, skipping a few editions before returning last year, where he was well off the pace with illness. Here he comes in with full team support of seven riders, including last year’s winner Kell O’Brien, and fellow sprinter Blake Quick, second last year.
O’Brien’s win last year was the result of some very aggressive racing from Jayco-AlUla to get a small group away, perhaps due to Ewan’s presence as a competitor, this year, they might keep a lid on the racing to get Ewan off to a winning start. However, they might not have it all their own way if it comes down to a sprint, so that may be more of a Plan B, given the calibre of competition that Ewan will have.
Sam Welsford (BORA-hansgrohe) showed in his second full season as a professional that he’s one of the fastest pure sprinters in the peloton, the development that he needs to do to win the biggest races is more around getting to the finish with enough power left in his legs to unleash his full potential, particularly with accumulated fatigue in Grand Tours. That won’t be an issue on this course, and the track powerhouse should be right at home here. The issue is that he doesn’t have any teammates and everyone knows how fast he is.
Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuninck) will be looking to show that he can follow a similar path to Welsford’s second-year leap, as he embarks on his encore to his neo-pro season. His 2023 was one of solid improvement, to the point that he was mixing it up with WorldTour sprinters by the end of the year. He’s also without a team, but there are few more able to battle for position within the pack and it would be a surprise to see him outside the front few if it comes to a final sprint.
The other sprinter of particular note will come from the strong team setup of CCACHE-Par Kup, who will have Graeme Frislie as their fast man being delivered by a leadout train with a lot of depth. Frislie was the winner of the Under-23 criterium last year as the raging hot favourite then, and it will be good sighting of how he shapes up to top-tier competition.
The other squads and individual riders will be looking to push themselves into breakaways for their best shot at taking a win, last year’s criterium was a prime example of how some lesser-regarded riders can get themselves in with a shot at victory.
Broadcast Details
Friday, January 5
Australian Road National Championships – Criteriums (Elite Women’s and Men’s)
1620-1950 AEDT
Live streaming on SBS On Demand
