AusCycling has revealed the courses that will be used at Australia’s 2025 Road National Championships, the first of three editions to be held in Perth, Western Australia.
As previously reported by Escape, Kings Park, just south-west of the Perth CBD, will form the centrepiece of the road race circuit. The 13.6 km circuit starts, finishes, and spends much of its length inside the park. The course does leave Kings Park though, heading down the Swan River waterfront en route to a brief visit to the Perth CBD, before returning to Kings Park.
It’s a lumpy circuit, with around 180 metres of climbing per lap (vs 208 m for the Mt. Buninyong circuit), with the toughest climbs coming in the last 2.5 km before the finish. The final rise tops out inside the final 500 m of the circuit.
“Between the lush greenery and spectacular lookouts of Kings Park, and the cosmopolitan city streets of the CBD, I can’t think of a more appropriate setting for Australia’s road race championships,” said AusCycling’s executive general manager of sport, Kipp Kaufmann.
“The course is challenging, but equitable: it doesn’t suit just one type of racer. A punchy climber may be able to get away, while a cagey sprinter may be able to hang on. It’s anyone’s race.”
The road races will be held on Saturday January 11 and Sunday January 12. Both the elite/U23 women’s and elite men’s road races will be held on the Sunday, with the women racing eight laps (109 km) and the men racing 13 laps (177 km). In a break from tradition, the elite men’s race will happen first on the Sunday morning, followed by the elite/U23 women’s race that afternoon.
The time trials, held on Wednesday January 8 and Thursday January 9, will be held in Bold Park, roughly 8 km west of the Perth CBD. AusCycling has described the 9.8 km circuit as “fast” but the course does feature two short step-wise climbs for the riders to contend with.
The elite women and men will race for medals on the Thursday, with the women covering three laps (29.4 km) and the men covering four laps (39.2 km).
Criterium titles will be contested on the evening of Friday January 10, on a street circuit in Northbridge, just north of the Perth CBD. The 1.2 km circuit includes six corners but is almost entirely flat.
“It’s a fast but technical course with a mixture of wide boulevards and narrow side streets,” Kaufmann said. “This course gives plenty of opportunities for attacking riders to break away and get out of sight of the chasing bunch.”
Moving to Perth in 2025 is the start of a new era for Australia’s Road Nationals. The event has been held in Ballarat and Buninyong, Victoria for the past 18 years, and for 21 of the last 23 editions.
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