Henderson brings her ‘A game’ to seal 10th Elite National XCO Title

Rebecca Henderson's winning streak continued today, riding to her 10th Elite Cross Country Olympic National title at the AusCycling Mountain Bike Championships in Thredbo.

The world No. 4 came into the race as the favourite, and showed top form winning the short course (XCC) title on Friday in convincing fashion.

From the starter's whistle, Henderson was out to make sure she held on to the green and gold jersey for another year, riding away from the rest of the pack early in the piece.

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Henderson rode solo to victory with a margin of three minutes to Zoe Cuthbert, who crossed the line for silver.

The win is the 19th National Championship for Henderson across Elite and underage categories.

“It’s pretty special obviously. I love to represent Australia, I’m very proud to be an Aussie and overseas I’m very much known as the Aussie girl and I like to keep it that way,” Henderson said.

“I was very much just going to do my own thing, and they actually dropped off much earlier than I expected. Of course I expect Zoe (Cuthbert) to hang about for a quite a while, but its also national champs and it always brings something out of me that I can’t explain, and every time I come here I try to bring my 'A' game.”

Cuthbert said she decided not to go too deep too early to try and hang on with Henderson, instead letting her go up the road.

“I knew that Bec would want to go from the start and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold onto her and that trying to would just put me into a hole, so I let her go which was a bit hard to do but definitely made the race much more enjoyable,” Cuthbert said.

Once Henderson had established an unassailable lead, the battle was on for the silver and bronze between Cuthbert, Katherine Hosking and Peta Mullens.

Mullens took a few laps to warm up sitting around fifth position, before bridging across and overtaking Hosking to finish with the bronze.

“I haven’t been starting very well in my last couple of races so when I could see Kath and Zoe that kind of lit a fire in me. I had said that I’d be happy with a top five, content with a top four and really, really pleased with a medal,” Mullens said.

UNDER 23s

Under 23 race favourite Izzy Flint (Launceston MTBC) sealed the cross-country double, claiming the XCO title today after an impressive win in the XCC on Friday.

Flint put close to four minutes into her nearest rival and eventual silver medalist Hayley Oakes, with Lillee Pollock a further six minutes back in third.

“It was a bit of a surprise. I think everyone thought I was the favourite but I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out,” Flint said.

“The girls gapped me in the first climb and I thought I might have been in trouble, but I just backed myself to descend and I saw a bit of an opportunity half way through that first lap and I thought I’d run with it.”

UNDER 19s

Ruby Dobson (Mansfield Mt Buller CC) made it back-to-back national championship title victories in the Juniors race.

In her usual fashion Dobson, who also won the short course title on Friday, led from the front crossing the finish line with close to a 4 minute margin ahead of Maya martin who won silver, and Ella Menigoz in third place.

“I only started riding and racing about four years ago so it’s good to build up to this and get this success quite early, so I’m super happy,” Dobson said.

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See full results here.

More information about the 2023 AusCycling MTB National Championships.

The 2023 AusCycling Mountain Bike National Championships proudly supported by Destination NSW and the Department of Regional NSW.