Rebecca Locke unbeaten after four rounds of National Cyclo-cross Series

Rebecca Locke and Tom Chapman produced the perfect weekend of cyclo-cross racing for Round 3 and 4 of the 2023 AusCycling CX National Series in Adelaide.

Round 3

Six laps faced the elite women’s field of 12 for Round 3 at the Adeladie Super-Drome.

All were out to do their best to end the winning streak of the current National Champion in Rebecca Locke after her domination of the opening two rounds in Perth.

Miranda Griffiths and Locke were the early breakaways from the pack and the Ballarat rider was giving the series leader.

They would stay locked together until the final lap when Locke made her move with a kilometre left to go to take the win.

Griffiths would claim silver with Tilly Field more than two minutes back in third.

With the current elite men’s series leader MIA, it was a chance to see a new face top of the podium.

It also meant reigning national champion Tom Chapman would line up for his home-town race and the owner of the green and gold jersey would showcase it at the front of the field.

By the sixth lap Chapman had established a sizeable gap to the chasers of Christopher Aitken and Garry Millburn.

The Port Adelaide Cycling Club rider would cross for his first win in the series with Aitken and Millburn taking the minor placings.

Round 4

Perfect conditions and hot racing were set to be served up for Round 4 and a similar story developed in the elite women.

Locke and Griffiths again set the early pace as they started out on their seven-laps of the Adelaide Super-Drome.

This time the national champion would put a gap to Griffiths with two laps to go and ride solo to the finish-Iine for a perfect weekend.

Griffiths again with the silver nearly 50 seconds behind with Fiona Morris in third.

A field of 17 would back up for racing in the elite men and the usual suspects were at the pointy end of the field.

Chapman, Aitken and Millburn were joined by Nicholas Smith and young gun Max Hobson in the early stages.

But as he has proved once out front the national champion is hard to chase down as he pushed his lead out to nearly half a minute by the sixth lap.

Aitken and Millburn would again have to settle for the minor medals.

Full results.

The next two rounds of the National CX Series will be held in Ipswich on the 17 and 18 June.

Photo Credit: Turn8 Photography