Preview: 2022 AusCycling Madison National Championships

The first Track National Championship dominoes of 2022 will fall this Sunday at the 2022 AusCycling Madison National Championships as part of the Quest Ivanhoe 124th Austral Wheelrace event at Darebin International Sports Centre (DISC).

The 200-lap men's Madison and 120-lap women's Madison never fails in serving up entertaining racing – here is everything you need to know ahead of the two tussles for the green and gold Madison national champion stripes.

Tickets

Grab your seats online at trybooking.com or at the door.

Live Stream

The Quest Ivanhoe 124th Austral Wheelrace Finals and Madison Championship Finals will be streamed live on the AusCycling YouTube channel from 6:30pm AEDT Sunday, March 6.

The contenders

Men

Australian Cycling Team duo Conor Leahy (above) and Josh Duffy jump off the start list as the highest credentialed Madison pairing for Sunday.

Both have been elevated up a level in recent months in the AusCycling categorisation network to Podium Ready status and have been strong over the Australian summer of cycling with AusCycling National Road Series team Inform TMX Make.

Leahy and Duffy together are a new pairing at this level, with Duffy having teamed up with James Moriarty at #MadisonNats21, eventually finishing sixth.

Leahy did not start in 2021.

#MadisonNats22 will be an early form tester for the pairing ahead of an important #TrackNats22 campaign for both of them individually in Brisbane later this month.

Graeme Frislie and Moriarty come together on Sunday as the Australian Cycling Team Podium Potential Academy pairing.

Both have found success in other events on the boards, with Frislie winning a dramatic scratch race national championship at #TrackNats21 in Brisbane and Moriarty claiming a silver in the individual pursuit behind Leahy.

Much like Duffy and Leahy, this is a rather new pairing, with Frislie riding alongside Pat Eddy in 2021 to a seventh-place finish.

Both have shown great form at the recent Santos Festival of Cycling (SFoC) Adelaide Track League (ATL) round in late January.

The two next pairings on the start list of Henry Dietze and Blake Agnoletto, and Oliver Bleddyn (below) and Zac Marriage, could very well cause an upset on Sunday.

Riding on their home track, Dietze and Agnoletto have the ability to match the Australian Cycling Team pairings, with Agnoletto at the pointy end of SFoC ATL and Dietze finishing 8th at Melbourne to Warrnambool a fortnight ago.

Bleddyn and Marriage are right at home in the Madison, with both possessing big engines – definitely a pairing that will presumably play a huge role in animating the race in the final 100 laps.

Other teams to watch out for include Tasmanians Jack Menzies and Dalton Stretton, New South Wales duo Kurt Eather and Devraj Grewal, and Victorian pairing Jordan Villani and Jackson Hribar.

Women

Three Australian Cycling Team teams enter as the frontrunners for the #MadisonNats22 women’s national championship.

Maeve Plouffe is reaching new heights on the bike in 2022 and will be tough to stop if the points start accumulating in her favour alongside teenage teammate Alyssa Polites, the under-23 national road race champion.

Plouffe has winning pedigree in the Madison, coming out on top of #MadisonNats19 with Kristina Clonan as her teammate.

The team of Sophie Edwards and Amber Pate are a dangerous one-two punch for the rest of the women’s field.

Edwards, the 2021 omnium and team pursuit national champion, was promoted to Podium Ready in the 2022 AusCycling categorisations and was impressive at the SFoC as part of Team Garmin-Australia.

Pate’s progression has been meteoric over the past year, finding herself added to the Podium Potential Academy for 2022 and riding as if she was a seasoned professional in a guest spot with Team BikeExchange-Jayco at the SFoC.

Chloe Moran and Alex Martin-Wallace as a team will lay down some serious power at DISC this Sunday.

Martin-Wallace (above) is right up there in the conversation as Australia’s best bunch racer on the track and knows how to win a national championship on the boards.

Moran, the 2021 points race and team pursuit national champion, keeps improving year on year and was rewarded with an elevation to the Australian Cycling Team Podium Ready squad for 2022 - the South Australian and Queenslander tandem is another potential national championship-winning team on Sunday.

17-year-old Melburnians Lucinda Stewart and Sophie Marr are dark horses to get among the sprints.

Both have a great kick and come together here as a united front before going head-to-head in March at #TrackNats22 in the under-19 category.

Teams

Men

1 (Quest Ivanhoe)Conor Leahy Josh Duffy
2 (Bayside Skoda)Graeme Frislie James Moriarty
3 (TAC)Henry Dietze Blake Agnoletto
4 (Kask)Kurt Eather Devraj Grewal
5 (Vittoria)Angus Miller Leo Zimmermann
6 (SRM)Jack Menzies Dalton Stretton
7 (Premax)Oliver Bleddyn Zac Marriage
8 (BikeChain)Rohan Haydon-Smith Jonathan Marr
9 (ComwireIT)Ben Harvey Dylan Eather
10 (Genovese)Jordan Villani Jackson Hribar
11 (SiS)Dylan Proctor-Parker Nate Hadden
12 (Today's Plan)Mitchell McGovern Tarun Cook

Women

1 (Quest Ivanhoe)Maeve Plouffe Alyssa Polites
2 (Bayside Skoda)Sophie Edwards Amber Pate
3 (TAC)Chloe Moran Alex Martin-Wallace
4 (Kask)Belinda Bailey Amelia Mulhern
5 (Vittoria)Alli Anderson Nicola Macdonald
6 (SRM)Dharlia Haines Meg Marker
7 (Premax)Lucinda Stewart Sophie Marr
8 (ComwireIT)Alana Hribar Sophie Sutton

Where to follow

Follow AusCycling Track on Facebook and AusCycling on Instagram and Twitter for updates.

Event Details

Quest Ivanhoe 124th Austral Wheelrace featuring the 2022 AusCycling Madison National Championships

Purchase tickets

Sunday, March 6, 2022

• Session 2: 2pm – 4:45pm (Austral Heats)
• Session 3: 6:30pm – 9:30pm (2022 AusCycling Madison National Championships and Austral Finals)

The Quest Ivanhoe 124th Austral Wheelrace is supported by the Victorian Government.

Pictures: Andy Rogers (Fame and Spear)