TrackNats24: The elite women defending national championships

The 2024 AusCycling Track National Championships are shaping up as another memorable edition of Australia's best track cyclists battling for national glory. Here's the marked women mounting title defences over the coming week.

Watch it all unfold trackside from the best seat in the house at Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane from March 1-5.

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Elite Women’s Sprint

Kristina Clonan

Queensland’s Kristina Clonan will be shooting for a mammoth fifth consecutive national women’s sprint title at the 2024 TrackNats in the biggest year of her career to date. The Sunshine Coast product has been Australia’s leading women’s sprinter since 2020 after switching from endurance events and is all but certain to be selected for her debut Olympics in a few months.

The 25-year-old has upped the ante over the past year, winning a silver medal in the 500m time trial at the 2023 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Glasgow and grabbing a trifecta of titles at the 2024 Oceania Track Cycling Championships in New Zealand a fortnight ago. Clonan has one eye firmly on Paris but make no mistake about it, she is here to win, go fast and impress in front of her home crowd.

If one eye is on the Olympics, the other is flicking back watching the continuing development of 20-year-old Alessia McCaig (VIC). The Bendigo talent pushed Clonan all the way last year in Brisbane and nearly stole a 1/16 matchup win against her ARA Australian Cycling Team teammate at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Adelaide a month ago. McCaig is coming – don’t miss this duel.

Elite Women’s Keirin and 500m Time Trial

Alessia McCaig

Just as we mentioned, McCaig’s speed is rising quickly and she clicked off her first individual elite national championship at the 2023 TrackNats in the 500m time trial, with Clonan electing to not defend her title 12 months ago. A Clonan semifinal error in the keirin last year opened the door for McCaig to make it two green and gold jerseys for the week and she delivered, winning the final by a bike length ahead of her older rivals.

McCaig surprised at the Track Nations Cup in Adelaide earlier this month, winning her keirin heat that contained France’s 2022 sprint world champion Mathilde Gros, and advancing to the semifinals, which Clonan fell short of. McCaig would end up finishing 10th that night.

Alessia McCaig celebrates her keirin win at TrackNats23. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AusCycling

However, TrackNats is a different tactical game from Track Nations Cup events, and the women’s sprinting events will be more of a mano a mano battle between Clonan and McCaig. Clonan had won three national titles in a row in both the keirin and 500m time trial before last year and will want to reclaim both badly.

Elite Women’s Individual Pursuit

Sophie Edwards

ARA Australian Cycling Team’s Sophie Edwards (SA) was not expected to compete at TrackNats amid a busy schedule of track and road racing but is now likely to race on one day in Brisbane. That day is not expected to be a defence of her individual pursuit crown.

Edwards’ absence creates a big opportunity for someone, and last year’s silver medallist Claudia Marcks from the Australian Capital Territory is best placed to be that woman. The 20-year-old Canberran has been busy with a large Aussie team pursuit group over the summer months and made her ARA Australian Cycling Team debut at the Track Nations Cup in Adelaide, as well as racing again in Aussie colours at the Oceania Championships. She has without a doubt stepped up a level over the past year and we could be looking at a first elite national title for Marcks here in the individual pursuit.

Marcks’ biggest Australian threat will come from junior road time trial world champion Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Tasmania), who started her UCI Women’s WorldTour neo-pro season with Lidl-Trek at the Santos Tour Down Under. Wilson-Haffenden has never officially raced a 3000m individual pursuit because juniors race over 2000m. Irrespective of that fact, Wilson-Haffenden has the pedigree for a super quick time and holds the junior national record at 2:19.504 from her bronze medal ride at the 2023 UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships. The 18-year-old also has incredible power numbers, which is an obvious statement after her junior world championship performance in Glasgow.

The Irish women’s team pursuit squad stayed in Australia after the Adelaide Track Nations Cup round and have based themselves out of Brisbane before flying to Hong Kong for Round 2 in a fortnight. Kelly Murphy is the best individual pursuit rider out of their group and finished 11th at the 2023 UCI Track Cycling World Championships with a time of 3:29.967. A year earlier, she finished seventh after stopping the clock at 3:25.424. Both times are a few seconds ahead of Marcks last year, who put down her fastest of two rides on the day in qualifying with a 3:33.659. Murphy can’t win the national title of course, but she can win gold.

Elite Women’s Team Sprint

Queensland

Queensland won their third team sprint national championship in four years at the 2023 TrackNats ahead of New South Wales by 1.013 seconds. Kristina Clonan led the team that night in Brisbane and loves jumping back in for a team sprint in maroon, but it’d be a surprise if she was involved in 2024 due to a program that has been focused on individual events for the Olympics.

Molly McGill started for the team last year and did so for the ARA Australian Cycling Team at the Track Nations Cup in Adelaide, but she won't do that in Brisbane this year due to injury. That opens the door for new Queenslander Sophie Watts to start in the gate. What’s behind her in woman two and woman three is hard to pick if Clonan doesn’t race the team sprint. Jacqui Mengler-Mohr anchored the team last year but has shifted to tandem pilot duties of late. She will race TrackNats over the coming week though. Deneaka Blinco was looking as fast as she ever has at the Oceania Championships a fortnight ago and won two bronze medals there. The fourth sprinter on Queensland’s list is Emma Stevens, who won a silver medal in the team sprint at the 2022 UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships. It’s a deep squad, how they make up their team sprint squad is up in the air.

Queensland enter the 2024 TrackNats with a strong four-member women's sprint squad. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AusCycling

Their main challenger will be New South Wales once again via a quartet of Tomasin Clark, Kalinda Robinson, Selina Ho and Tyler Puzicha. Robinson was woman three for the gold medal-winning ARA Australian Cycling Team at the Oceania Championships, and Clark rode with Blinco and Watts to a bronze medal in the same event. Ho has raced several TrackNats and is a consistent fast starter for New South Wales, and like Queensland’s Stevens, Puzicha won silver in the team sprint at the 2022 junior worlds.

If Clonan doesn’t race, then this will be tight.

Elite Women’s Team Pursuit

South Australia

South Australia has had a lock on the team pursuit national championship for a long time and it looks set to continue in 2024. Their list of Alli Anderson, Sophie Edwards, Chloe Moran, Summer Nordmeyer and Ella Sibley is the best on paper comfortably.

The inclusion of the Irish team will provide a good test for the gold medal. Their quintet that remained in Australia after the Track Nations Cup is Erin Creighton, Lara Gillespie, Mia Griffin, Kelly Murphy and Alice Sharpe.

South Australia has dominated the elite women's team pursuit for several years. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AusCycling

Elite Women’s Points Race and Scratch Race

Chloe Moran

Chloe Moran is shooting for four points race national titles in a row on Monday night. The South Australian will be hard to stop over the 100 laps, but a good contest could emerge with Western Australian rising star Sally Carter, who pushed Georgia Baker and Alex Manly at times in December at the omnium national championships. The 18-year-old made her elite ARA Australian Cycling Team debut in Adelaide at the Track Nations Cup and raced for Australia again in New Zealand at the Oceania Championships. Her trip across the ditch ended with a DNF following a crash in the omnium but she looks to be recovered ahead of TrackNats.

Irish 22-year-old Lara Gillespie is a very handy bunch race rider and will have an impact across the points and scratch race and could have the boost of four teammates for assistance much like Moran for South Australia. As previously mentioned, the Irish women can’t win the national title, but they can win gold.

Chloe Moran completed the points race national title three-peat in 2023. Can she make it four in 2024? Picture: Josh Chadwick/AusCycling

However, 25-year-old Moran has been the go-to Australian woman for scratch racing in recent years and has shown she can match it with the best in the world in that event. She enters as the favourite to defend both her titles for good reason.

Elite Women’s Elimination Race

Lauren Perry

The elimination race national championship has only been raced twice before as part of the TasCarnivals in December, and both times they were won by Tasmanians. In 2022, it was Georgia Baker and in 2023 it was Lauren Perry. In 2024, the elimination race has been included on the main TrackNats schedule in Brisbane and will be raced as one of the final events on Tuesday afternoon.

Lauren Perry will most likely not attempt to defend her title after switching to sprinting late last year. However, with Tasmania not contesting the women’s team sprint, there will be a free day on Tuesday for Perry.

Chloe Moran is the obvious favourite to add another bunch race national championship to her locker but as mentioned earlier, Carter and the Irish girls will push her all the way.

TrackNats24: What's on and when

Feature picture: (Alessia McCaig and Kristina Clonan at TrackNats23) Josh Chadwick/AusCycling