Pics: Jeff Curtes
Bike racing might seem like a universal sport – as easy (or as hard) for all riders wherever they’re from in the world. Get a bike, put in the training and the rewards are out there for anyone. Just look at the history of the Tour de France, for example, where Colombians have battled it out with Italians, while Slovakians try to outsprint Uzbekistanis. But when it comes to cyclocross it’s somewhat different, especially for Australians.
In fact, according to two-time World Championships contender Garry Millburn, cyclocross Down Under can almost be described as a completely different sport to that which takes place elsewhere across the globe.
That obviously poses huge challenges to Australians hoping to make it really big in CX, but the exciting discipline continues to grow in popularity all across the country. And Millburn – who has competed at elite level in cyclocross in Europe, USA and Japan – believes the issues that make Australia far from conducive to traditional CX racing can be overcome.
“It definitely does feel like cyclocross in Australia is a different sport to places like Europe and USA,” Millburn says.“I think that we’ve got some very good quality riders. It’s getting stronger, but we still struggle to a degree when we go overseas.
“CX is biggest in Europe – especially Belgium, Holland and France – and over there in the winter when it’s cyclocross season it’s cold, it’s wet, the ground is sodden and the courses are covered in thick mud. The competitors over there are used to that and have grown up with it, but in Australia the weather means we’re never going to be able to recreate those conditions – unless we only go and race in Tasmania in our winter.”
It’s impossible not to realise how much of a factor weather plays in cyclocross when watching European races at all levels on YouTube.
Indeed, the sport was created around 120 years ago in France when road racers decided to liven up their winter training (and keep themselves warm) by trying to beat each other in straight-line cross-country events between churches in neighbouring villages. The fastest, most direct, route took them through farmers’ fields, over fences and even across rivers.
Some of the obstacles were so awkward that riders had to dismount and carry their bikes over their shoulders – and the same would be the case if the fields were full of mud. But it soon progressed from a training exercise to a sport in itself, with the first national championships taking place in France, Belgium and Switzerland in the early 1900s.
It remains hugely popular in northern Europe as a winter cycling sport, but has also grown massively in the past 20 years in USA with Americans really getting on board with the fast-paced nature of elite races which last just 60 minutes and often feature thrilling wheel-to-wheel and shoulder-to-shoulder action.
Sydneysider Millburn, who previously competed in the mountain bike junior World Championships, decided to take up cyclo-cross in 2012 after somehow surviving a sickening head-on collision with a car while powering downhill at 60km/h on a riding holiday in France.
The crash left him in a coma for more than three weeks, with a broken arm, broken leg, broken back, broken ribs, punctured lung, severe head trauma and nerve damage. Millburn was even in danger of having his leg amputed due to severe swelling in his muscles, before undergoing major limb-saving surgery known as a fasciotomy.
But he was determined to get back on a bike and within a couple of years of focusing on CX he had twice qualified for the World Championships and finished on the podium back-to-back in the Australian national champs.
And having also had the chance to compete extensively in USA and recently seen at first-hand how cyclocross is growing at a fast rate in Japan, Millburn is perfectly placed to asses Australia’s place in the global pecking order.
“Fundamentally the skills are the same wherever you ride in the world. For me, coming from a mountain bike background probably helps, but if you go abroad you definitely need to adapt to the muddy conditions.
“In Europe they tend to use slope a lot more. In Australia we run events on rolling hills, at best, whereas over there they find the steepest banks and just go to town. One of the things that is possibly an inhibitor to CX in Australia is that when you look at Europe and USA they have very distinct cycling seasons.
“Mountain bikes and road bikes get put away after August/September because the weather gets bad, and if you want to keep riding and racing you have to go and do CX. In Australia, even in the middle of our winter, there is still road racing and mountain biking and CX races going on. It makes it hard for people to know what to pick, so maybe that is another part of the problem.”
Millburn hopes that Australia continues to take big strides, though, when it comes to getting more and more people involved in cyclocross. CX is certainly growing fast, with an almost 400 per cent year-on-year increase (up to February 2017) of riders affiliated to the MTBA – who run the sport in Australia – stating it was their main discipline.
Port Adelaide and Perth are two of the biggest hotspots for CX riders, but the boom is all across the country with the national championships attracting 33 per cent more competitors last year compared to 2015.
“Of late there has been a big push for getting off the road – whether that be longer gravel rides or cyclocross,” Millburn points out. “I think CX is very family-orientated. Sometimes there are events and you see mum race, dad race and the kids have their own race as well.
“The events are off the road, it’s safe and it’s generally not too far from home. Most CX races are run early afternoon, so you’re also not having to drag yourself out of the house at 7am on the weekend. Maybe unlike other cycling races, it doesn’t have to be dad going out for three hours and then rushing back home to see his family. With CX you can get everybody involved.
“It’s also a great way to learn new skills, and even if you crash it generally doesn’t hurt so much as you are landing on grass.” Millburn accepts that some cycling aficionados may scoff at the thought of doing an event where a key component is getting off their bike.
He also knows that cyclocross can be daunting for some who worry they will have to splash out on a new bike just to take part in beginner’s races.
“Yes, you have to get off your bike and there is some skill and ability to doing that – but it is just another element,” he explains. “Some people don’t like getting off their bike, but it is part of the sport! But maybe that means there is also a good crossover for not only cyclists, but also runners. Runners might like the fact they can do that for a bit during the race and maybe it would play to their strengths.
“The biggest inhibitor for some people is that they say, “Oh, I need another bike?” And unfortunately you do if you want to race to a proper level,” Millburn adds. “But most events have got a B-grade or mountain bike category which means you can come along and have a go and see what cyclocross is all about – without spending the money on a specialised bike straight away.
“If you have a mountain bike in the shed then maybe just give it a go. Come down to a race and see what it’s all about. I think people will either love it or hate it. It’s one hour, maybe only 40 minutes for a club race, that is just this weird pain that is also cool.
“I think part of the appeal of CX is that races are generally only one hour long maximum. It might only be 60 minutes, but if you are going full gas then you know about it!”
Millburn is now a real cheerleader for cyclocross in Australia and it’s perhaps no surprise given the way it has helped rebuild his sporting life after the horrific crash he was involved in in France. The nature of Millburn’s injuries, plus the series of major operations he needed just to piece his body back together, might have proved too much to come back from for many riders. But the 30-year-old financial advisor was determined not to let it affect him – and his recovery to get back on a bike and ultimately into the elite level of CX is simply astounding.
“I don’t really think about the fact that I might not have ever been able to ride again after my accident,” he explains. “In life and in my job I am always striving for goals and that was the way I approached my recovery after the accident.
“At the start I could not use my hand, so it was just a case of finding out what I had to do to make it work again. I couldn’t walk, so what could I do to walk again? Life is what you make of it and it’s not in my nature not to do as much as I can.”
Millburn’s determination and ability in cyclocross saw him travel to Europe in 2014/15 and place 47th in the World Championships. A year later he added a trip to USA to his schedule – where he placed in the top 10 in a number of high-profile races – before improving his World Championship record by finishing 38th in the 2016 edition.
Work commitments prevented him from travelling overseas for the most recent 2016/2017 winter season, but he is determined to go back to the northern hemisphere towards the end of this year and once again show he has the skills to challenge the very best riders on the planet.
“After the 20016 World Championships I worked out that I needed to be three per cent better in terms of time to get into the top 30. If I was six per cent better I’d be top 20 and to win the race I had to improve by 10 per cent,” he says.
“Some of that is fitness, some of that is skill. If you were talking purely about physiological effort, then three per cent is a lot. But maybe I am not being as efficient on the bike as I could be. Or maybe different equipment or lower tyre pressure might get you one or two per cent straight off the bat.
“Do we have the ability to go top 30, or top 25 in time? Yeah, I think we do. To get there, we definitely need more exposure to international racing and push ourselves above the national level of Australia.”
Millburn feels he can do even better at the international elite level – mainly because he already has plenty of experience of how hard it is to really compete on that stage. And it’s not just during races that you need to be fully prepared.
“After the Australian season this year I’d like to go back to USA and then over to Europe to lead into the Worlds,” the Aussie says. “But you need to manage yourself really well. The conditions are not great, you’ve got to manage your hygiene, try not to pick up viruses and just make smart decisions,” he explains.
“And it’s completely different when you are not doing it as a professional. In Australia, I’ve got two bikes and possibly the other guys in the top five here have two bikes – but that’s it. The professionals in Europe though will have five, six or seven bikes. They’ve got the big camper vans, they’ve got the support in the pits. They can go for a practice ride, hand off their bikes, go into the camper van and have a shower and just chill out.
“We can’t do that – and the differences are not just on raceday. During the week you have to prep the bikes by yourself, or come home from a long training session and then wash three different sets of kit that you’ve worn during the day.
“It can be cold and wet and miserable. On the other side of things I saw recently that Wout van Aert (double world champion) had been training in Majorca during the week – even though most of the races were in Belgium. He just hops on a plane for an hour-and-a-half and then does four or five days of really good training in much better conditions.
“I feel I am still improving in CX. While I think like that I will keep pushing. I have no misconceptions that I am ever going to get up to the level of a Wout van Aert, but if I’m still improving and enjoying it then we can make it work.”
Millburn is also aiming to race again in Japan, a country that has embraced cyclo-cross in an amazing way. And he believes the rise of the sport in the land of the rising sun proves that CX can grow and thrive outside of its traditional northern European and USA strongholds.
“We recently did an event in Japan and I was blown away by the amount of amateurs who were out racing,” he says. “There were about 1,000 people racing and they were just mums and dads or young adults – regular Japanese people who maybe drove a couple of hours to go race in the snow. It went down to minus four, absolutely freezing, but the Japanese were loving it. I can’t put my finger on why it’s so popular over there. OK, there is a population difference, so maybe it’s just scales of economy.
“Or maybe it’s true that if the weather was worse in Australia then CX would be more appealing!” Which perhaps means the unofficial Aussie cyclocross motto should be: ‘Bring on the rain and mud!’