Ballarat remains in the hunt for National Cycling Championships in 2024

The future of the Road Nationals remains up in the air with the details surrounding next year’s event to still be confirmed. Here’s what we know.

AusCycling is desperate to return to Ballarat for the Road Nationals again next year, provided the local council maintains its support of the event.

This year is the last of the current three-year deal to host the event.

The regional town has been hosted the event for the past 17 years and 20 of the past 22 editions.

AusCycling executive general manager Kipp Kaufmann revealed organisers had not been in discussions with any other city to host.

Their preference is for the event to continue in its current location.

“We will have to look elsewhere if Ballarat does not end up being interested,” Kaufmann said.

“Ballarat is the home of the national championships and that’s where we hope to continue having the championships.”

Kaufmann said negotiations were already underway to keep the event in the city.

“We love Ballarat and this week has been exceptional,” he said.

“We have a great relationship with the City of Ballarat, Federation University and all the partners and we’ve been working actively with them to see what a renewal would look like so this iconic event can continue.”

Brodie Chapman might get the chance to defend her road race title in Ballarat next year if AusCycling and the City of Ballarat agree to a new deal. Picture: Con Chronis/AusCycling.

Kaufmann said this year’s event exceeded expectations, which were the first to be held since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

“One of our focuses this year, it was one of the things we couldn’t control the last couple of years, was getting good solid strong fields,” he said.

“One of the real key factors was to talk to as many of the key riders to make sure they came back this year.

“They are the entertainers in many ways and that they value it (the championships) was really important to us.

“We’re excited to probably bring as strong as a field we have ever seen in the elite races.”

The City of Ballarat said it was working hard to keep the event in the region.

But it remained tight lipped on whether anything had been agreed.

“The City of Ballarat continues to work closely with AusCycling and our state government partners at Visit Victoria in relation to a potential future contract for the Road National Championships,” City of Ballarat acting chief executive John Hausler said.

“Having hosted the event for the last 17 years, the City of Ballarat is hopeful of maintaining the hosting rights of the event in the future.”

“The current contract ends on 30 June 2023.”

This year’s Road Nationals conclude on Tuesday with the elite time trial for men and women around the streets of Mount Helen.