AUSTRALIA NT : SEASON 11 PREVIEWrace 1
Offida ;
hillsSee preview NT race 1.
race 2
Bola del Mundo ;
mountainsNormally no points because Australia does not even have a golden pure climber.
race 3
Lyndoch ;
hill-sprintTo my knowledge for the 1st time a hill-sprint as NT race, and probably also the 1st time a NT race is in Australia, but I'm not sure of this.
The Australian hill-sprinters are not high placed in the golden sprint ranking ; nrs 57, 59 and 78. So the expectations are not high.
But maybe more chance to score some points in this hill-sprint race than in a flat-sprint race, ánd Australia has home advantage.
race 4
Bern ;
time trialThanks to Aurora Australis every season many points in the TT and in previous season even a new CFF record of points in one race.
s5= 815, s6= 725, s7= 955 + 1.045, s8= 835, s9= 920 and s10= 1.095.
race 5
Geraardsbergen ;
cobblehillsNormally no points, but in previous season a very surprising 10th place, however, that was a cobblehills race with 3 flat sections.
And before season 10 Australia could not score cobblehills points for a period of 5 seasons. The Australians are bad in cobblehills.
race 6
Vogelwaarde ;
flat-cobbleA short race of 129km with 3 flat sections, the first time such a flat-cobble race is on the NT calendar.
Australia has a very good teamcaptain for the flat-cobblestones, Angus Friend, so I assume he is very suited for this kind of race too.
The expectations are high, despite he had a surprising, unexplicable bad day in the cobble race of previous season.
He has to do much better now, because Angus Friend should be one of the favorites to become the individual world champion of season 11.
race 7
Frauenfeld ;
cobblestones231 km cobblestones and no flat sections. Also the first time a pure cobblestones race is on the NT calendar.
Again Angus Friend will be the teamcaptain, and hopefully enough points in races 6 and 7 to be the new individual world champion.
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season goals :
# individual world championshipIt is obvious a flat-cobble specialist will win the individual ranking and Australia has a very good contender with Angus Friend.
But with 2 new cobble NT races, enough good rivals, and the fact he had a unexplicable bad day in previous season ;
it is uncertain if he can win it, but he is for sure going to try.
Only once an Australian was the individual world champion, that was Richard Levin in (time trial) season 7.
He could have won in previous season too, 7 cyclists were split numbers 1, but CFF declared Pierre (BEL) as individual world champion.
# podiumplace for AustraliaA world championship seems to me not achievable, especially when Belgium will do great again on the cobblestones like previous season.
Most likely there are more real contenders for the world championship in this different NT calendar ;
such as Spain, the Netherlands, maybe Ukraine and maybe more countries.
And with 4 not suited NT races for Australia, it might be a fierce battle to achieve the season goal of a podiumplace.
# race victoryLevin (4x TT), Trump (1x TT) and Friend (2x cobble) proved in the past they can win NT races. Hopefully also this season a race victory.
