New Zealand delivers first national champions of a new cyclo-cross season

Kate McIlroy wins a second national title at the New Zealand Cyclo-cross National Championships on Sunday August 15, 2021
Kate McIlroy wins a second national title at the New Zealand Cyclo-cross National Championships (Image credit: ATPhoto)

In Upper Hutt, New Zealand, just about as far away from the traditional European home of cyclo-cross as you can get, the first national champions of a new season were crowned on Sunday. Former mountain running world champion and Olympian Kate McIlroy took a second women’s title while it was a newcomer to the sport, Josh Burnett, who blazed across the line first on a borrowed bike to sweep up both the men’s U23 and elite honours.

It’s the third-time New Zealand has officially crowned national cyclo-cross champions, with the first race for titles held in 2012 and then, after a hiatus, in 2019 the competition for the silver fern jersey in cyclo-cross was revived. The National Championships however didn't go ahead in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic but it was a strong return in 2021, with a big jump in numbers across the categories.

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Simone Giuliani
Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.